Travis Kelce and Patrick Mahomes (Getty Images0
Their Kansas City steakhouse, 1587 Prime, is now at the centre of a legal dispute that may depend less on trademark ownership than on whether the two NFL stars can be held personally responsible.
“At the current stage of the proceeding, this case isn’t the trademark fight most people assume it is — it’s a fight over how close two celebrity investors have to be to a business before a court can drag them into it personally,” Molen said. “While I can’t predict the outcome, here’s what’s worth watching: the athletes’ motion raises three separate grounds for dismissal — no personal jurisdiction, wrong venue, and failure to state a claim — and any one of those, if the court agrees, could result in dismissal,” Molen said. “But the plaintiff only really engages with the failure to state a claim, leaving the jurisdiction and venue arguments essentially unanswered,” Molen said. “That’s likely to come up in the athletes’ reply brief, and courts generally don’t look kindly on unaddressed arguments.”
Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce built their public profiles through football, but their business ventures have brought a different kind of attention. A legal expert has explained why the case is not as straightforward as many people believe. The athletes are challenging the lawsuit on several grounds, and the court’s next decisions could prove crucial to how the dispute moves forward.