{"id":621739,"date":"2026-04-22T19:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621739\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T19:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T19:58:11","slug":"report-hamilton-cardinals-in-legal-fight-with-st-louis-cardinals-over-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/621739\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Hamilton Cardinals in legal fight with St. Louis Cardinals over name"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A small Canadian baseball team is being accused of committing a cardinal sin.<\/p>\n<p>The Hamilton Cardinals of the Canadian Baseball League are in a legal battle with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportsnet.ca\/baseball\/mlb\/teams\/st-louis-cardinals\/\" class=\"sn-team-post-link\" target=\"_self\" data-team=\"st-louis-cardinals\" data-league=\"mlb\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> over their name and trademark, the CBC reported on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Since the Hamilton club filed three trademark applications to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office in 2023, the MLB Cardinals have opposed each application, through their Canadian lawyers, Gowling Canada.<\/p>\n<p>In their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ic.gc.ca\/app\/scr\/opic-cipo\/mc-tm\/rd-dr\/action\/open\/20404702\/Statement%2520of%2520Opposition%2520Attachment\/PDF\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">statement responding<\/a> to the applications, the St. Louis Cardinals wrote the trademark request &#8220;represents an attempt to take advantage of the reputation and goodwill associated with the (St. Louis Cardinals&#8217;) trademarks, and to likely deceive consumers into the mistaken belief that the (Hamilton Cardinals&#8217;) goods and services are in some way related to, associated with, or endorsed by the opponent, when that is not the case.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Hamilton Cardinals changed their name from Thunderbirds in 2012 to more closely align with the minor-baseball program in the city of the same name. They were previously called the Cardinals and had a minor-league affiliation with the Major League Baseball club from 1988-92.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-22-at-2.23.38\u202fPM.png\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"The Hamilton Cardinals logo as filed to the Canadian Trademarks Database. (Canadian Trademarks Database)\"\/>The Hamilton Cardinals logo as filed to the Canadian Trademarks Database. (Canadian Trademarks Database)<\/p>\n<p>Hamilton native Eric Spearin became the majority owner of the club in 2022 and wanted to &#8220;freshen up the brand,&#8221; as he told CBC Hamilton.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Hamilton Cardinals&#8217; 48-game season begins May 15. The trademarks database shows that the St. Louis Cardinals have until April 26 to file more evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A small Canadian baseball team is being accused of committing a cardinal sin. The Hamilton Cardinals of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621740,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-621739","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=621739"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621739\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}