Every year since 1949, in addition to the medallion or trophy that the winner of the Masters Tournament is handed after completing 18 holes at the pink azalea-flush and signature shrub-lined Augusta National Golf Club (the one of the most famous and exclusive golf clubs in the world, located in Augusta, Georgia, United States) he is presented with an even more significant prize: a green jacket. The jacket, which comes in a very specific shade of green – Pantone 342, represents the championship winner’s status as an honorary member of one of the most exclusive golf clubs in the world.
The jacket “cannot be sold or given to third parties under any circumstances and, to ensure authenticity, each Green Jacket is marked for identification.”
Easily one of the most famous indictors of stature in the world of golf, the Masters jacket – or better yet, the colors green and gold when used on the Masters jacket – has taken on meaning outside of the sport, something like how people who are not die-hard hockey fans may know the name or the shape of the National Hockey League’s distinctive Stanley Cup. This connection that the general public makes between the Green Jacket and the Masters tournament is precisely why Augusta National, Inc. landed a win of its own last month when the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”) agreed to register the colors of the jacket as a trademark after initially refusing to do so earlier last year.
According to the application, Augusta National was not actually seeking exclusive rights in the jacket design; in fact, it did not list class 25, the trademark class that includes garments, on the application. Instead, it claimed exclusive rights in the mark in connection with the “promotion of goods and services through sponsorship of sports events,” and “organizing and conducting golf tournaments.”
Counsel for the club’s corporate entity filed a 277 page response in November 2019, in which it argued that its Green Jacket trade dress – “one of the most recognized brands in the golf industry” – has acquired distinctiveness “based on its extensive use of the mark identifying Augusta National, Inc. as the source of the Masters golf tournament for over seventy (70) years, as well as extensive third-party coverage and consumer recognition of the mark in connection with the relevant services
Augusta National, Inc. supplemented its argument with more than 200 pages of examples of articles that depict or mention the Green Jacket, and asserted that the “Green Jacket has been the answer to, or part of a question on, Jeopardy at least nine times, and is used on the cover of the PS3 and XBox golf game featuring Augusta National.” Finally, it also noted that “a simple Google internet search of the words ‘green jacket’ reveals an entire first page of articles and other references to Augusta National, Inc. and its Masters Tournament clearly demonstrating that the primary significance of the Green Jacket trade dress to consumers is Augusta National, Inc. and its famous Masters Tournament.”
Seemingly satisfied, the USPTO agreed to allow the application to move forward in the registration process, and issued a registration to Augusta National, Inc. for its specific use of the colors in connection with the jacket in March 2020.
Source: https://www.thefashionlaw.com/