Phil Mickelson's LIV Golf team SUED by popular apparel company
Mickelson's LIV Golf team under fire for copying 20-year-old logo.
Phil Mickelson's HyFlyers GC team on LIV Golf has been accused of copying the 20-year-old logo of popular skateboarding and lifestyle apparel brand Fallen, according to ESPN.
The report claims an Argentine corporation has filed a federal trademark infringement lawsuit against Mickelson's HyFlyers GC, which changed their logo earlier this season.
Fallen is popular footwear brand out of California with a healthy 135,000 followers on its Instagram page.
[Photos: Fallen Footwear / Instagram]
Cool Brands Supply wrote the "defendants' adoption and use of their knockoff logo nearly twenty years after Plaintiff commenced use and in the face of Plaintiff's federal trademark registration is not just reckless and inexplicable -- it is willful infringement and unfair competition."
HyFlyers GC consists of team captain and six-time major champion Mickelson, Brendan Steele, Cameron Tringale and James Piot.
According to the ESPN report, Cool Brands Supply, which has sold footwear and apparel under its trademarked logo since 2003, argues LIV Golf has been using a very similar logo on its HyFlyers merchandise.
The "infringing mark" was first displayed after the HyFlyers GC rebranded themselves in February 2023.
New Black / Gray / Aqua @Billy_Marks Revolver available now at local shops and our webstore. #fallenfootwear pic.twitter.com/pn1MEtZBZv
— Fallen Footwear (@fallenfootwear) May 29, 2023
Get your merch pic.twitter.com/Sr2L0EeYbA
— HyFlyers GC (@HyFlyers_GC) May 27, 2023
Cool Brand Supply's attorneys wrote:
Mickelson has been wearing a cap and shirt with the HyFlyers logo on for the past few months on the LIV Golf League.
The logo was particularly in the spotlight when Mickelson finished tied second behind Jon Rahm at The Masters in April.
Related: How much the world's best PGA Tour players turned down to join LIV Golf last season
Shock news of course emerged last week how the PGA Tour and DP World Tour were now merging with the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF), which currently bankrolls the LIV Golf League.
According to multiple reports, LIV Golf will do well to complete its second season before PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan (who will head up the new merger) ultimately decides on the future of the league.
LIV Golf has seven more events on its 2023 schedule, with the next tournament taking place in Spain at the end of the month.
ESPN are said to have reached out to the HyFlyers and Mickelson for comment but have yet to receive a response.
