On Wednesday the Department of the Army filed a formal opposition against the Vegas Golden Knights’ ownership group, Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, with the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office over the NHL expansion team’s use of the name Golden Knights.
Army lists three grounds of opposition in the complaint, per USA Today: dilution, false suggestion of connection and the possibility of being brought into disrepute.
Vegas’ black-and-gold uniform color scheme resembles the uniforms worn by Army’s athletic teams. And while most Army teams are nicknamed the Black Knights, the U.S. Army Parachute Team is known as the Golden Knights. According to the filing, the Army “believes it will be damaged” by these similarities with the Vegas Golden Knights.
Additionally, Vegas general manager George McPhee has said in the past that the team’s name and colors were inspired by the Army, according to SportsLogos.net. Golden Knights owner Bill Foley is a West Point graduate, and reportedly wanted the name and colors of his NHL team to resemble that of his alma mater’s athletic teams.
Vegas released a statement on Army’s charge Thursday, saying that they “are not aware of a single complaint from anyone attending our games that they were expecting to see the parachute team and not a professional hockey game.”
The @GoldenKnights release statement on Dept. of Army going after them on trademark violation grounds.
“We are not aware of a single complaint from anyone attending our games that they were expecting to see the parachute team and not a professional hockey game” = fine art. pic.twitter.com/981zkOqD9n
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 11, 2018
The Golden Knights have until February 19 to respond to the Army’s filing, and failure to respond could result in forfeiture of the trademark.
• Josh Luckenbaugh can be reached at jluckenbaugh@washingtontimes.com.
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