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The US District Court for the Southern District of New York held that Viacom’s request for declaration of its “Double Dare” trademark was too premature to be heard, as the alleged harm from Armstrong Interactive’s trademark registration applications was too speculative. Viacom Int’l Inc. v. Armstrong Interactive, Inc., S.D.N.Y., No. 1:18-cv-06117, 8/19/19.

Viacom’s Nickelodeon network debuted the “Double Dare” game show series in 1986; however, Viacom allowed its “Double Dare” trademark registrations to expire in 2001 and 2002. In 2018, Armstrong Interactive filed intent-to-use trademark registration applications for “Double Dare” and “Double Dare Live” covering “a continuing children’s show.”

Shortly thereafter, Nickelodeon announced it was rebooting “Double Dare” and Viacom sued for a declaration that it owns the “Double Dare” marks. Because of the “uncertainty as to whether or when Armstrong will have enforceable rights to the Double Dare mark,” the Court said, the controversy is “too speculative and too remote to sustain federal subject matter jurisdiction.”