- Tiger Woods' apparel company Sun Day Red sued Tigeraire in federal court.
- Tigeraire claims that Sun Day Red's logo is too similar to its own.
- Trademark attorney Josh Gerben said the escalation could lead to costly litigation.
A logo dispute between Tiger Woods' apparel company Sun Day Red and Tigeraire, a company that makes cooling products for athletes, is now in the hands of the federal court system.
Last week, Tigeraire filed a notice of opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office against Sun Day Red's Tiger logo, saying the golf legend's company "unlawfully hijacked" Tigeraire's design into its own branding.
In a subsequent court filing, Woods' legal team sued Tigeraire, accusing the company of trying to capitalize off Sun Day Red's status as a bigger brand. Sun Day Red has filed a motion to dismiss the patent claim.
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"This case, unfortunately, presents the time-worn circumstance of an opportunistic, misguided business attempting to extract an unwarranted financial windfall from a larger and more successful brand, based on threats of legal action and demands for exorbitant sums," the suit says.
According to the lawsuit, which was filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, Sun Day Red says it has attempted in good faith to resolve the infringement claims though negotiation and that Tigeraire has sent "outrageous monetary demands" to Sun Day Red, which is owned by TaylorMade.
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The suit also says Tigeraire recently started attending golf tournaments and changed its website's homepage to prominently feature golfers in an attempt to demonstrate market overlap.
Tigeraire did not immediately respond to request for comment on the lawsuit. A representative for Woods and TaylorMade declined to comment on the matter.
Trademark attorney Josh Gerben called the lawsuit an "aggressive response" to the trademark dispute.
He noted bringing a case to federal court makes the matter much for expensive for a smaller company like Tigeraire.
"A lot of time these cases favor the party with the resources to litigate, and that can make it a challenge," Gerben said.
Sun Day Red was launched in May after Woods ended his 27-year partnership with Nike.
The brand's name pays homage to the fact that Woods always wears red on Sundays, and the logo is a tribute to the 15 majors he's won over the course of his career, Woods said previously.
