Under Armour Can't Help But Issue A Cease And Desist For Tiny Clothier Cascade Armory

Trademark

from the ready-fire-aim dept

Athletic clothing maker Under Armour has graced our fair pages a few times in the past, always for being on exactly the wrong side of the trademark equation. Between trying to torpedo tiny Christian companies like Armor & Glory, and ensuring that every member of the public is aware that its own executives don’t have a sense of humor that they are aware of by suing Ass Armor, the mega-company has been quite busy making sure the entire world knows that only it is allowed to use the word “Armour.” Notably important in all of this is that the company is exactly wrong in this claim, as trademark law nearly always comes down to whether customers will be confused by the use of words and trade dress, and it is not a platform for a single company being able to lock up a fairly common word.

This is a lesson that apparently hasn’t stuck for the folks at Under Armour, however, as the company has recently fired off a C&D letter to another tiny clothier, Cascade Armory.

According to Source Weekly, a start-up clothing store in Bend, Oregon named Cascade Armory has received a cease and desist order from the gigantic corporation claiming that the tiny store’s brand could cause confusion to the billions of dads and bro-dudes who wear Under Armour’s ass-ugly athletic gear.

As you can see from the [below] picture, the logos of both companies share almost no similarities—other than the word “armor” which UA seems to have trouble spelling.

Here are the logos in question.

The first thing that should immediately jump out at you is just how insane any claim that there is the potential for customer confusion here would be. Cascade Armory isn’t even using the word “armor”, never mind the British spelling that Under Armour uses. On top of that, all of the dress and iconography is significantly different. Add to all of this that Cascade Armory isn’t an athletic clothing maker, but a traditional one, and that should be the final nail in all of this. Under Armour can play make-believe pretending it lives in a world where it can tell everyone else on the planet that they cannot use any words that are even close to “armour” if it wants, but it simply isn’t true.

And, yet, the company makes demands far outside its legal rights.

In the cease and desist order, Under Armour demanded that Cascade Armory abandon with prejudice its application for trademark and any other applications and registrations for marks comprised of or containing the term armory, armoury, armor, armour or any misspellings or variations thereof. The company demanded Cascade Armory permanently quit using, registering or applying to register the Cascade Armory mark and any versions containing the same versions of ‘armory’ or ‘armor.’ Also, they demanded that Cascade Armory deactivate its website and social media pages that contain the same words.

These demands are flatly obscene given the flimsy nature of Under Armour’s basis for all of this. Of course, we’ve said many times that big companies play the trademark bully because it works, largely because it can scare the hell out of startups and small companies that don’t have a comparable legal war chest with which to work.

While the owners of Cascade Armory, Alex and Diana Short, have no intention of kowtowing to Under Armour’s bullying tactics, they also admit that a legal fight against the conglomerate would put their young business in peril.

Which is why companies like Under Armour get away with this nonsense. Why they feel the need to do so is an open question.

Filed Under: armory, armour, clothing, trademark, trademark bullying
Companies: cascade armory, under armour