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

from the ready-fire-aim dept

Wed, Dec 12th 2018 8:08pm — Timothy Geigner

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.

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

17 Comments

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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 12 Dec 2018 @ 8:22pm

Something something federal level law that lets a target get a judge to rule early on if this is a stupid case & ends it awarding them damages.
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- JoeCool (profile), 13 Dec 2018 @ 5:16am
  
  Re:
  Yeah, trademark needs something like an anti-SLAP law desperately. Any form of IP litigation needs a quick review type of law to help minimize the egregious misuse of the courts to shut out competition.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2018 @ 6:45am
    
    Re: Re:
    How about anti-SLAPP for everything? We see obviously stupid and meritless lawsuits, including some filed by public prosecutors, in all kinds of areas. This one actually seems related to speech, so maybe existing anti-SLAPP law could be used.
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  - Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2018 @ 6:15am
    
    Re: Re:
    How about "looser pays". In the U.K., the looser of a case pays the legal expenses of the winner.
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Anonmylous, 12 Dec 2018 @ 8:45pm

Cheap battle
First thing to do is file a dismissal for failing to state a claim, and for standing. then let the idiots in UA Legal argue with the judge for a while until they get tired of wasting money on repeated appeals. You don't need a ton of money to fight one this damned stupid. You do need a war chest if you want to countersue, but why bother when UA is doing far more to damage their brand (and pockets) with moves like this?
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Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 12 Dec 2018 @ 8:58pm

Just Wait Till ...
... the deodorant companies get to hear about this ...
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- Anonymous Coward, 12 Dec 2018 @ 9:39pm
  
  Re: Just Wait Till ...
  Highway Deodorant - "Freshen your underarm our way"
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  - Lawrence D’Oliveiro, 12 Dec 2018 @ 10:26pm
    
    Re: Just Wait Till ...
    Good one. ;)
    
    Also, this.
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Great Advertising, 13 Dec 2018 @ 4:53am

Now I know Cascade Armory
How crazy. I checked out Cascade Armory. Their product line is not in competition with Under Armour. But now I know what Cascade Armory sells. Great advertising for them. I would probably never have heard about this company.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2018 @ 8:07am

Should call their new company Monster Armory
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2018 @ 9:50am

"the company makes demands far outside its legal rights"

Does this not describe almost all of US law.
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Anonymous Coward, 13 Dec 2018 @ 10:28am

If I want to buy armor to wear under my clothing, who should I buy from? Are there companies pushing anti-trust monopoly driven brand protection ?
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That One Guy (profile), 13 Dec 2018 @ 11:13pm

Thanks for that
I for one have to commend under armor for fighting to keep potential customers from being confused. Specifically to keep them from thinking that it might be a good idea to give money to a company staffed by legal thugs, something that might have been unclear without their repeated acts of legal thuggery.
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Anonymous Coward, 17 Dec 2018 @ 6:23am

I don't own any Under Armour products but I just saw a couple things I'll probably order from Cascade Armory. I'll see is my wife wants anything before I order. Under Armour, Thanks for pointing them out.
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J Castille, 20 May 2019 @ 7:51am

Under Armour vs Cascade Armory over trademark infringement
I recently received an e-mail from Change.org asking me to sign a petition in an attempt to stop Under Armour from "bullying" small businesses. Everything I read was written by Cascade Armour and/or their supporters which lead me into believing the huge powerful company was in fact "bullying" and taking advantage of the small honest hard working new company. I almost always defend the "underdog" and was literally signing the petition when I saw something that stopped me cold in my tracks and caused me to delete my partial signature that I was signing. I read, "Because they simply can't stop themselves from being awful, Under Armour—the Trump-supporting sports apparel company that dresses out-of-shape dads like idiots—is being awful again... this time to a small Oregon company." I then realized that this wasn't about copyright infringements at all. It was just another desperate attempt by liberals in their losing war against our greatest President of all time. I am a proud American citizen and a far right wing conservative who supports President Trump 100% who will not be tricked into anything such as this. After reading this one sentence, I bet I could find much more evidence supporting what I now believe this is actually about but I won't waste another minute on this scam. I may just unsubscribe to "Change.org" all together. Now, I won't even consider entering into any business deal with Cascade Armory without first performing additional research.
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- Josh, 24 May 2019 @ 6:18am
  
  Re: Under Armour vs Cascade Armory over trademark infringement
  So let me get this straight. Some newspaper makes a crack against Trump, and suddenly Under Armour's behavior is acceptable? Seriously? That quote of yours is not in the petition, I had to go searching google for it.
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Gin, 22 Aug 2019 @ 8:47pm

New slogan for UA ...MasterAmouraters ...”No mater how big you may think you are, your still playing alone” ...what bullies!
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