Golf legend Tiger Woods confirms 'reluctant' legal action
Tiger Woods' Sun Day Red and Tigeraire - a company that sells cooling products to athletes - are embroiled in a legal dispute.
Tiger Woods' Sun Day Red have accused Tigeraire of changing their website in recent months to feature golfers to manufacture an overlap in the marketplace when 'none existed'.
Tigeraire - a company that sells fans and cooling products to athletes - filed an opposition notice to the US Patent and Trademark Office in late September, accusing Sun Day Red of 'unlawfully hijacking' their logo.
Said logo bears a leaping Tiger similar to Woods' premium lifestyle apparel brand that he launched at the turn of the year with his equipment manufacturer TaylorMade.
Attorneys for Sun Day Red immediately launched a motion to dismiss Tigeraire's original objection notice.
And they also filed a lawsuit of their own in the U.S. District Court of California.
Court documents recently uncovered by CNBC show Sun Day Red took the legal action 'reluctantly'.
In the docs, Sun Day Red have accused Tigeraire of changing their website's homepage to feature golfers as well as 'frantically' adding apparel products to its offerings in an attempt to manufacture an overlap 'where none existed in the actual market place'.
The docs state: "This case, unfortunately, presents the time-worn circumstance of an opportunistic, misguided business attempting to extract an unwarranted financial windfall from a larger and more successful brand, based on threats of legal action and demands for exorbitant sums."
Tigeraire's founder and chief executive, Jack Karavich, has provided a statement to GolfMonthly over the most recent development.
He argued the company is not after a payday.
"This brand and logo are personal, and we have a right to protect it," he said.
"To have a foreign, private equity firm sue us for enforcing this right and then claim we are just after a payday is insulting to every single person at our small company working to deliver quality products that improve the lives of our customers."
What is the likely outcome?
According to trademark attorney Josh Gerben, there is likely to be a settlement before going to trial.
He told CNBC: "They [Tigeraire] now likely give themselves an opportunity to negotiate with Tiger and TaylorMade to see if there's a resolution that might be had.
"By filing this opposition, the portable fan company really basically gets them a seat at the table to negotiate
"Because in order for Tiger and TaylorMade to get this trademark registered there, you're gonna have to win this case."
