The Las Vegas Golden Knights are in a legal showdown with the United States Army over the team’s name.
ESPN reported the following:
The U.S. Army filed a challenge with the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Wednesday to the Vegas Golden Knights‘ name, saying that it is associated with their military branch.
In its filing, the Army says that the team “has chosen and used a similar black+gold/yellow+white color scheme on uniforms, marketing, advertisements and its hockey arena, mimicking the opposer’s colors and further adding to the likelihood of confusion of the public.”
Army says it has used the Golden Knights name since 1969 in connection with its parachute team and with recruiting, and that it owns “common law rights in color scheme black+gold/yellow+white.”
Looks like we’ve got a good old fashioned standoff, and that’s what right up the alley of both the military and sports teams. The part that makes no sense to me is why the Army even cares about the Golden Knights having the same name of one of their units.
The Golden Knights are awesome, and could easily end up winning the Stanley Cup. Why would the Army not want to be associated with winning? If anything, the United States should want to be associated with winning as much as possible.
It’d be one thing if the Knights were really bad, but they’re not. You could make a strong argument that they’re the hottest team in the NHL right now.
The Army should do the right thing and just sponsor the Golden Knights. It worked out shockingly well for the Soviet Union’s military sponsored teams. They dominated the world in hockey, outside of that little butt kicking we gave them in 1980.
I think most of America would rally behind a team sponsored by American heroes.