Thread by @JoshGerben

Well, this is awkward.

The company that owns Shaq's trademarks (Authentic Brands Group) has opposed his son's trademark filing for "SHAQIR O'NEAL."

How on earth did this happen?

#Shaq
#Trademarks

A thread 🧵
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The Notice of Opposition starts by claiming that Authentic Brands Group ("ABG") holds all the rights in Shaq's name, image and likeness.

This is true.

Shaq did transfer all of these assets to ABG and is a shareholder in the company.

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Authentic Brands Group goes on to claim that the trademark for SHAQIR O'NEAL is "confusingly similar" to trademarks it owns for Shaq.

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The Notice of Opposition concludes by claiming that the "purchasing public" will "erroneously assume" that goods and services offered under the "SHAQIR O'NEAL" trademark are connected to Authentic Brands Group.

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A pause in the thread to congratulate the lawyers for working in the word "erroneously" to this pleading.

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So how is this case likely to play out?

It should settle without any trial.

In fact, I am shocked it got this far. There is almost no excuse for two companies that Shaq is involved with to end up in a court case against each other.

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Nevertheless, the filing of this Notice of Opposition indicates that some friction likely exists between Authentic Brands Group and Shaqir's team.

Shaqir now has 40 days to file his Answer.

🍿

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Here is a link to the full Notice of Opposition, just filed on July 15th:

ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?pno=…

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