The USFL is currently six weeks away from its official kickoff on April 16th.

Don’t go setting up the ball on the tee just yet though. Turns out, the ORIGINAL USFL is not very happy about this new league, and wants to put a stop to it.

The USFL is getting sued by the USFL

That’s right. In a twist right out of a cheap soap opera, not only is this new version of the USFL an imposter, but the original league just walked through our front door after recovering from a bout of amnesia. What do we make of this situation?

Well for starters, FOX, the network seeking to launch the USFL as an in-house football league is now being sued by a group referring to themselves as “The Real USFL, LLC” seeking to stop the launch of the league. There had apparently been complaints made as early as last year regarding FOX taking the corpse of the original league and making it dance like a marionette, but FOX chose to ignore them. So the original owners are now seeking justice through civil litigation.

The contention by FOX is that the original league has abandoned any trademarks by ceasing to exist for three decades.  As a side note: If this argument holds up in court I’ll be launching a new and improved version of the Federal League to replace the MLB during their labor stoppage. 

What happens to the USFL now?

What happens next to the league will be for the courts to decide. The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles and a judge will have to decide whether or not to allow the league to launch using intellectual property that “The Real USFL, LLC” claims belongs to them. Assuming their trademark claims are valid, FOX will have to either pay a hefty amount to the original ownership group, or retool their brand completely.

Considering the amount of money they’ve already put into marketing this launch it seems crazy to think they’d go create a bunch of new team names and logos out of scratch. It’s also possible that the lawsuit will dismissed.

As your number one destination for all of the up-to-date Philadelphia Stars news and opinion, we here at The Liberty Line will be keeping a close eye on this situation as it unfolds.