An event as big as UFC 129: "St. Pierre vs. Shields" deserves to be treated as such. It's the debut event in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and will be attended by the largest crowd, 55,000, in the history of the organization.
The world's largest fight promotion pulled out all the stops, including another Fan Expo at the Direct Energy Centre on April 29 all the way up until fight time on April 30 to coincide with the pay-per-view.
But nothing ever goes exactly the way it's planned.
According to ComicBookResources.com, the UFC is getting sued by Hobby Star Marketing over the name of this weekend's Fan Expo. From the report:
In the federal court statement obtained by CBR News, Hobby Star has filed for trade-mark infringement on the name "Fan Expo" as well as the slogan "The Ultimate Fan Experience" and the web domain www.ufcfanexpo.com. The papers were filed in a Toronto federal court and make no mention of previous UFC events labeled as "Fan Expos" such as a London, England event last summer, nor do they mention anything about the company's potential plans for a Fan Expo in Las Vegas this summer. This is likely because Hobby Star only have the "Fan Expo" trademark registered within Canada.
...
The document reveals that Hobby Star seeks an injunction against promoting or selling anything involving the mark and slogan as well as an order to "deliver up or destroy upon oath all clothing, goods labels, packages, advertising materials, signage, printed matter, including all plats, moulds, matrices, and other material for producing or printing such items and any other matter or materials in print or electric form" that fall under the offending names.
Sounds messy ... and untimely. With the Fan Expo just days away, Zuffa is left with very little time to make adjustments, if they are deemed necessary.
Stay tuned for any updates.
The 2011 UFC Fan Expo, which is the third to be staged outside of "Sin City," is expected to attract more than "150 leading vendors covering roughly 300,000 square feet of space."
The exhibit floor will also "feature apparel, electronic gaming, food & beverages, fight gear, fitness equipment and supplies, nutritional supplements, lifestyle products and much more."
Will that change with the injunction filed by Hobby Star Marketing?
Either way, there are also some huge fights taking place that weekend.
UFC 129 is set to feature a main event between Canada's own Georges St. Pierre, defending his welterweight title against fresh challenger -- and former Elite XC and Strikeforce champion -- Jake Shields.
The event will also include "Father Time" Randy Couture, defying the odds one more time to take on Karate master Lyoto Machida.
Stay tuned to MMAmania.com for any updates as they become available.
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