"There are distinct differences between the "K1-Rules" matches at shows in the UK, and the "K-1 Corperation Tournaments"

But there isn't a difference.

Hmm... Ok, I'll give you a scenario.

Rich Cadden Starts up a fight promotion called C-1, which stands for Cadden-1. :-) He builds it up over 10-20 years to be the biggest Muay Thai event on the entire planet. Even people that don't know what the hell Muay Thai is, they still have heard of C-1 and they know it means "badass fighters". When there is a C-1 event in town, it's something special, a must-see event.

So over time, other promoters start putting up posters saying "Cadden-1 style"... "check out the C-1 style fights."... "Cadden rules"..."Fight Night - Cadden-1 Rules"...

Those guys just stole your name. All of the above are examples of USING your hypothetical name (C-1 or Cadden-1) to promote their event. C-1 stands for Cadden-1. It's based on your last name. You built that name up to mean something. Without your hard work, other promoters would not be using "Cadden" or "C-1" to promote their events.

It doesn't matter if it's with a hyphen, without a hyphen, calling it style or fights or rules... it's all using the C-1 brand as a way to describing an event that isn't C-1 and has nothing to do with Rich Cadden.

If you, as the owner of C-1 or Cadden-1, allow that to run wild, then two things will happen...

1) you lose ownership of your own trademark. That is how it works in the US, and I assume it's the same in the UK. If you don't defend your trademark, then it turns into a "generic term" and you can no longer stop other competitors from using it. Coke and Xerox had this problem in the past with their tradmarked names. Adobe Photoshop also has that problem because so many people use the word "Photoshop" when applied to ANY editing graphics. Those companies had to fight to protect their trademark from being converted into a generic name.

And...this also happened to the word "Kickboxing". The first japanese promoter to coin the term "Kickboxing" apparently didn't act to secure their trademark on the name. Decades later, "Kickboxing" is now a generic word used all over the place.

2) The other thing that could happen (in the C-1 scenario) is your very own C-1 shows will not garner as much attention since EVERY show is now called "C-1 style fights". So you spent all of your time building up that brand name over 10-20 years of hard work, and other promoters just take it and use it for their own promotions, reducing the value of your brand. C-1 no longer has the same meaning that it once held.

The scenario with UFC is different because the underlying sport has a name... MMA. If other promoters want to put on shows just like the UFC, they don't have to say "UFC Rules event". They can say "MMA Event". But K-1's underlying sport is very vague. Is it modified Karate? Is it Kickboxing? If so, what kind of Kickboxing? Is it Modified Muay Thai? If we strip away the brand name that is K-1, what the hell do we call this? That is the problem.

Strip away "Coke" and you have "Cola".
Strip away "Xerox" and you have "Photocopy".
Strip away "UFC" and you have "MMA".
Strip away "K-1" and you have...... ????