As the Vegas Golden Knights get ready to play in the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, the team is closing in on finally being able to register the team name and logos with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
The College of St. Rose, which initially opposed the Golden Knights trademark because the school's nickname is also the Golden Knights, never filed a formal opposition.
The U.S. Army, whose parachute team is called the Golden Knights, acknowledged to ESPN that they are working on an amicable solution.
"The U.S. Army continues to work with the Las Vegas Golden Knights on a co-existence agreement," Army spokesperson Alison Bettencourt told ESPN. "We congratulate the team on their success this season."
The team declined to comment on the progress.
A co-existence agreement is a specific term in trademark law whereby two parties acknowledge what each other owns to prevent future litigation. The agreement usually does not include any exchange of money or promise of remuneration in the future, according to Josh Gerben, a trademark lawyer based in Washington, D.C.
"I don't think the Army had a good case because it's extremely unlikely that someone is going to associate a pro hockey team with a parachute team or [Army's nickname] the Black Knights with the Golden Knights," Gerben said.
Making the interaction a little bit more awkward is the fact that the Golden Knights' owner, Bill Foley, is a West Point graduate, and the Golden Knights business entity is actually called Black Knight Sports & Entertainment.
Foley, who spent some of his career as a corporate lawyer, is a big booster to the program, making it less likely that a legal battle would ensue. Foley and his wife, Carol, have their name on the athletic center after the two made a $15 million donation. It opened in 2007.
Once the co-existence paperwork is filed, the Golden Knights will have no other opponents in their path to get their trademarks. Gerben said the process will take four to six months for them to actually be registered with the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office.
The team isn't the only one engaged in a trademark battle as they vie for the title. A Baltimore security guard has battled the Ravens for more than 15 years over a logo that he claimed he designed but didn't get credit for. The Ravens won two Super Bowls in that time period.