Puma pounces on Tiger Woods' logo design in new lawsuit

Weeks after splitting from Nike last January, Tiger Woods revealed a new brand named Sun Day Red. Promising to "bring a new and elevated standard to performance wear and luxury lifestyle fashion," Woods' brand includes a clever logo featuring a tiger with fifteen stripes, each representing one of Woods' fifteen major titles. But in the year since its unveiling, the logo has caused some legal headaches for Woods' brand.

Back in September, cooling product manufacturer Tigeraire claimed that Sun Day Red "unlawfully hijacked" its logo. And now an even bigger contender has emerged, with sportswear brand Puma launching a lawsuit of its own. One of the defining features of the best logos ever is their uniqueness – but is Puma reaching a little with its claims?

Puma has claimed that the leaping Sun Day Red tiger is too similar to its own leaping puma. “Due to the confusing similarity of the marks and the identical, legally identical, or closely related nature of the goods and services of the parties, consumer confusion is likely between the Challenged Marks and the Leaping Cat logo,” says PUMA in the court filing. According to Hypebeast, if a settlement isn't reached, the case could go to trial next year.

It's tricky decide whether Puma has a stronger or weaker case than Tigeraire. On one hand, the logos themselves are arguably less similar. As well as being a different animal, Sun Day Red's logo is facing in the opposite direction. But while Tigeraire repsents an entirely different product category, there's no denying the similarity between Puma and Sun Day Red's sportswear output.

Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney at Gerben IP, told NBC the challenge from Puma is "significant." "This is a real fight," he said. "Tiger certainly has a target on his back. He's big enough to move markets."

This is by no means the first time we've seen a logo associated with a celebrity become the subject of a trademark infringement case. From Kanye vs Walmart to Drake vs Bellroy, plenty of bitter logo battles have taken place in recent years. Take a look at our roundup of the most ridiculous logo disputes of all time.