One of These Knights: Army Considers Challenge of New Vegas Team

And you thought we were done with the name of the new Las Vegas NHL team.

Ha!

Turns out the Vegas Golden Knights, who announced their name last Tuesday, have caught the attention of Army officials, particularly due to the fact the new team shares its name with Army’s world-famous parachute team the “Golden Knights”, this according to a recent article in the Fayetteville Observer.

“We’re reviewing the situation and figuring out what the way ahead would be”, Army spokesperson Alison Bettencourt told the Observer.

What could this mean? Well they could dispute the trademark arguing that the similar name, colour scheme, and that both logos use a knights helmet might cause some to believe the two are associated. If you believe a reasonable person could mistake one Golden Knights with another then that’d be enough grounds for a decent legal challenge.

If the team were forced to change their name it’d likely be as simple as just changing “Golden” for “Desert” or “Silver”, as their logo would just as well for either.

Personally, I don’t see it getting that far. Even if Army did decide to challenge it it’s likely the two would come to some sort of financial arrangement which would allow the hockey club to continue using the name. You figure the last thing the league wants is any sort of embarrassment surrounding their new jewel of a franchise.

Vegas already, reportedly, had to seek permission from Clarkson University over use of the Golden Knights name. They had previously run into issues with Army for attempting to use “Black Knights” and decided against using just “Knights” thinking there could be issue with the OHL’s junior London Knights.

If Army wants to challenge, they better hurry up, the Vegas Golden Knights have been selling merchandise featuring the “Golden Knights” name for almost a week now. They’ll play their first regular season game next October.