A minor league baseball staff in Montana is able to clear the benches and combat what it calls “unwarranted and relentless trademark claims” from the Nationwide Park Service over certainly one of its secondary logos.
The Glacier Vary Riders — a staff primarily based in Kalispell, Montana, that performs within the Main League Baseball-affiliated unbiased Pioneer League — unveiled a new suite of logos in January 2022 that was meant to pay homage to close by Glacier Nationwide Park. A type of logos, although, appears to be too shut for the NPS’s consolation — particularly a downward-pointing arrowhead with the initials “RR” inside.
The Vary Riders issued a press launch on Tuesday, April 23, saying that the NPS has opposed the staff’s use of the arrowhead emblem for greater than a yr now, “citing concerns that it is likely to cause confusion among the general public that our organization is affiliated with NPS.”
In line with the Vary Riders, an preliminary letter of protest from the NPS was dismissed by the US Patent and Trademark Workplace after it was discovered there could be no chance of confusion. However the NPS has “doubled down” with a Discover of Opposition that has initated an administrative continuing with the USPTO.
“The only commonality between the Glacier Range Riders and NPS’s logos is the generic arrowhead shape. NPS has no exclusive legal rights to the shape and it is used by countless other organizations across the nation,” the press launch says. “Despite these facts, the NPS continues to pressure us into abandoning it, imposing a significant financial and administrative burden on the Glacier Range Riders.”
“It is unfortunate that someone in the federal government is using their position of authority and resources to pursue this action that is neither for the good or the will of the people,” added staff president Chris Kelly. “This is a small business that employs 14-year-olds in their first summer jobs and gives the community a family- oriented venue to create summer memories.
“The arrowhead represents the strength and resilience of this land. We will fight for our ability to use it in our branding to bring together our communities, as well as the ability for it to be freely accessible to other organizations.”
A remaining listening to within the dispute is tentatively scheduled for 2025, a staff spokesperson advised the Associated Press.
Different logos launched by the Vary Riders in 2022 embody a mountain goat in a park ranger uniform swinging a baseball bat and a bear with a bat driving in certainly one of Glacier Nationwide Park’s basic tour buses. The entire package deal was designed by Brandiose.
Brandiose co-founder Jason Klein mentioned on the time of the revealing: “We reference a lot of the 1920s and ’30s, the original uniforms of the National Park Service rangers, going back to the original park ranger that was part of the National Park System—less of the modern-day educator and scientist, and more in the sort of rugged explorers that were the foundation of the National Park Service.”
The Vary Riders’ 2024 Pioneer League season begins on Tuesday, Might 21, after they host the Oakland Ballers at Glacier Financial institution Park.
