The Athletics have been playing Major League Baseball for more than 100 years and yet the longevity was not enough to secure a new trademark in advance of the franchise’s future move to Las Vegas.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected the club’s application to register both “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics” as the team’s own, Front Office Sports reported Tuesday.
The report cited trademark attorney Josh Gerben, who said that the refusals were issued Dec. 29 and that “athletics” was also a way to describe everyday activity and too vague of a term to hold a trademark for a single entity.
The office had previously awarded a trademark for Philadelphia Athletics, Kansas City Athletics and Oakland Athletics, representing all three cities the club has called home. Even the team’s script “Athletics” logo was awarded a trademark in the past.
According to Gerben, the primary issue seems to be that the A’s have not yet established themselves in Las Vegas, despite the fact that their future stadium already is under construction and the club’s Triple-A team plays in the Las Vegas area.
The MLB team currently plays its games in Sacramento, although it does not brand itself with the name of the California capital. The A’s are not expected to play their first game in their new Las Vegas home until 2028.
The report, which says that MLB is in charge of trademark applications for all teams, indicates that the A’s could still get trademark approval down the road, with a chance to make their case to an appeal board or even in federal court.
