Romance novel author trademarks Seattle Sockeyes hockey name
Jan 4, 2018, 5:55 AM | Updated: 6:08 pm
Jami Davenport has written a romance novel series about a hockey team named the Seattle Sockeyes. (Courtesy of Jami Davenport)
(Courtesy of Jami Davenport)
A best-selling romance novel author is making sure any NHL plans in Seattle don’t disrupt her own plans for one of her most popular series about a hockey team named the Seattle Sockeyes.
“I’d love for Seattle to get an NHL team … and I have built this brand around the Seattle Sockeyes over the last three or four years,” Jami Davenport said. “I got a logo, t-shirts, jerseys. I make a good amount of money off it, and I know how closely the NHL guards its own brand and its trademarks.”
(Courtesy of Jami Davenport)
“I’m not trying to profit off this or stop anybody from using that name, I’m just trying to protect my business,” she said.
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Davenport — a best-selling author based in Western Washington — has filed to trademark the name “Seattle Sockeyes,” as well as for another fictional football team she writes about, the “Seattle Steelheads.” She’s also written about a “Seattle Skookums” baseball team. But she has only filed to protect the name in her books — it won’t prevent a sports team from using the title.
“I like all my teams to have a Northwest flavor like our sports teams do … I have three teams and I thought they should all be fish,” Davenport said. “And I thought Sockeyes was a great name because hockey players fight.”
Fish titles have been among names promoted for a possible hockey team ever since Seattle signed a deal to revamp KeyArena. After the remodel was announced, the NHL began considering a franchise for the Emerald City.
MyNorthwest polled readers about a new hockey team name. The Seattle Freeze or the Seattle Lumberjacks were among those mentioned. But the most popular option was the Seattle Metropolitans, which played in Seattle between 1915 and 1924 (they won the Stanley Cup in 1917). The Seattle Sockeyes, however, was tied for the second most popular hockey name along with the Seattle Totems. On the Sonics Rising website, the Sockeyes have continued to move forward in a fan tournament to choose the NHL name.
The Puget Sound Business Journal also reports that a Microsoft attorney has filed to trademark the name “Seattle Steelheads.”
Hockey is so hot right now
(Courtesy of Jami Davenport)
Davenport has written nine Seattle Sockeyes books, with more on the way. She says she has plans for the fictional team and their prospects for the Stanley Cup. In the world of Davenport’s Seattle Sockeyes, the team came to Seattle after a billionaire stole them from Florida.
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“He had to go undercover during the playoffs because the league wouldn’t let him announce he bought them,” Davenport said. “Then he moves them to Seattle … There’s always a woman involved, but the guys are always hockey players or, in that case, the owner.”
“The hockey part plays a lot into the books; I have locker room scenes and on-ice scenes,” she said. “… Believe it or not, hockey romance is one of the top sellers in romance right now.”
While she wouldn’t mind seeing a team in Seattle with the same name she’s been using, she is a little conflicted.
“I would love to see a hockey team. In fact, my husband and I plan on getting season tickets so we’re all in on this,” she said. “In a way, it would be great if they named them the Sockeyes, but to be honest I think the Metros is my pick.”
