When news broke earlier this week that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office had rejected the names “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics” for the future Las Vegas baseball franchise, Major League Baseball officials were somewhat perplexed.

Attorneys for the league, which controls the trademark and licensing process for all 30 teams, are expected to respond to ensure the Athletics’ naming rights are protected. A source familiar with the Major League Baseball trademark filings said the decision wasn't a denial, but that “non-final office actions” are common in the trademark process. 

The team, which is playing its next two seasons in Sacramento before a planned move to Las Vegas in 2028, and Major League Baseball were told by the patent office that the nickname “Athletics” was too generic — for example, a chain of 24-hour fitness centers has seven locations in Southern Nevada operating under the name Las Vegas Athletic Clubs.

The decision was described as a “speedbump” or “snag” in national stories from The Associated Press, Front Office Sports and The Athletic, but Washington, D.C.-based patent attorney Josh Gerben (who uncovered the issue in a Jan. 2 blog post on his website) said he expects the Athletics will ultimately secure the trademark registrations.

“A government refusal of an application is a big deal,” Gerben said in an interview with The Nevada Independent. “Many times, it’s also a workable deal or a workable problem. I think this definitely classifies as a workable problem. An organization of this prominence will almost certainly be able to generate sufficient evidence of distinctiveness over time.”

Last year, the Athletics went without a Sacramento designation and were known as simply the A’s or Athletics. The ballclub will continue without a geographical name over the next two seasons, but it announced last year that it will wear gold alternate jerseys with “Sacramento” across the front for Saturday home games and possibly other games in 2026.

Gerben said part of the trademark issue stems from the team’s interim seasons in Sacramento. In his blog post, he called it a “classic rock-and-a-hard-place scenario” — the team cannot overcome the requirement in trademark law to have a distinctive registrable mark because it hasn’t yet begun operating as the Las Vegas Athletics, which prevents it from acquiring “marketplace evidence” such as sales figures or other forms of consumer recognition that would make obtaining the trademark easier.

“They haven’t moved to the new city, and they haven’t really started heavily marketing the team with the new city name,” he said of Las Vegas. “They are there somewhere else right now. I think that’s the uniqueness of the issue.”

The name Athletics has been associated with the team since 1901, when they began playing in Philadelphia. The nickname remained during subsequent moves to Kansas City in 1955 and Oakland in 1968. Still, Gerben said in his blog post that there is “clear legal precedent that prior trademark registrations do not guarantee approval of new trademarks.”

Gerben said the lack of a federal trademark registration could become a problem for the A’s because the team would lack enforcing rights against unlicensed merchandise sellers and other third-party users.

“For now, the Athletics remain stuck in trademark limbo,” Gerben said.

The A’s and Major League Baseball are expected to ask the patent office for an extension of as many as six months to refile the application.

An A’s representative declined to comment and referred questions to Major League Baseball. 

Trademark issues are not new for Las Vegas’ expanding professional sports market. 

In 2018, the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights settled a year-long trademark battle with the U.S. Army over the legal rights to the name, entering into a co-existence agreement. The hockey team filed trademark rights, while the Army, whose teams are called the Black Knights, was able to use the name Golden Knights for its parachute team.

When the Oakland Raiders announced plans to move to Las Vegas, squatters claimed rights to the name “Las Vegas Raiders.” The patent office suspended the application in 2017. Gerben said the blocking squatters have been removed, with the application expected to be registered this year. The issue hasn’t prohibited the team or the NFL from marketing the team as the Las Vegas Raiders.

Major League Baseball has seen several name changes in the past few decades. The Montreal Expos relocated to Washington, D.C., in 2005 and became the Washington Nationals and the Florida Marlins became the Miami Marlins in 2012.

One name change that took place in 2021 and had a small hitch was the rebranding of the now-Cleveland Guardians. The team secured the new Guardians moniker before the name change was announced. However, a local roller derby team of the same name sued, but the sides quickly reached a settlement.