LIV Golf’s court battle with the PGA Tour may be moot with the organizations’ pending partnership, but the new league is now facing another legal threat involving one of its team logos.
In a federal lawsuit filed late last week in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Cool Brands Supply, an Argentine lifestyle and skateboard company, accused Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers GC and LIV Golf of using a “knockoff logo” of its Fallen Footwear line.
Mickelson is the captain of the HyFlyers — which is also comprised of Brendan Steele, Cameron Tringale and 2021 U.S. Amateur champ James Piot — and reportedly has roughly a 25 percent stake in the equity of the team.
Attorneys for Cool Brands Supply wrote in the complaint that the company has used a back-to-back F’s logos since 2003. They argued LIV has used the logo on merchandise ranging from hats, shirts and sweatshirts. After losing many of his sponsors in the fallout from his incendiary comments to biographer Alan Shipnuck, Mickelson wears only the HyFlyers logo in competition, including at the 2023 Masters where he tied for second.
“The similarities between the two marks, particularly when used on clothing, are striking, and are confusing consumers and causing damage to Plaintiff’s senior mark and brand,” Cool Brands Supply’s attorneys wrote in the complaint. “Plaintiff previously demanded that Defendants cease use of their infringing logo, and they refused.”
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Mickelson is scheduled to compete in the U.S. Open in Los Angeles this week but is not currently on the pre-championship interview schedule.
The six-time major winner was initially the lead plaintiff in an antitrust lawsuit involving 11 LIV Golf members against the PGA Tour. All of the golfers eventually dropped out, but LIV Golf was added as a plaintiff later on and the subject of countersuits by the PGA Tour.
All the pending litigation between the PGA Tour and LIV was ended as a condition of the PGA Tour, DP World Tour and Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s surprise agreement to merge their commercial operations into a new entity last week.