Monolothic sportswear outfit Adidas has filed opposition to a trademark application of Turner Sports’ ELEAGUE.
ELEAGUE has been around for 18 months now, and has quickly earned a reputation for top tier events with tournaments across a variety of different games.
Adidas’s opposition isn’t to esports in general, indeed they are the shirt sponsors for Danish organisation North, but to ELEAGUE’s E logo, which you can see above. It consists of three lines, which Adidas suggest is too similar to their own iconic three lines logo which has been in use for 50 years.
ELEAGUE’s original trademark application was filed back in 2016, although Adidas only noted their opposition on October 10 this year. They’re opposing the trademark on two counts: confusion and dilution.
This sort of legal jockeying isn’t new to esports, earlier this year the Overwatch League nearly ran afoul of Major League Baseball, but they declined to file an opposition after asking for — and receiving — more time to consider the similarities between the trademarked logos.