Universal Filed a New JAWS Trademark Covering Theme Park Services, Nearly Five Years After Its Original Ride Registration Was Cancelled

Universal City Studios filed a new JAWS trademark application on Thursday. Among the services it claims: "amusement park attraction and theme park services."

That phrase is doing a lot of work in the coverage going around today, so it is worth walking through what the filing actually says, and what it does not.

The basics, from the record: U.S. Serial Number 50089372, filed September 3, 2026, on the Principal Register as a service mark. The mark is the word JAWS in standard characters. The owner is Universal City Studios LLC. Its status, as of today, is "New application awaiting assignment to an examining attorney," and no examining attorney or law office has been assigned yet.

The International Class 041 listing is broad. It covers film and video services in drama and horror, on demand and rental, organizing entertainment events, contests, displays and exhibits, and then the line that got everyone's attention: "amusement park attraction and theme park services."

The part the headlines are skipping

The application is filed on a use basis, not an intent to use basis. The record lists "Filed Use: Yes" and "Filed ITU: No," with a first use date of June 20, 1975, which is the film's release.

That distinction matters. An intent to use filing is a company telling the government it plans to start using a mark. A use based filing is a company documenting something it says it is already doing. This is the second kind. It is not, on its own, evidence that Universal is building a Jaws attraction. It does not rule one out either. It simply is not the document that would tell you.

The gas dock explosion sequence on the Jaws ride at Universal Studios Florida, photographed in May 2010. Image: Ross Hawkes / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The registration that covered this ground was cancelled in 2021

Here is the context that makes the new filing legible, and it is sitting in the public record rather than in anyone's press release.

Universal already held a JAWS registration covering exactly this territory. U.S. Serial Number 74061245 was filed May 21, 1990 and registered February 12, 1991 as Registration Number 1635079. Its list of services was a single line: "entertainment services in the nature of an amusement park attraction."

It is dead. The record shows it was cancelled on October 22, 2021, with a class status of "SECTION 8 - CANCELLED" and this explanation: "Registration cancelled because registrant did not file an acceptable declaration under Section 8."

A Section 8 declaration is the periodic paperwork confirming a mark is still in use. Miss it, or file one the office will not accept, and the registration comes off the register. That is what happened here, nearly five years ago.

So the most defensible read of Thursday's filing is a company restoring lapsed coverage in its own portfolio, not a company tipping its hand. The new application is also broader than the old registration, adding film, video, event and contest coverage the 1991 record never had. One more thing the record shows, and it cuts against drawing too sharp a contrast: the 1990 application was itself filed on an intent to use basis, "Filed ITU: Yes," seventeen days before Universal Studios Florida opened. It did not stay that way. Universal amended it to a use basis, the office accepted that amendment on September 27, 1990, and the mark registered the following February. The record today reads "Currently ITU: No" and "Currently Use: Yes." So the difference between the two filings is one of sequence, not category.

The Amity Bay dockmaster and postmaster shacks along the Jaws ride's lagoon, photographed in December 2011, weeks before the attraction closed. Image: Jared / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The ride has been gone since 2012

Jaws operated at Universal Studios Florida until Monday, January 2, 2012, more than 14 years ago. Theme Park Insider covered its final night at the time under the headline "Farewell to a classic - Jaws closes at Universal Studios Florida." Its Amity section was replaced by The Wizarding World of Harry Potter: Diagon Alley.

Worth noting for anyone doing arithmetic on the old registration: the first use date it ended up claiming was April 10, 1976, which predates the Orlando park entirely. The record does not say which attraction that date refers to, and we are not going to guess.

Construction walls around the former Jaws site in March 2012, two months after the ride closed. Image: Jeremy Thompson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

What would actually be a signal

Universal has issued no statement about the filing, and there is no release about it in its Orlando press room. Inside the Magic surfaced the application today, reported the serial number and date correctly, and told its readers plainly that "Nobody should treat this filing as confirmation that a new Jaws ride is coming to Universal Orlando Resort." Its discussion of a possible Jaws land is still speculation the filing itself does not support.

If you want to watch this properly, the things to watch for are an examining attorney being assigned, the application clearing publication, and then permits or concept art. None of that has happened. What has happened so far is that a lapsed mark got refiled.

Sources

• USPTO Trademark Status and Document Retrieval, U.S. Serial No. 50089372 (JAWS, filed September 3, 2026)
• USPTO Trademark Status and Document Retrieval, U.S. Serial No. 74061245 / Reg. No. 1635079 (JAWS, cancelled October 22, 2021)
• Inside the Magic, "14 Years Later, Universal Studios Files 'Jaws' Trademark for 'Amusement Park Attraction'"
• Theme Park Insider, "Farewell to a classic - Jaws closes at Universal Studios Florida"

Image credits: Jaws ride gas dock, Ross Hawkes / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Amity Bay buildings, Jared / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Closed ride site, Jeremy Thompson / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.