The Athletics are betting big on Las Vegas \u2014 but their preferred name might not be in the cards.<\/p>\n
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has once again denied the team\u2019s request to trademark \u201cLas Vegas Athletics\u201d and \u201cVegas Athletics\u201d ahead of their planned 2028 relocation, according to multiple reports.<\/p>\n
In a recently released filing, the USPTO argued that the term \u201cAthletics\u201d is too generic, could easily be confused with other uses and lacks \u201cacquired distinctiveness\u201d to warrant trademark protection.<\/p>\n
The A\u2019s were once again denied a trademark for \u201cLas Vegas Athletics.\u201d Corey Sipkin for the NY POST<\/p>\n
\u201cATHLETICS means activities such as sports, exercises and games that require physical skill and stamina \u2026 therefore the prior registration does not support applicant\u2019s claim of acquired distinctiveness and the claim is not accepted,\u201d the document reads, according to The Athletic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Despite the franchise name dating back to 1901, when the team was based in Philadelphia, the USPTO further said prior registrations \u201cdo not support applicant\u2019s claim of acquired distinctiveness because they are not the same marks.\u201d<\/p>\n The Athletics left Oakland Coliseum after the 2024 season, and Oakland was promptly dropped from the team name as the club prepared for an eventual move to Las Vegas in 2028.<\/p>\n The organization is planning on relocating to Las Vegas in 2028. AP<\/p>\n Though ground has been broken on the team\u2019s planned $1.75 billion stadium<\/a>, the A\u2019s played their games this past season at Sutter Health Park in Sacramento \u2014 home of the Triple-A River Cats, an affiliate of the Giants.<\/p>\n The move drew heavy criticism, including from the team\u2019s own players. Luis Severino \u2014 who signed a $67 million deal last offseason<\/a> \u2014 blasted the experience of playing in a minor league park.<\/p>\n \u201cIt feels like a spring training kind of game every time I pitch, and every time other guys pitch,\u201d Severino said. \u201cIt\u2019s the same mentality we have, to go out there and try to do our best. But it\u2019s not been great for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite frustrations and a disappointing 2025 season, the organization has shelled out several long-term deals as it eyes the Vegas era.<\/p>\n In addition to Severino, the A\u2019s extended All-Star slugger Brent Rooker for $60 million and later inked budding star Lawrence Butler to a $66.5 million extension.<\/a><\/p>\n In the recently released court filing, the USPTO claimed that the trademark was too generic and did not warrant protection. Jerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n This offseason, they signed Tyler Soderstrom to a franchise-record<\/a> $86 million deal and traded for former Mets All-Star Jeff McNeil<\/a>.<\/p>\n The team\u2019s nucleus of youngsters includes 2025 American League Rookie of the Year Nick Kurtz.<\/p>\n It\u2019s expected that the organization will reapply for the trademark again in the future, and could have a better case if and when it does officially relocate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Athletics are betting big on Las Vegas \u2014 but their preferred name might not be in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[5654,64,63,591,192940,180863,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-397087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-athletics","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-oakland-as","13":"tag-patents","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}