A lawsuit filed by Pepperdine University against Netflix over Running Point, its soon-to-launch comedy series based on a semi-fictionalized Los Angeles pro basketball team named the Waves, accuses the streaming giant and production company Warner Bros. Entertainment of myriad trademark infringements.
The series stars Kate Hudson as the team’s owner, a character whose portrayal bears a striking resemblance to Jeanie Buss, the president and owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. Buss is also credited as an executive producer of the series.
In a complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court, the Malibu, Calif.-based private Christian university, whose athletic programs have been known as the Waves since its 1937 founding, note that the blue-and-orange colors and logo of the fictional team in Running Point are “strikingly similar” to the university’s own branding.
“The uses are too many and too close to be coincidental,” the school said in its suit. It is asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) and permanent injunctions preventing Netflix from airing the series in its current form. Additionally, Pepperdine seeks treble damages for copyright infringement, along with a request for any profits derived from the alleged infringements, such as through merchandise sales, to be awarded to the university. The federal judge assigned to the case has scheduled a hearing for the TRO on Tuesday afternoon. Spokespeople for Netflix and Warner Bros. Entertainment did not respond to emails seeking comment.
Although Jeanie Buss is not named as a defendant, the complaint raises the question of why, given her role as a producer, she did not intervene in the show’s use of the “Waves” name and branding. The suit points out that Pepperdine had for many years maintained a conference room in the Lakers’ home venue, Crypto.com Arena, which displayed the university’s trademarks in close proximity to and easy accessibility for Buss “and her team.”
The conference room, which was opened in 2018, was designed to serve as an in-arena classroom for Pepperdine students through a partnership with AEG.
Pepperdine’s lawsuit further questions why the series chose to borrow the intellectual property of the university’s team instead of using the Lakers’ trademarks, colors, or other IP, which Buss controls and could have licensed.
Moreover, the lawsuit criticizes the series for not aligning with the values and Christian principles that have long been associated with Pepperdine. The complaint highlights a scene from the show’s trailer in which Hudson poses topless while holding basketballs in a manner that appears to reference a famous Playboy photo of Jeanie Buss from 1995. Hudson, in the series version, is wearing a pair of basketball shorts that says “Waves.”
The lawsuit asserts that, regardless of Buss’ involvement in the series, created by Mindy Kaling, the defendants can hardly claim plausible deniability regarding their awareness of Pepperdine’s intellectual property.
“Even a basic level of due diligence would have exposed a basketball team with the same name, identical marks, matching color schemes, and located in the same city,” the school wrote, noting that a Google search of “Los Angeles waves basketball” produces numerous Pepperdine-related articles.
Moreover, the lawsuit says that dozens of Pepperdine alumni “have gone on to work” at Netflix, and six of its former basketball players have played for the Lakers. (Buss did not respond to a request for comment sent to a Lakers spokesperson.)
Left unmentioned in the complaint is that Pepperdine has also served as the official school host for the NCAA men’s basketball West Regional held at Crypto.com Arena, most recently in March 2024, during which time the school’s logo was displayed throughout the venue.
Pepperdine is merely the most recent entity to challenge one of Netflix’s sports-related productions.
Earlier this month, six former junior college football players filed a lawsuit against Netflix in California state court, claiming that their appearance on the streaming platform’s documentary series Last Chance U resulted in the exploitation of their name, image and likeness and damaged their reputations.
As previously highlighted by Sportico, these athletes may face significant legal hurdles, given they were of legal age when they consented to participate in the series. In addition to this case, Netflix is also embroiled in a lawsuit in Massachusetts, brought by John B. Wilson, the father of a former USC water polo player featured prominently in the 2021 documentary Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal.
