Netflix, WB Dodge Pepperdine’s ‘Running Point’ Trademark Lawsuit

Netflix Inc. and Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. escaped Pepperdine University’s trademark lawsuit over the use of the school’s “Waves” nickname and colors in the streaming series “Running Point.”

Pepperdine’s marks weren’t used to indicate the source of the show, but merely to portray a fictional professional basketball team, Judge Cynthia Valenzuela said in an order dismissing the case Tuesday in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

That distinction means the use wasn’t affected by the Supreme Court’s 2023 restriction on the Rogers test, a First Amendment-rooted defense for using trademarks in expressive works, she wrote. The ...