Tiger Woods accused of ‘unlawfully hijacking’ clothing logo in trademark dispute

Tiger Woods’s Sun Day Red range of apparel was ridiculed for its bizarre name – as well as its upmarket prices – when launched earlier this year, but now the iconic golfer finds his clothing venture accused of “unlawful hijacking”.

Tigeraire, a US company that makes air-conditioned helmets for gridiron players, has filed a legal action accusing Woods and Sun Day Red of breaking trademark rules by copying Tigeraire’s design.

The respective logos do bear a striking resemblance, but TaylorMade, Woods’s partner in the brand, has  “full confidence in the securitisation of our trademarks”.

The dispute will bring an immediate halt to Woods’s application for the logo – depicting a tiger made up of 15 lines in homage to the number of majors he has won – but Josh Gerben, a trademark attorney in America told news channel CNBC that it is “unlikely to affect future production”.

If nothing else, however, it is an inconvenience to the range which has come under criticism since it was first publicised in the wake of Woods leaving Nike after a near 30-year relationship that earned the Californian hundreds of millions.

Apart from the wacky name – which TaylorMade explained as being “born from being outside in the sun, the joy of playing golf during the day and a special red being the brand’s power colour” – the prices have raised eyebrows.

Polo shirts cost more than £100, with hoodies at around £150. A plain white T-shirt, with a tiny logo in the bottom left corner, retails at more than £60.

However, Woods and TaylorMade remain positive, with the range “selling out in hours” when officially launched on the website in May and the bumf assures us that “as Sun Day Red expands into foreign markets and women’s clothing, sales are projected to spike to $80 million-$100 million [£60 million-£75 million] by the end of 2025 – and then over $200 million per annum in 2026.”

Woods and the Sun Day Red team have 40 days to respond to the notice of opposition that Tigeraire has filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office.

There can be no doubting Woods’s selling power, but it would surely have been preferable for the 48-year-old to give the line more on-course exposure. That is hardly his fault as his battered body continues to blight his competitive comeback.

He has only played six rounds since Sun Day Red came onto the market, missing the cut at the USPGA, US Open and Open. He was expected to appear next at the Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas at the end of November, but the player now ranked 999th in the world, is a doubt for the tournament promoted by his own charity after yet another injury set-back.

Woods revealed two weeks ago that he has undergone microdecompression surgery on his lower back, to help with back spasms and pain that has been affecting him. The operation is said to have gone “smoothly” and he is now in a race to recover in time for the Hero. However, he now also has a headache – albeit of the legal variety –  to negotiate.