More than seven months after the Army filed a notice of opposition with the U.S. Patent and against the Vegas Golden Knights, the long trademark battle has finally come to its conclusion, the NHL team announced on July 19.
According to the Las Vegas Sun, the two sides have come to a trademark coexistence agreement over the usage of the name and mark “Golden Knights.”
The Golden Knights are the Army’s parachute exhibition team, and the Army will continue to use the Golden Knights name.
“We are pleased that we have agreed to coexist regarding the use of the ‘Golden Knights’ mark and name,” Vegas Golden Knights Chairman and CEO Bill Foley said in a statement. “Our discussions with the Army were collaborative and productive throughout this entire process.”
The Army’s Golden Knights program goes back to 1959, when 19 airborne soldiers made up the Strategic Army Command parachute team with the intention of competing in the new sport of skydiving against the then-Soviet Union, according to the Army.
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Three years later, the team was renamed the Golden Knights, with golden signifying the color of the medals they won and knights referring to the “team’s ambition to conquer the skies.”
The team has earned the Army 2,148 gold, 1,117 silver and 693 bronze medals in national and international competitions.
At the time of filing the notice of opposition. the service believed that the public was likely to perceive the Army as being affiliated with the NHL team and that the Army believed it would be damaged if the NHL team was allowed to trademark the name.
The Las Vegas NHL team just concluded its inaugural season, going 51-24-7 and losing 4-1 to the Washington Capitals in the Stanley Cup Finals. Their 2017-18 season is widely considered to be the greatest opening season by an expansion team in all of American professional sports history.
Noah Nash is a rising senior at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio. At school, he is the editor in chief of the Collegian Magazine and the digital director of the Collegian, Kenyon's newspaper.