{"id":43040,"date":"2025-02-27T10:29:28","date_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?p=43040"},"modified":"2025-02-27T10:29:28","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T15:29:28","slug":"why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html","title":{"rendered":"Why a Christian University is Taking Netflix to Court Over a Basketball Series"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Left: Netflix | Right: Benny Marty \/ Shutterstock.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A prominent Christian university is suing Netflix and Warner Bros. Entertainment over a new basketball-themed series. The university argues that the show improperly uses the school’s name, team identity, and colors while promoting content that contradicts the university’s Christian values.<\/p>\n

Pepperdine University, a well-known Christian institution in California, filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday, alleging trademark infringement over Netflix’s new series Running Point<\/em>, starring Kate Hudson and co-created by Mindy Kaling.<\/p>\n

The show features a basketball team called the “Waves,” wearing blue and orange uniforms\u2014the exact name and color scheme used by Pepperdine’s athletic teams. The lawsuit also claims that Running Point<\/em> references Pepperdine’s founding year, which is set in Los Angeles, where the university is located.<\/p>\n

Pepperdine officials argue that the show’s mature content, which includes explicit language, discussions of drug use, and allusions to infidelity, misrepresents the university and its values.<\/p>\n

“Since its founding in 1937, Pepperdine University has established itself as a Christian University committed to academic excellence and a world-class athletics program,” said Sean Burnett, Pepperdine’s senior vice president and chief marketing officer. “Without our permission, Netflix continues to promote Running Point<\/em>, a new series that has misappropriated our trademarked name, the Waves, our colors, blue and orange, our hometown of Los Angeles, and even the year we were founded as an institution.”<\/p>\n

The university expressed concern that being associated with the show\u2014rated TV-MA for mature audiences\u2014could damage its reputation. “The university has \u2026 expressed deep concerns about some of the series’ themes, which include explicit content, substance use, nudity, and profanity\u2014elements that are inconsistent with Pepperdine’s Christian values and reputation,” the school said in a statement.<\/p>\n

According to the lawsuit, Pepperdine officials repeatedly attempted to resolve the issue with Netflix and Warner Bros. before filing the case. However, after receiving no satisfactory response, the university decided legal action was necessary.<\/p>\n

As of now, neither Netflix nor Warner Bros. Entertainment has publicly responded to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A prominent Christian university is suing Netflix and Warner Bros. Entertainment over a new basketball-themed series. The university argues that the show improperly uses the school’s name, team identity, and colors while promoting content that contradicts the university’s Christian values. Pepperdine University, a well-known Christian institution in California, filed a federal lawsuit on Thursday, alleging…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":43043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-television"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy a Christian University is Taking Netflix to Court Over a Basketball Series<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Pepperdine University is suing Netflix over "Running Point," claiming it misuses its identity while promoting content against its values.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why a Christian University is Taking Netflix to Court Over a Basketball Series\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pepperdine University is suing Netflix over "Running Point," claiming it misuses its identity while promoting content against its values.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Idol Chatter\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-02-27T15:29:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/02\/Running-Point_credit-Left-Netflix-Right-Benny-Marty-Shutterstock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jonathan Reed\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Why a Christian University is Taking Netflix to Court Over a Basketball Series","description":"Pepperdine University is suing Netflix over \"Running Point,\" claiming it misuses its identity while promoting content against its values.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Why a Christian University is Taking Netflix to Court Over a Basketball Series","og_description":"Pepperdine University is suing Netflix over \"Running Point,\" claiming it misuses its identity while promoting content against its values.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html","og_site_name":"Idol Chatter","article_published_time":"2025-02-27T15:29:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/02\/Running-Point_credit-Left-Netflix-Right-Benny-Marty-Shutterstock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jonathan Reed","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html","name":"Why a Christian University is Taking Netflix to Court Over a Basketball Series","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/02\/Running-Point_credit-Left-Netflix-Right-Benny-Marty-Shutterstock.jpg","datePublished":"2025-02-27T15:29:28+00:00","dateModified":"2025-02-27T15:29:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"Pepperdine University is suing Netflix over \"Running Point,\" claiming it misuses its identity while promoting content against its values.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/02\/Running-Point_credit-Left-Netflix-Right-Benny-Marty-Shutterstock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/87\/2025\/02\/Running-Point_credit-Left-Netflix-Right-Benny-Marty-Shutterstock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900,"caption":"Left: Netflix | Right: Benny Marty \/ Shutterstock.com"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/2025\/02\/why-a-christian-university-is-taking-netflix-to-court-over-a-basketball-series.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Why a Christian University is Taking Netflix to Court Over a Basketball Series"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/","name":"Idol Chatter","description":"Beliefnet Entertainment blog, TV blog, Movie blog, Religion in entertainment blog","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43040"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43046,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43040\/revisions\/43046"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/idolchatter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}