The Toronto Maple Leafs may want Snoop Dogg to drop his logo like it's hot.
The rapper is catching heat over the logo on his Leafs by Snoop product line. His business features marijuana products such as cannabis flowers, edibles and concentrates, and it opened in Colorado, where the drug is legal.
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Snoop Dogg, whose legal name is Calvin Broadus, filed a trademark application for his company with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Nov. 17. After seeing the logo Snoop used, the NHL's Maple Leafs decided there were enough similarities with their own logo to object.
Snoop Dogg copied 'Toronto Maple Leafs Logo' for his line of Pot Products - Do you agree? https://t.co/XWEvk90GbL pic.twitter.com/CXtUP7IFpm
— Pixels Logo Design (@PixelsLogo) June 24, 2016
On June 8, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) filed an opposition to Snoop Dogg's logo in order to get more time to consider whether to formally challenge the logo. Christopher Sprigman, an intellectual properties professor at the New York University School of Law, told TSN that MLSE could argue the logos will cause confusion in the marketplace.
“The Maple Leafs might say that their brand has been tarnished by confusion over Snoop’s new logo,” Sprigman said. “That’s quaint but a tough argument. I don’t see a lot of overlap between Colorado pot smokers and Maple Leafs fans.”
The logos appear different enough, with Snoop Dogg's featuring a 7-pointed, gold leaf and Toronto's featuring a 3-pointed, blue leaf. The text is also different as Snoop Dogg's is interwoven with the leaves and Toronto's is simply placed on the leaf.
Still, MLSE may feel like it has a strong enough case to engage in trademark litigation.
