Last week, Dale Earnhardt Jr. was hit with a legal challenge from Baltimore Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson regarding a trademark on his styling of the No. 8 used on merchandise, but it doesn’t sound like the NASCAR legend is all that concerned about it.
Jackson filed an opposition claim with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week to block Earnhardt’s attempt to trademark a JR Motorsports styling of his No. 8 to use on merchandise.
During the most recent episode of his “Dale Jr. Download” podcast published on Friday, Earnhardt explained why he is not concerned about the situation.
“I learned on social media about the same time as everybody else did that Lamar was contesting our trademark application,” Earnhardt said on the podcast. “He wasn’t suing me. He’s just contesting it.”
Earnhardt explained that he had only filed to trademark the JR Motorsports as a “back-up plan” to the iconic Budweiser No. 8. But Earnhardt made it clear that he does not intend to ever use the JR Motorsports No. 8 again.
“When I learned about it, I thought for sure it was over the Bud 8,” Earnhardt said. “But when I dug into it, I learned that it was that JR Motorsports font. And we weren’t ever gonna use that again. Ever.”
As a result, Earnhardt and his family have decided to drop the trademark filing, meaning that Jackson now has nothing to contest.
“So yeah, it’s not an issue. It’s a non-issue,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “Much ado about nothing.”
Earnhardt said that he halted the trademark filing the day after receiving the contest from Jackson because he didn’t want to start a legal battle with the two-time MVP over a trademark he doesn’t even plan to use.
“I was not gonna argue with Lamar over something that I did not plan on using,” he said. “I wasn’t gonna spend thousands of dollars with my lawyers to fight for something that I didn’t need.”
“I don’t know Lamar’s team or him. Never met the guy,” he added. “I didn’t wanna see this get nasty for no reason.”