Netflix, Warner Bros. Want Pepperdine Trademark Suit Tossed

Netflix Inc., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., and Kaling International Inc. urged a federal judge to toss out Pepperdine University’s trademark lawsuit over their show “Running Point,” arguing it’s protected by the First Amendment.

The TV show produced by Mindy Kaling and starring Kate Hudson features a fictional professional basketball team called Los Angeles Waves with Pepperdine’s orange and blue colors as well as its name. These features are “indisputably an expressive work,” the defendants said in a motion to dismiss filed April 18 in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

The Rogers test, a free speech ...