ompany Sun Day Red’s logo keep coming as now sportswear giant Puma has launched a fresh challeng

ompany Sun Day Red’s logo keep coming as now sportswear giant Puma has launched a fresh challenge

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(Image credit: Getty Images)

By Paul Higham

published yesterday

A rocky start for Tiger Woods’ new brand Sun Day Red is getting rockier as sporting giants Puma have filed an opposition notice over the logo.

Golf’s Big Cat is now facing opposition from Puma’s Leaping Cat logo which the company has used for 56 years and says has too close a resemblance to Tiger’s new motif.

Puma cited a “confusing similarity of the marks” in a January 2nd filing that stops Woods’ attempt to trademark the tiger logo of his Sun Day Red brand, which has been brought to market in association with TaylorMade.

It’s a second legal headache for Woods and Sun Day Red, with the company also involved in litigation with cooling company Tigeraire over the similarities with its logo.

Puma’s legal filing states: “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.”

Woods launched his Sun Day Red brand last February after ending his 27-year association with Nike, but he’s having serious issues trying to get his logo trademark through.

On its part, TaylorMade told CNBC that it feels “very confident in our trademarks and logos.”

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Obviousy Woods was going to use a tiger design, with the Sun Day Red logo consisting of 15 lines he says represents his 15 Major championship victories.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Cooling product company Tigeraire originally filed an opposition notice to the US Patent and Trademark Office in late September which claimed Sun Day Red had “unlawfully hijacked” its logo.

Woods has responded by “reluctantly” opting to sue the Louisiana-based firm itself and that matter is now being played out in court.

That case is one thing, but also having a sporting giant such as Puma getting involved in legal battles will be an even bigger barrier for Woods to get over as he tries to make a successful splash into the sportswear scene.

Being such a huge name like Tiger Woods though was always going to make the company a target, and it remains to be seen how both he and TaylorMade will handle things going forward.

For now, Woods was wearing his Sun Day Red logo during the launch of the TGL hi-tech golf league he’s front alongside Rory McIlroy.

TOPICS

Tiger Woods

Paul Higham

Contributor

Paul Higham is a sports journalist with over 20 years of experience in covering most major sporting events for both Sky Sports and BBC Sport. He is currently freelance and covers the golf majors on the BBC Sport website. Highlights over the years include covering that epic Monday finish in the Ryder Cup at Celtic Manor and watching Rory McIlroy produce one of the most dominant Major wins at the 2011 US Open at Congressional. He also writes betting previews and still feels strangely proud of backing Danny Willett when he won the Masters in 2016 – Willett also praised his putting stroke during a media event before the Open at Hoylake. Favourite interviews he’s conducted have been with McIlroy, Paul McGinley, Thomas Bjorn, Rickie Fowler and the enigma that is Victor Dubuisson. A big fan of watching any golf from any tour, sadly he spends more time writing about golf than playing these days with two young children, and as a big fair weather golfer claims playing in shorts is worth at least five shots. Being from Liverpool he loves the likes of Hoylake, Birkdale and the stretch of tracks along England’s Golf Coast, but would say his favourite courses played are Kingsbarns and Portrush.

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