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Bears quarterback Caleb Williams had no clue he was launching a three-way intellectual property battle when he filed to trademark his new nickname “Iceman.”
The first overall pick in the 2024 NFL draft made four filings with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on March 16, including to own the trademark for “Iceman” and an accompanying logo. He intends to use the trademark for products like footballs and other sporting goods, apparel, sunglasses, and digital trading cards.
The filings took another “Iceman” by surprise. George Gervin, a Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer who played in the NBA in the 1970s and 1980s, told ESPN he was “caught off guard” when he heard Williams had filed for the trademark.
“I’ve been the Iceman for 40-something years,” Gervin said. “I never thought anybody would try to trademark it. He kind of knocked me out the box.”
Williams meant no harm. “It’s all respect to George,” he told Front Office Sports.
“It’s funny, because I didn’t know,” the 24-year-old said. “My dad probably knows his nickname was that. It’s not between me and George.”
Filing for the trademark is about trying to ensure others don’t profit off his name and likeness through merchandise, Williams said. “It’s just trying to control that aspect of it.”
Four days after Williams filed to trademark the term, Gervin made his own filing—through Gervin Interests LLC—to trademark “Iceman” for use with both merchandise and events, like basketball camps. Gervin’s filing notes that he has been using the nickname for commercial purposes since 1979.
The trademark tiff is not personal from either side. Gervin told ESPN Williams is a “special young guy getting ready to come up. His potential is great and he does have ice in his veins. But that name is already taken up.”
Meanwhile, Gervin and Williams are not the only two athletes staking a claim to the nickname. Former UFC fighter Chuck Liddell filed in 2023 to trademark “Chuck ‘The Iceman’ Liddell.”
Now it’s become a three-way trademark battle.
IP attorney Josh Gerben told FOS the USPTO could technically choose to deny both Gervin and Williams if it determines Liddell’s mark is similar enough, because his filing came first. “Just from a purely technical perspective in how the review works, they probably should deny those.”
Chuck Liddell’s Case
In Liddell’s case, the USPTO actually approved the trademark, but it still hasn’t been finalized because he hasn’t shown he’s using it for commercial purposes. Gerben said the government asks Liddell every six months whether he’s using the mark for commerce, but that each time he’s filed for an extension.
Still, because he filed before either Gervin or Williams, Liddell’s rights go all the way back to the filing date in 2023.
“That’s the benefit of filing so early,” Gerben said. “Liddell could hear about all this controversy and go, ‘Oh heck, I should finalize my registration now.’ Then Gervin and Williams would have to work with Liddell, who could say, ‘I consent to yours as long as no one challenges mine.’”
George Gervin’s Case
For Gervin, proving commercial use isn’t as simple as embracing the nickname publicly.
“If he’s just going around calling himself the Iceman, the question is does he really have rights there, and would the average consumer identify ‘Iceman’ as Gervin,” Gerben told FOS. “There’s a lot of other Icemans, from Liddell to the guy from Top Gun.”
No matter what, the process will take months, as Gerben laid out in a blog post about the filing from Williams. Even without competing filings, the USPTO can take up to six months to review new applications, according to Gerben, and that’s just the beginning of the process to actually obtain the trademark—unopposed filings can take up to a year and a half to be processed. In this case, because there are competing filings, the saga may extend even further.
If one person is awarded the mark but the other challenges it, the process could take up to two years.
If it comes down to a decision from the USPTO, Williams “doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on” to challenge Liddell in particular, because he only just filed and wasn’t using it before Liddell’s filing.
Amid all this, Williams says he initially didn’t even like the nickname, which was bestowed upon him by teammates after he led the Bears to multiple late-game comeback victories last season. But as time has gone on, he’s come to feel it suits him well.
“I think it fits,” he told FOS. “Chicago’s frickin’ frigid for many months out of the year.”
