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Vegas Golden Knights trademark denied: Report

jen neale
LAS VEGAS, NV - NOVEMBER 22: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (L) encourages people to boo him as majority owner Bill Foley looks on before the Vegas Golden Knights was announced as the name for Foley's Las Vegas NHL franchise at T-Mobile Arena on November 22, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The team will begin play in the 2017-18 season. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman encourages people to boo him as majority owner Bill Foley looks on before the Vegas Golden Knights was announced as the name for Foley’s Las Vegas NHL franchise at T-Mobile Arena on November 22, 2016, in Las Vegas. The team will begin play in the 2017-18 season. (Getty Images)

There was one big thing the new Las Vegas franchise didn’t do before having their unveiling gala – make sure their trademark was approved.

D’OH!

Mary Clarke of SBNation was the first to report Black Knight Sports & Entertainment (the holding company for the Vegas Golden Knights) had their application for a trademark denied.

The issue the government had with it is the similarity it drew to the logo of the College of Saint Rose. Clarke summarized the 164 page document from the US Patent Office as ‘essentially, the logos and stylizations are too similar.’

Let’s take a look.

Exhibit A – the logo for the College of Saint Rose:

Exhibit B – the sundry of logos for the Vegas Golden Knights

Vegas Logos
Vegas Logos

Maybe it’s nuanced, but what’s the obvious similarity aside from them both being the Golden Knights?

Puck Daddy emailed Vegas PR to ask for comment on the report and have not received a response.

Later in the evening, Amber Dixon, sportscaster for NBC’s Las Vegas affiliate, tweeted out the following after texting with team owner, Bill Foley:

The franchise held an event Wednesday evening for the premiere of a television documentary series about the creation of the franchise. Per Dixon, all the top brass were sequestered in a VIP area and would not be available for comment.

Clarke also added in her reporting: “… all is not lost … the document states the Black Knight Sports and Entertainment group ‘may respond to the refusal by submitting evidence and arguments in support of registration.'”

Alex Prewitt of Sport Illustrated obtained a statement from the franchise that said as much.

Based on the documents provided by SBNation, it looks like the team (in conjunction with NHL attorneys) applied for their trademark on Aug. 23; just about one month after the city was awarded the franchise.

We’re not patent attorneys. We have no idea how long it takes to get this done normally. Given the condensed time frame to get the franchise up and generating momentum in the community, it’s not totally surprising the team went with it anyway. Risky, but it’s Vegas!

In the mean time, the team will continue to sell merchandise and operate under the moniker Golden Knights as the attorneys prepare their response.

(Buy all the merch you can! It might be a collector’s item one day.)

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Jen Neale is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow her on Twitter!

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