Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson Files Opposition To Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s Registration Of #8 Trademark, Claims He’s “Well-Known By This Number”

Which athlete do you think of when you think of the #8?

That probably depends on which sport you follow more closely. As a NASCAR fan, the #8 for me will always be synonymous with Dale Earnhardt Jr. – despite the fact that he drove the #88 car when he retired, and the number #8 belongs to Kyle Busch in the NASCAR Cup Series.

But Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson believes that he should be the rightful owner to the trademark of the #8, has filed an opposition to Junior’s attempts to trademark his former car number.

Junior, of course, drove the now-iconic #8 Budweiser car early in his career when he first started driving for his dad’s Cup Series team, DEI. But longtime NASCAR fans know how the story ends: With the sport’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., leaving the team his father built after a bitter (and public) battle with his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, over ownership in the company, and the team folding just a few years later (after Teresa said they would just “make another Dale Jr.” if he left the team).

After Earnhardt’s death, Teresa controlled all things DEI, even after the race team folded after merging with Chip Ganassi Racing. And she still tightly polices the use of the intellectual property owned by the former race team, which now serves as basically a merchandise company.

The result was that after Junior left DEI, he was forced to defer to Teresa when it came to using his iconic #8 – and she wasn’t giving it up. But things changed last year, when Teresa apparently decided to let the trademark for the number expire, allowing Junior to step in and register it for himself.

Since then, Junior has run the #8 car in a race for the CARS Tour, a late model short track series in which Dale Jr. is a co-owner. And he’s also released merch featuring his #8 car that many fans associate with the Hall of Fame driver.

But Lamar Jackson apparently believes that Junior’s use of the #8 causes confusion with his own trademark – and might lead fans to think that Junior’s products are somehow affiliated with Jackson?

In a notice of opposition filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office this week, Jackson claims that Junior’s stylized #8 conflicts with his own registration of “Era 8,” the quarterback’s apparel brand, claiming that he’s “well-known by this number due to his notoriety and fame” and that Junior’s trademark “falsely suggests a connection with persons, living or dead, namely, Lamar Jackson, who is well known by the number 8.”

“Purchasers and prospective purchasers are likely to mistakenly believe that the products Applicant offers under the mark are related to the products and services provided by Opposer under the number 8 and his application and registration.”

The last point is the kicker for me. Who the hell is seeing a Dale Jr CARS Tour t-shirt and thinking "man, I REALLY thought that was Lamar Jackson!" https://t.co/QsOJgXeaW1 pic.twitter.com/NKraQYs3qo

— Nathan (@KensethFan17_20) April 3, 2025

Yeah, I see how people could think that’s a Lamar Jackson shirt…

It’s not the first time Jackson has attempted to claim the #8 for himself: In 2024, he also filed an opposition against legendary quarterback Troy Aikman’s application to register EIGHT as a trademark after Aikman unveiled his new EIGHT beer.

Now, I don’t think anybody is going to be given the exclusive right to use the number 8 in a trademark. You can’t trademark a number, because it’s so generic that it’s hard to argue a single number is associated with any one person. The more likely resolution to this is that each gets a trademark in the “style” of their #8, and everybody goes their separate ways.

But while the issue works its way through the appeal, beware: If you see a red #8 car on an Earnhardt t-shirt, just know that it’s NOT a Lamar Jackson shirt.