National Geographic Beats ‘Wild America’ TV Show Trademark Case

National Geographic Partners LLC defeated claims that it infringed trademarks owned by the makers of the PBS nature series “Wild America” after a federal court in Colorado found Nat Geo TV had an artistic motive for titling its nature show “Untamed Americas.”

The U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado rejected May 8 the Rogers test—created by the Second Circuit and used in other circuits to balance First Amendment rights with trademark interests—as “needlessly rigid” and failing “to account for the realities of each situation.”

Marty Stouffer Productions produced the nature documentary series “Wild America,” which ran ...