Pepperdine University filed a lawsuit against Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery Thursday for alleged trademark infringement over Mind Kaling’s upcoming comedy series “Running Point.”
The upcoming series centers around a fictional party girl, played by actor Kate Hudson, who inherits her family’s Los Angeles NBA basketball team, “the Waves.”
Pepperdine argued that Netflix and Warner Bros. “misappropriated” their Malibu, California university, whose NCAA basketball team is also named the Waves. The university also argues that the show also used its basketball team’s colors, orange and blue, and promotes a specific fictional player’s number 37. The number worn by Pepperdine’s mascot and is associated with the year the university was founded, 1937.
“Running Point’s portrayal of the “Waves” team will cause consumer confusion and falsely suggest an affiliation between Pepperdine and the show,” the university said in a press release. “The university has also expressed deep concerns about some of the series’ themes, which include explicit content, substance use, nudity, and profanity—elements that are inconsistent with Pepperdine’s Christian values and reputation.”
Representatives for Netflix and Warner Bros. did not immediately return requests for comment.
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, asserts that school officials previously reached out to the companies through email, phone calls and sent a cease-and-desist letter to no avail. Pepperdine is now asking for the court for “injunctive relief to prevent further use of Pepperdine’s trademarks” and for an unspecified amount in monetary damages.
Kaling is not a named defendant on the suit.
The powerhouse comedian is best known for her role in the NBC 2005 to 2013 sitcom “The Office” and for producing and starring in her series “The Mindy Project,” which aired on Fox and Hulu between 2012 and 2017. She’s since created several television hits, including Netflix series “Never Have I Ever” and “The Sex Lives of College Girls.” On Tuesday, Kaling was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (NBC News and NBC are owned by NBCUniversal.)
“Running Point” is set to premiere next week on Netflix.
