The WNBA plans to revive the historic Houston Comets franchise in 2027, but the league is locked in a federal trademark dispute with a mysterious company that might threaten its ability to use the Comets name.
The Houston Comets were one of the WNBA’s original eight franchises and won the league’s first four championships before folding in 2008. On March 30, a group led by billionaire Tilman Fertitta, who owns the NBA’s Houston Rockets, announced it had agreed to buy the Connecticut Sun and relocate the team to Houston. The deal is pending final approval from the WNBA Board of Governors.
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In early 2025, close to the same time the Rockets’ ownership group formally submitted a bid for an expansion team, the WNBA applied to trademark the Houston Comets name but found it had been beaten to the punch by a business with no apparent ties to professional basketball.
The other company is a Delaware limited liability company called TSTM Holdings, which submitted its trademark registration application in 2024. The WNBA, which allowed its Houston Comets trademark to lapse in 2021, is opposing TSTM’s application in the federal trademark office.
The WNBA did not respond to requests for comment.
Multiple trademark law experts told USA TODAY that while these types of disputes are not uncommon, it could develop into a major headache for the WNBA if TSTM Holdings is granted registration for the Comets name.
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The WNBA is already having trouble reclaiming trademarks for the Cleveland Rockers and Detroit Shock, two of its other former franchises. The league granted expansion teams to Cleveland and Detroit scheduled to begin play in 2028 and 2029, respectively, but was denied trademark registration for the Detroit Shock and is facing opposition for the Cleveland Rockers registration. Both names are registered to the Women’s Basketball League, a startup pro league that has yet to tip off.
The difference with Houston’s situation is while Cleveland and Detroit did not publicly commit to reviving their old team names, Houston announced its plans to return as the Comets.
“My family and I are thrilled for the opportunity to bring the Houston Comets back to this incredible city,” Rockets Alternate Governor Patrick Fertitta said in a March 30 news release. “We believe the time is right to begin the next great era of Comets basketball, and we look forward to working with the WNBA as we move through this process.”
Whether the WNBA can get the Comets name back will depend on the answers to a few key questions, said Mark McKenna, a UCLA law professor and expert in trademark law. Did the WNBA abandon the Comets mark, or did the league continue to market merchandise for the team? Does TSTM Holdings intend to use the Comets name or is it angling for a payout?
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“If you take for granted that the WNBA abandoned its prior rights so it’s not able to overcome these applications, and then those actually turn into registrations because that company (TSTM Holdings) does in fact make use, then they’re going to have priority and they’re going to be able to block the WNBA from using that name at all,” McKenna said. “But there’s a bunch of ifs in that statement, right?”
Kia Kamran, the Los Angeles attorney representing TSTM Holdings in its trademark application, declined to answer USA TODAY’s emailed questions about the company or its motives.
“We do not comment on ongoing litigation matters,” Kamran wrote.
What’s at stake for the WNBA and Houston Comets return
Once approved, trademark registrations must be renewed every 10 years to remain active. The WNBA held registrations for several Comets trademarks throughout the team’s first run of existence from 1997-2008 and continued to renew most up until 2021. When the league let its last registration expire, it left the door open for another entity to take it.
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Documents filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) show that TSTM Holdings applied on May 17, 2024 to register the wordmark “Houston Comets” for intended use in clothing, decals, sporting goods, digital media and “entertainment in the nature of live basketball games.” WNBA Enterprises filed its own overlapping trademark application on Feb. 3, 2025 and filed its notice of opposition against TSTM Holdings on May 27, 2025.
Rebecca Tushnet, a professor at Harvard Law School who formerly practiced intellectual property law, said the issue is not just who applied for registration earlier, but also who used the mark first in commerce. Even if a registration expires or is canceled, the original owner can maintain what is called “common law rights” by continuing to use the mark.
“Registration is not necessary to have rights, use is necessary to have rights,” Tushnet said. “So whether or not the registration lapsed is not super important. What I’d want to know is what, if anything, the WNBA continued to do with the mark.”
The WNBA still sells Comets jerseys in its online store. In its opposition filing, an attorney for the WNBA argues the league retained common law rights for its previous Comets trademarks because it kept marketing products related to the team. The WNBA’s attorney also argues the general public associates the Houston Comets with the WNBA, which would create likelihood for confusion if TSTM is allowed to trademark the name for similar goods and services.
Cynthia Cooper of the Houston Comets celebrates after beating the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals in 2000.
“WNBAE has continued to engage in marketing and licensing of various goods and services relating to the storied Houston Comets basketball team, as the pending applications noted below help demonstrate,” the league’s attorney wrote. “Indeed, with the recent surge of fandom for women’s sports and women’s basketball in particular – fueled in part by recent stars like Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark and Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese – there has been more interest in the WNBA and its teams than ever, and along with it, the corresponding protection of the WNBA brands.”
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An attorney for TSTM, however, argued the WNBA had abandoned the Comets mark and as a result, it was up for grabs.
U.S. statute says abandonment of a trademark is presumed after three years of non-use, unless an owner can prove continuous intent to resume using the mark. It’s not enough that the WNBA decided this year to bring the Comets back, McKenna said. If the league can’t produce evidence that it kept using the name over the last several years, it must show that it always had concrete plans to resume using the name again.
