Tiger Woods accused of 'unlawfully hijacking' brand's logo

Tiger Woods' brand logo 'Sun Day Red' is at the heart of a trademark battle, after Tigeraire (a company that manufactures cooling products) said Woods and Sun Day Red (SDR) has "unlawfully hijacked" its own logo. Both designs feature a tiger leaping to the right, and both have stripes (as you'd expect from a tiger). But there are other similarities – too many, it seems, for Tigeraire to ignore.

Woods' brand launched in May along with the contested logo. The tiger has 15 stripes, one for each major he has won, and when he created it he said he "intended to ruin" the design by adding more stripes for each major he wins. Well, now he might not get the chance, depending on the trademark ruling. See the two designs below to compare and find out more about the case (and see some truly unique sports logos here).

From the designs above, some might say the two logos are pretty similar at first glance. Sun Day Red's monochrome colour palette, the hand-drawn feel and positioning of the capitalised wordmark is objectively reminiscent of Tigeraire's logo. However, in my opinion, the two tigers are quite different in style and the line weights don't match up, so it isn't totally clear cut.

"The actions of SDR, TaylorMade and Tiger Woods blatantly ignore Tigeraire’s long-standing protected mark, brand and identity, violate federal and state intellectual property law, and disregard the consumer confusion their actions create. SDR’s application should be denied," said the trademark opposition filing.

But Sun Day Red and Taylor Made Golf (the company behind Woods' brand) seem confident of their trademark, reportedly going so far as to file its own lawsuit. This states that SDR hasn't infringed on Tigeraire and, in fact, that the cooling company is seeking to "extract a windfall" from a larger brand. Ouch.

Woods isn't the only one dealing with a logo trademark issue at the moment – read all about Megan Markle's logo issues, and the huge opportunity they present.