A minor league baseball team in Montana is ready to clear the benches and fight what it calls “unwarranted and relentless trademark claims” from the National Park Service over one of its secondary logos.
The Glacier Range Riders — a team based in Kalispell, Montana, that plays in the Major League Baseball-affiliated independent Pioneer League — unveiled a new suite of logos in January 2022 that was meant to pay homage to nearby Glacier National Park. One of those logos, though, seems to be too close for the NPS’s comfort — specifically a downward-pointing arrowhead with the initials “RR” inside.
The Range Riders issued a press release on Tuesday, April 23, saying that the NPS has opposed the team’s use of the arrowhead logo for more than a year now, “citing concerns that it is likely to cause confusion among the general public that our organization is affiliated with NPS.”
According to the Range Riders, an initial letter of protest from the NPS was dismissed by the United States Patent and Trademark Office after it was found there would be no likelihood of confusion. But the NPS has “doubled down” with a Notice of Opposition that has initated an administrative proceeding with the USPTO.
“The only commonality between the Glacier Range Riders and NPS’s logos is the generic arrowhead shape. NPS has no exclusive legal rights to the shape and it is used by countless other organizations across the nation,” the press release says. “Despite these facts, the NPS continues to pressure us into abandoning it, imposing a significant financial and administrative burden on the Glacier Range Riders.”
“It is unfortunate that someone in the federal government is using their position of authority and resources to pursue this action that is neither for the good or the will of the people,” added team president Chris Kelly. “This is a small business that employs 14-year-olds in their first summer jobs and gives the community a family- oriented venue to create summer memories.
“The arrowhead represents the strength and resilience of this land. We will fight for our ability to use it in our branding to bring together our communities, as well as the ability for it to be freely accessible to other organizations.”
A final hearing in the dispute is tentatively scheduled for 2025, a team spokesperson told the Associated Press.
Other logos introduced by the Range Riders in 2022 include a mountain goat in a park ranger uniform swinging a baseball bat and a bear with a bat riding in one of Glacier National Park’s classic tour buses. The whole package was designed by Brandiose.
Brandiose co-founder Jason Klein said at the time of the unveiling: “We reference a lot of the 1920s and ’30s, the original uniforms of the National Park Service rangers, going back to the original park ranger that was part of the National Park System—less of the modern-day educator and scientist, and more in the sort of rugged explorers that were the foundation of the National Park Service.”
The Range Riders’ 2024 Pioneer League season starts on Tuesday, May 21, when they host the Oakland Ballers at Glacier Bank Park.
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