It’s always a funny thing with trademarks. Someone who created it first could always lose out to someone else who went through the legal hoops to secure it. Which is what is happening now with the US Miliitary vs. Netflix.
Even though Trump’s Space Force was announced two years ago they did very little to secure the name. He said, “Space is a war-fighting domain just like the land, air and sea,” in March 2018. But since then no action had been done to secure the trademark. Currently the U.S. Government has only a pending application for intent to use. Netflix on the other hand has secured copyright on the trademark in more than a few countries. Securing the ability to use it as their shows name and use their logo.
If this becomes a big deal it’s likely that Netflix will win in court because they went through all the legalities. Which would leave the administration scrambling to either find a new name or a new trademark.
It’s likely that the two will not get confused though since one is obviously a show that riffs on the current endeavor. So there may not even be a legal battle unless the U.S. wants to pursue one. And they could always trademark it as U.S.A. Space Force and just add a bit at the beginning. But “Space Force” now belongs to Netflix. And if they chose to pursue the name would have to fight a legal battle in court. Which Netflix is pretty used to by now.
Netflix has already gone to court for things like using the phrase “choose your own adventure” in Bandersnatch and using the image of Baphomet in their Sabrina series. So they are no stranger to protecting their IP’s at this point. Netflix now has the legal rights to the name Space Force” in Europe, Australia, Mexico and elsewhere.
