Posts Tagged: "NHL"

Today marks the return of our Other Barks & Bites feature, which will profile a collection of news headlines from around the IP world and across practice areas every Friday. This week, the patent spat between Apple and Qualcomm heats up at the PTAB; China’s intellectual property court at Beijing shows signs of heightened requirements in trademark appeals for foreign entities; and the European Union delays debate on copyright reforms that would affect major tech firms that aggregate news and videos online.

On Thursday, April 24th, I attended a Sports Industry briefing and cocktail reception in honor of World IP day.   The program was sponsored by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) and International Trademark Association (INTA). The program featured a panel of policymakers, including US Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator, Vishal Amin, and Congressional Trademark Caucus Co-Chairs, Senator Chris Coons and Senator Chuck Grassley as well as Attorneys who represent the MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, and IMG College Licensing.

The notice of opposition filed by the Army to challenge the “VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS” mark cites multiple grounds for opposition including priority and likelihood of confusion, dilution by blurring and false suggestion of a connection with an institution. In the case, the Army is asserting its own unregistered trademark of “GOLDEN KNIGHTS” used in connection with entertainment exhibition services, public relations and recruiting. Although the Army is opposing a standard character mark without a claimed color scheme, it also notes that the Vegas Golden Knights have chosen a similar black+gold/yellow+white scheme on uniforms and advertisements, which are used by West Point’s hockey team, known as the Black Knights, as well as the Tate Rink arena where the Black Knights play. This similar color scheme may further contribute to consumer confusion, the Army argues.

One of the more exciting young talents currently playing in the National Hockey League is Johnny Gaudreau, a forward for the NHL’s Calgary Flames who is also known by the nickname “Johnny Hockey.”… U.S. Trademark Registration No. 4992448 protects the use of the standard character mark “JOHNNY HOCKEY” on goods in trademark class 25, which includes marks registered for clothing, footwear and headgear. Specifically, the mark has been registered for use on clothing goods such as shirts, sweatshirts and coats as well as footwear goods like shoes and boots.

In late November, the Las Vegas NHL hockey franchise, which will begin playing with the National Hockey League (NHL) in the 2017-18 season, announced that it would be known as the Golden Knights. On December 7th, however, an office action issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicated that the USPTO had refused registration of U.S. Trademark Application No. 87147239, which would have protected the use of the standard character mark of “VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS” on entertainment services, specifically professional ice hockey exhibitions.

A series of 12 trademark applications filed by Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, LLC, the consortium which owns the new NHL franchise, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office gives us a good idea of the three team nicknames which have made it to the final round of consideration. According to these trademark applications, the NHL team in Las Vegas will take one of the following names: Silver Knights, Golden Knights or Desert Knights. Interestingly, the Las Vegas franchise cannot use Knights by itself as the team will play in Canada and the Canadian rights to that name are held by the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League.