The University of Alabama filed a trademark lawsuit on June 30 against LIV Golf, citing similarities between their scripted “A” and the logo for the 4 Aces Golf Club — the team captained by two-time major winner Dustin Johnson.
Sports attorney John Nucci first reported the lawsuit.
Alabama filed a notice of opposition arguing the 4 Aces logo violated its trademark.
“The university’s athletic teams have achieved tremendous success and national recognition over the past two decades,” the university wrote to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, per Sportico. “As a result, the Script A Mark has been widely displayed on national television broadcast, in print media, and across digital platforms.”
The university's statement stressed that the 4 Aces continued use of their logo would “likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception in the minds of the public,” thereby damaging the institution's brand.
Last September, Sportico reported that Adidas is challenging the LIV Golf League logo in court. The German apparel giant claimed LIV's striped logo is “confusingly similar . . . in appearance and overall commercial impression,” noting its “4 vertical parallel lines that intersect with 4 horizontal parallel lines in the shape of a capital L.”
Adidas argued the confusion was “likely to dilute the distinctiveness of the Adidas marks by eroding consumers’ exclusive identification of the Adidas marks with Adidas, and otherwise lessening the capacity of the Adidas marks to identify and distinguish (its) goods.” (The matter is unresolved.)
LIV Golf is financed by Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF). When the skateboarding brand Cool Brands Supply unsuccessfully sued over the logo for Phil Mickelson's HyFlyers squad, they made note of where the money comes from.
“LIV Golf is financed by the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia and has been accused by some of sportswashing, namely, attempting to improve the public image of the Saudi Arabian monarchy (which has been criticized for repression, corruption, and human rights abuses) through sports,” sated the complaint, which was later dismissed.
The 4 Aces — featuring Johnson, 2018 Masters champion Patrick Reed, and former PGA Tour journeymen Harold Varner III and Pat Perez — took first place in the team standings for LIV Golf's first two seasons. They sit 10th in 2024, with one runner-up finish.
This weekend, LIV Golf heads to Andalucia, Spain, for its 10th event of the year. The Saudi-backed circuit will head to the UK (July 26-28), Greenbrier (Aug. 16-18), and Chicago (Sept. 13-15) before culminating with the Team Championship in Dallas (Sept. 20-22).
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