Which athlete do you consider whenever you consider the #8?
That most likely depends upon which sport you comply with extra intently. As a NASCAR fan, the #8 for me will all the time be synonymous with Dale Earnhardt Jr. – although he drove the #88 automotive when he retired, and the quantity #8 belongs to Kyle Busch within the NASCAR Cup Sequence.
However Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson believes that he ought to be the rightful proprietor to the trademark of the #8, has filed an opposition to Junior’s makes an attempt to trademark his former automotive quantity.
Junior, after all, drove the now-iconic #8 Budweiser automotive early in his profession when he first began driving for his dad’s Cup Sequence staff, DEI. However longtime NASCAR followers know the way the story ends: With the game’s hottest driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., leaving the staff his father constructed after a bitter (and public) battle along with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, over possession within the firm, and the staff folding just some years later (after Teresa mentioned they’d simply “make one other Dale Jr.” if he left the staff).
After Earnhardt’s demise, Teresa managed all issues DEI, even after the race staff folded after merging with Chip Ganassi Racing. And she or he nonetheless tightly polices using the mental property owned by the previous race staff, which now serves as mainly a merchandise firm.
The outcome was that after Junior left DEI, he was compelled to defer to Teresa when it got here to utilizing his iconic #8 – and she or he wasn’t giving it up. However issues modified final yr, when Teresa apparently determined to let the trademark for the quantity expire, permitting Junior to step in and register it for himself.
Since then, Junior has run the #8 automotive in a race for the CARS Tour, a late mannequin brief observe collection by which Dale Jr. is a co-owner. And he’s additionally launched merch that includes his #8 automotive that many followers affiliate with the Corridor of Fame driver.
However Lamar Jackson apparently believes that Junior’s use of the #8 causes confusion along with his personal trademark – and may lead followers to assume that Junior’s merchandise are in some way affiliated with Jackson?
In a discover of opposition filed with the US Patent and Trademark Workplace this week, Jackson claims that Junior’s stylized #8 conflicts along with his personal registration of “Period 8,” the quarterback’s attire model, claiming that he’s “well-known by this quantity on account of his notoriety and fame” and that Junior’s trademark “falsely suggests a reference to individuals, dwelling or useless, specifically, Lamar Jackson, who’s well-known by the quantity 8.”
“Purchasers and potential purchasers are prone to mistakenly imagine that the merchandise Applicant affords underneath the mark are associated to the services supplied by Opposer underneath the quantity 8 and his software and registration.”
The final level is the kicker for me. Who the hell is seeing a Dale Jr CARS Tour t-shirt and pondering “man, I REALLY thought that was Lamar Jackson!” https://t.co/QsOJgXeaW1 pic.twitter.com/NKraQYs3qo
— Nathan 😀👍 (@KensethFan17_20) April 3, 2025
Yeah, I see how individuals may assume that’s a Lamar Jackson shirt…
It’s not the primary time Jackson has tried to say the #8 for himself: In 2024, he additionally filed an opposition in opposition to legendary quarterback Troy Aikman’s software to register EIGHT as a trademark after Aikman unveiled his new EIGHT beer.
Now, I don’t assume anyone goes to be given the unique proper to make use of the quantity 8 in a trademark. You may’t trademark a quantity, as a result of it’s so generic that it’s onerous to argue a single quantity is related to anybody particular person. The extra possible decision to that is that every will get a trademark within the “fashion” of their #8, and all people goes their separate methods.
However whereas the difficulty works its method by way of the attraction, beware: Should you see a pink #8 automotive on an Earnhardt t-shirt, simply know that it’s NOT a Lamar Jackson shirt.
