Cartoon Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces basketball players standing next to a whiteboarding reading "WNBA" - representing a blog post about trademarks for the 2025 WNBA Finals.

Trademark: WNBA

First Used: 1996

Registered: 1997

Current Owner: WNBA ENTERPRISES, LLC [1]

Trademark Type: traditional trademark; word mark; design mark; non-traditional trademark; trade dress; configuration mark

Primarily Associated With: entertainment services in the nature of basketball games and basketball exhibitions rendered live and in stadia and through the media of radio and television broadcasts [2]

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [3]:

Congratulations to the Phoenix Mercury and the Las Vegas Aces for advancing to the 2025 WNBA® Finals! Over the next few days we will be highlighting some trademark registrations celebrating the WNBA’s championship game, including those owned by Phoenix and Las Vegas. Good luck to both teams!

The Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) was officially approved by the NBA’s Board of Governors on April 24, 1996, and launched its inaugural season in June 1997 under the slogan “We Got Next.” The league began with eight franchises: Charlotte Sting, Cleveland Rockers, Houston Comets, and New York Liberty in the East; and Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury, Sacramento Monarchs, and Utah Starzz in the West. In the inaugural season the Houston Comets defeated the New York Liberty to claim the league’s first championship, with Cynthia Cooper earning Finals MVP honors. The Comets went on to establish an early dynasty by winning the first four WNBA titles (1997–2000), before being dissolved in 2008. 17 years later, the Comets is still tied with the Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm for the most championships of any WNBA franchise.

WNBA® [4] and WOMEN’S NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION® [5] are registered word marks used primarily for “entertainment services in the nature of basketball games” but also for a host of other goods and services (like toys and sporting goods, computer software, trading cards, and clothing). WNBA PLAYOFFS® [6] and WNBA FINALS® [7] are both also registered word marks for a variety of entertainment and educational services, such as rendering live basketball games and basketball exhibitions and providing a website featuring multimedia material.

The WNBA Logo [8] and the WNBA Championship Trophy Logo [9] are both registered design marks for a variety of goods and services, including entertainment and educational services in the nature of ongoing television and radio programs in the field of basketball and rendering live basketball games and basketball exhibitions.

The WNBA also owns a pair of non-traditional trademark registrations for toys and sporting goods, namely basketballs. The WNBA Orange & White with Logo Ball [10] configuration mark consists of the "WNBA" logo and distinctive orange and off-white colored panels alternating on a ball. The WNBA Orange & White Ball [11] configuration mark consists of distinctive orange and off-white colored panels alternating on a ball.

Interested in learning more about trademarks from other 2025 sporting events? Check out our 2025 posts on College Football National Championship, Super Bowl, March Madness (and Final Four), Stanley Cup, NBA Championship, World Series, and MLS Cup.

2 - Womens National Basketball Association.jpg

[1] Women’s National Basketball Association, https://www.wnba.com/.

[2] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,111,332, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75094617&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[3] History of Women's Basketball, WNBA, posted July 3, 1997, and available at https://www.wnba.com/news/history-of-womens-basketball; History, WNBA, available at https://www.wnba.com/history; Women’s National Basketball Association, BRITTANICA, available at https://www.britannica.com/topic/Womens-National-Basketball-Association; A definitive history of the WNBA, BASKETBALL.COM, available at https://www.basketball.com.au/news/history-of-the-wnba-a-journey-of-growth-struggle-and-triumph; WNBA’s 25 Most Defining Milestones, ESPN, available at https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/31270404/the-25-firsts-defined-wnba-25-years.

[4] Id. at 2.

[5] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,221,072, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75094623&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[6] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,757,592, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77816504&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[7] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,852,241, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=77784801&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[8] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 6,206,518, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=88375859&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[9] USPTO, (pending) U.S. Serial No. 98433592, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=98433592&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[10] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,269,541, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75292513&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[11] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 2,296,499, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=75292514&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.