“I imagine this other company will say, ‘You haven’t had a team for almost 20 years, and you might say that had an intention to resume use, but you can’t just have an abstract thought that you will do that in the future,’” McKenna said. “You need some concrete evidence of it, and it’s been a long time.”
The mysterious company attempting to trademark Houston Comets
On the surface, TSTM Holdings does not appear to have any connection to the WNBA or professional basketball. It’s unclear who is behind the company or why they are pursuing a Houston Comets trademark.
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In an amended notice filed on Feb. 23, an attorney for the WNBA wrote, “When WNBAE inquired with Applicant about its intentions in filing the Application, Applicant refused to provide any explanation indicating good faith on its part. Applicant responded only that the owner of Applicant was ‘known’ to WNBAE and that Applicant was not ready even to identify the individual(s) involved with Applicant, let alone address whether it has any bona fide basis for applying to register ‘Houston Comets’ as a trademark.”
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Business owners who desire privacy often choose to incorporate their companies in Delaware because the state does not require the public disclosure of the names of members in LLCs or shareholders in corporations.
Publicly available state filings show that TSTM Holdings was incorporated on April 3, 2023, but those documents do not reveal names of associated individuals for the company, which uses a registered agent service to receive legal paperwork on its behalf.
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TSTM Holdings has seven other pending federal trademark applications, only some of which are tangentially related to sports. TSTM’s application for the mark “Y2K” is being opposed by Take-Two Interactive, the company that produces the popular NBA 2K video game. TSTM also applied to register “The Rage,” for use in wrestling performances and entertainment.
The company’s other trademark applications include “Standing on business,” “2 to get in,” and “Finsta,” a slang term for a secondary private Instagram account.
Tushnet said for TSTM Holdings to be granted registration for the Houston Comets mark, the company will need to prove how it plans to use the mark for each class of goods and services in its application. But it’s easier to propose a design for a magnet than it is to show you can host a basketball game.
“Courts and the PTO are often a little suspicious of entities that file intent to use applications if they don’t have a demonstrated track record in the field. But of course, every business gets started somewhere,” Tushnet said. “For a sports team, you would most likely have to show at least that you had realistic plans for launching a sports team. For clothing, which is obviously where a lot of the money is, it’s a little more complicated because pretty much anyone can print stuff on T-shirts. So you would be looking for, is this something that they have a history of doing? Do they have a work flow set up in a way that’s persuasive to believe they would actually launch this?”
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In a motion filed to the trademark office on April 14, the WNBA attorney alleges TSTM Holdings has not met that criteria.
“Notably, TSTM has provided no information to support that it has a legitimate claim to the name of a beloved sports team and the goodwill that WNBAE built and has maintained for a period of nearly thirty years,” the league’s attorneys wrote.
“It’s possible that this company never really intended to use the marks, they just filed these applications to get in the way of the WNBA so that they get paid and get bought out,” McKenna said. “But it’s possible that this will turn out not to be a conflict, because even if the WNBA doesn’t win the opposition, in order for these guys (TSTM) to get a registration they’re going to have to show use of the marks. And if they’re not ever actually organizing basketball games under the mark, then they’re not going to be granted the trademark registration.”
Could the WNBA go to court over the Houston Comets trademark rights?
If the WNBA’s opposition with the trademark office is unsuccessful, the league could take the fight to the courtroom by suing TSTM Holdings, McKenna said.
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It wouldn’t be the first time the courts have been asked to resolve a dispute over a defunct sports team name or franchise relocation.
In 1994, as the NFL’s Los Angeles Rams prepared to move to St. Louis, the owner of a Wisconsin cartoon company tried unsuccessfully to claim trademark rights to the St. Louis Rams name because he’d registered a web domain name. In 1993, a New York bar was allowed to keep using the Brooklyn Dodgers name after a judge ruled that the Dodgers and MLB had abandoned the name.
Both of those cases ended up in the federal court system, with Johnny Blastoff, Inc. vs. Los Angeles Rams Football Co. going all the way to the Supreme Court.
Whether the WNBA files a lawsuit depends on what happens with the trademark office registrations and if TSTM Holdings ever uses the Comets mark, McKenna explained.
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“They (the WNBA) can’t really sue them for damages at this point because they haven’t done anything,” McKenna said. “I could imagine them filing a lawsuit and saying, ‘You should enjoin them.’ … As soon as this other company gets into the market and actually starts making stuff or starts offering, then that would ripen into a lawsuit and that could go to federal court.”
Of course, the WNBA probably hopes it won’t come to that and it wins its opposition case with the trademark office. McKenna said it’s also possible the trademark office grants partial registration to TSTM or asks the company to amend the goods and services in its application.
Tushnet and McKenna said there’s no telling how long it will take for the trademark office to issue a final decision, which is subject to appeal. In the meantime, Tushnet said, there’s nothing prohibiting the WNBA from moving forward with reestablishing the Houston Comets team.
The Comets have not yet announced a new logo. The team’s website, houstoncomets.com, is currently selling season ticket deposits and generic “Houston” merchandise featuring the WNBA logo in the league’s official colors of orange, black and white.
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When the WNBA’s 2026 season tips off on May 8, the Houston team will commence its one-year countdown to launch – and the WNBA will keep fighting to diffuse its trademark time bomb before the clock reaches zero.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Houston Comets’ WNBA comeback hits trademark fight with mystery company
