WNBA basketball will return to Houston in 2027 after Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta purchased the Connecticut Sun last month. But one crucial detail remains unsettled just over a year before the 2027 WNBA season: Houston’s team name and branding.
The Sun were expected to rebrand to the Houston Comets upon returning to the Bayou City next summer. Rockets Alternate Governor Patrick Fertitta said his family was “thrilled for the opportunity to bring the Houston Comets back to this incredible city” on March 30, and HoustonComets.com was launched that same day. But Houston’s new WNBA club has yet to actually secure the Comets’ trademark.
Per documents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the Houston Comets trademark currently belongs to TSTM Holdings, LLC, a company based in Delaware. TSTM Holdings is represented by Kia Kamran, a Los Angeles-based attorney and frequent representation for rapper Travis Scott and his company, LaFlame Enterprises, Inc. Companies incorporated in Delaware are not required to disclose the names of those within an LLC, though Chron can confirm Scott is affiliated with TSTM, per a source familiar with the current legal battle between TSTM and WNBA Enterprises (WNBAE).
Chron could not reach Kamran for comment as of Thursday.
The Comets were one of the original eight WNBA teams, and they won the league’s first four championships from 1997-2000. The franchise folded under the ownership of former owner Hilton Koch after the 2008 season. Per USA Today’s Danielle Lerner, the WNBA then owned the Comets trademark, but allowed it to lapse in 2021. TSTM Holdings then filed a trademark request, which was successfully granted in 2024. WNBAE filed an opposition to TSTM’s trademark ownership in May 2025, and the opposition remains pending.
TSTM recently filed to dismiss WNBAE’s opposition, which WNBAE responded to in a letter to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last week. WNBAE claims that the Comets’ design and branding have “common law” rights, which would allow WNBAE and TSTM Holdings to use and monetize the Comets’ branding. WNBAE also alleges TSTM doesn’t intend to actually monetize or use the Houston Comets branding.
“Notably, TSTM has provided no information to support that it has a legitimate claim to the name of a beloved sports team and the goodwill that WNBAE built and has maintained for a period of nearly thirty years,” WNBAE wrote in its filing. “The fact that TSTM has chosen to pursue a mark identical to WNBAE’s Comets Word Mark for identical and overlapping goods and services, along with its refusal to identify any bona fide intentions, absence of any evidence of use in the marketplace or even of its plans to use the mark. … raise[s] a plausible inference that TSTM lacks bona fide intent.”
TSTM Holdings has eight publicly listed trademarks dating back to May 2025, including brands FINSTA and Y2K, as well as The Rage, a purported wrestling entertainment and news service. Its trademark for the Comets includes plans for entertainment services as well as the sale of apparel, household items and paper goods.
The official sale from Sun ownership to Fertitta’s group is still pending approval from the WNBA Board of Governors. The 2027 WNBA season is set to begin next May, with the official name of Houston’s soon-to-be WNBA franchise now in question.