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With hours until game day, Netflix has the all-clear to proceed with its new comedy Running Point after Pepperdine University sued the streamer for trademark infringement.
After Netflix filed an opposition on Tuesday in Central California’s U.S. District Court, claiming that “Running Point has nothing to do with universities or college sports,” a judge has denied Pepperdine University’s motion for a temporary restraining order on Wednesday. The show debuts Feb. 27.
Last week, Pepperdine announced a trademark infringement lawsuit against Netflix and Warner Bros., accusing the show of “misappropriation of the university’s brand” with the logo for the show’s basketball team, The Waves.
According to a statement shared by the Malibu-based Christian university, the team logo in the show “bears a striking resemblance in branding to Pepperdine’s longstanding and well-known Waves athletics program. The series prominently features a team name, colors, and other indicia that are identical or highly similar to Pepperdine’s, as well as the number ’37’, which is closely associated with the university’s history and mascot.”
The school also has “deep concerns about some of the series’ themes, which include explicit content, substance use, nudity, and profanity—elements that are inconsistent with Pepperdine’s Christian values and reputation.”
Netflix has since responded, explaining that the fictional Los Angeles-based team’s name is a “nod to the real-life Lakers and evokes the LA area where the team plays.”
“It would make no creative or narrative sense for the show’s creators to draw connections to Pepperdine, whose storyline is very much not about an elite, private college in Malibu,” said Netflix’s legal team in the response.
Created by Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz and David Stassen, Running Point stars Kate Hudson as Isla Gordon, who is appointed president of her family’s professional basketball franchise, the Los Angeles Waves, after a scandal forces her brother to resign. Ambitious and often overlooked, Isla will have to prove to her skeptical brothers, the board, and the larger sports community that she was the right choice for the job.
