The University of Alabama has joined Adidas in filing an opposition to a LIV Golf trademark application.
The "4 Aces," one of 13 LIV Golf teams, recently applied to trademark its blue and white "A" logo. As sports lawyer John Nucci first pointed out, Alabama is arguing that it contains the "same literal element" as the university's logo and the style of the letter "is visually similar."
The script of the 4 Aces' "A" does seem to share some similarities with Alabama's primary logo that has been in use since 2004, as seen in the photo comparison below.
NEW: the University of Alabama has filed an opposition to LIV’s “4 Aces” trademark application, arguing that:
— John Nucci (@JNucci23) July 11, 2024
The 4 Aces design contains the “same literal element” as Alabama’s, and the style of the letter “is visually similar to and creates a commercial impression similar to”… pic.twitter.com/YssZQBvNJw
In 2023, Adidas filed a complaint over LIV Golf's main logo that the four white stripes in the "L" are "confusingly similar" to the German apparel company's emblem.
Adidas opposes LIV Golf at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Boar over similarity of LIV's logo to the Adidas three-stripe mark: https://t.co/7fpN4V6NFl pic.twitter.com/pzeQF07ZU7
— Michael McCann (@McCannSportsLaw) September 27, 2023
The 4 Aces team consists of four American golfers in Dustin Johnson, Pat Perez, Patrick Reed and Harold Varner III. It finished in first place in LIV's inaugural season in 2022 and logged the most regular season points in '23.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Alabama Contests LIV Golf's '4 Aces' Trademark Logo for Being 'Visually Similar'.
