Hands off darts star Luke "The Nuke" | Blog | Chiever

Nicknames as trademarks

Famous athletes and artists often register their names as trademarks. This allows them to commercialize their name themselves and prevents others from profiting off it. But it’s not just personal names that hold value—nicknames, whether self-adopted or given by fans, can also be protected. For example, darts player Michael van Gerwen has trademarked his nickname Mighty Mike.

The Nuke as registered trademark

Perhaps Littler took inspiration from Mighty Mike when he officially registered The Nuke as a trademark in early 2024 in both the EU and the UK. The trademark The Nuke® now covers a wide range of products and services.

Hospitality Services

Whether this gives him legal grounds to shut down Nuke’s Sports Bar remains to be seen, as The Nuke is not registered for hospitality services. However, it seems the pub owner has already decided not to fight his idol. “We are sure this isn’t Luke himself, and he would be proud to have a bar recognizing his achievements. Let’s tag him and see if we can stop the little man from being crushed! Unfortunately, we may have to change our name before we even get started,” said Owen Williams, the pub’s owner, to The Standard.

Prins Pils

If a famous person has no interest in commercializing their nickname, someone else might seize the opportunity. That’s exactly what happened with the name Prins Pils, which was registered as a beer brand in 2016 by a certain Leon Nelen. It’s a brilliant name for a beer, of course. And in this case, Leon probably doesn’t have to worry about the “rightful owner” of the name coming after him—King Willem-Alexander would likely want to avoid a headline like “King Willem-Alexander Claims Trademark Prins Pils.”