Army Officially Opposes Vegas Golden Knights Trademark

Insomniac99

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Oct 26, 2006
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Army Officially Opposes Vegas Golden Knights Trademark
Earlier today the Department of the Army filed a notice of opposition against Black Knight Sports and Entertainment with the United States Trademark and Patent Office over the use of the name “Golden Knights” for the expansion Las Vegas NHL team.

Back in October we had reported that both Army and The College of Saint Rose had requested an extension to the deadline to oppose the trademark, that deadline came today; Saint Rose requested another extension, the Army declared war.
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The Army has been using the "Golden Knights" name since 1962 for the Strategic Army Command Parachute Team (STRAC), which is now the US Army Parachute Team.

Golden-Knights.jpg
 
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Killion

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Feb 19, 2010
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Uh oh.... Any Trademark/Copyright Lawyers out there? What does this now mean?
 

BattleBorn

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It's officially a kind of big deal.

Here's the official filing if you want to read it: USPTO TTABVUE. Proceeding Number 91238886

From my quick scan, it looks like they're worried about confusion regarding the ownership of the team (Foley vs the US Govt) and the Army Black Knights hockey team themselves.

The Army connection being front and center when it comes to the justification for naming the team the Golden Knights seems to work against Black Knight Sports and Entertainment ( :) ) in this case.
 
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Killion

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Is anyone going to confuse an NHL hockey team with a military parachute team?

I certainly wouldnt think so however in this day & age.... Lawyers..... There is precedent in the NHL with the Black Hawks... the original owner, Major Frederic McLaughlin naming them after his WW1 Machine Gun Regiment... which in turn was named after Chief Black Hawk of the Sauk Indian Tribe...

Its an urban myth that the Maple Leafs were named after a non-existent "Maple Leaf Regiment" or that the Maple Leaf name & colors chosen by Conn Smythe as he was inspired by Canadian Forces during WW1 who wore a Maple Leaf badge on their uniforms, which they did but was not the reason why the Leafs were named the Leafs...

What he did in fact was to lift the name & colors from the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club that had been around for decades & was extremely popular with a huge fan base. Pro hockey relatively new, some failures during the 19 teen's & 20's in Toronto, wasnt a "sure bet" so in basically "swiping" the name & colors without any compensation, he hoped to tap into the TML Baseball Clubs fan base.

All of the above of course nearly 100yrs ago, today, highly sophisticated, and you dont mess around with stuff like this... So just why Foley was ever permitted by the NHL to just charge ahead with a name that could very easily land them all in hot water I have absolutely no idea.

The League likes to boast about how careful they are about such issues & youve just got to figure they had to have been provided with legal opinions from top litigators in the field that it was all perfectly kosher, would withstand any potential challenges from the United States Army Air Corp or whomever else....

I guess we'll just see about that.... But it begs the question... why would you invite this kind of trouble to begin with at all when there were so many other beyond excellent names & themes you couldve run to the bank with?
 

BattleBorn

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Foley ran it across the attorneys (his and the league's, I'm sure) and they thought there was a decent shot they'd get the trademark.

We'll see, they still might get it through. I doubt the Department of Defense is willing to take a couple hundred thousand donation like the college may have. For what it's worth, the college is still deciding if they want to file a complaint as well.
 
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Killion

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Foley ran it across the attorneys (his and the league's, I'm sure) and they thought there was a decent shot they'd get the trademark.

We'll see, they still might get it through. I doubt the Department of Defense is willing to take a couple hundred thousand donation like the college may have. For what it's worth, the college is still deciding if they want to file a complaint as well.

My God BB... Angst upon angst. Hard enough being the new kids on the block without this kinda crazy huh? :laugh:
 

MNNumbers

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I have no idea about patent law, but She makes a pretty good case that Foley knew that he was making a connection between the team and his West Point history, and chose the name without consulting the Army.

One question I do have:
The Opposing brief (I suppose you can call it that) repeatedly refers to "LAS VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS".
Did Foley really attempt to patent that, and then decided to drop "LAS"?
 

Ciao

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Is anyone going to confuse an NHL hockey team with a military parachute team?
Other than the guys in the Army, and maybe their lawyers, probably not.

I don't really understand this objection. I don't really see the basis for confusion either, except perhaps for the extremely feeble-minded.
 
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Insomniac99

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Other than the guys in the Army, and maybe their lawyers, probably not.

I don't really understand this objection. I don't really see the basis for confusion either, except perhaps for the extremely feeble-minded.

Thing is, the Golden Knights are there for PR and recruitment. They travel the US(and world I believe) to do demonstrations at Air Shows and other events for civilians.

By Vegas commendeering their name, they've effectively lost all control over people's perception of the meaning of that name. Now, if your average civilian sees that the Golden Knights are coming to an Air Show, they'll think "Why the hell is a hockey team going?"
 

PAZ

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Jul 14, 2011
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Thing is, the Golden Knights are there for PR and recruitment. They travel the US(and world I believe) to do demonstrations at Air Shows and other events for civilians.

By Vegas commendeering their name, they've effectively lost all control over people's perception of the meaning of that name. Now, if your average civilian sees that the Golden Knights are coming to an Air Show, they'll think "Why the hell is a hockey team going?"

I mean... or they could look a gift horse in the mouth and force Vegas to partner with them if they wanted to keep the name, jerseys, etc. They could do some pretty slick marketing promotions both on and off the ice, along with the games during intermissions, etc.
 

Bood12

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no way the NHL is going to mess with the Army, expect the name change by next season, probably stock up on current Golden Knights stuff as a collectors item
 

Headshot77

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Because then you run into trademark issues with the OHL's London Knights.
Just use the surprise playoff revenue from this upcoming post season to pay off the London Knights. How much money do you think it would take to silence an OHL team? I doubt it would be too much.
 

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