Just how much due diligence did the PWHL perform before revealing its team names and logos on Monday?
That’s one question amid discussion about the Toronto Sceptres logo, which is similar to a symbol that megastar Taylor Swift used in a music video about a decade ago.
Both symbols include the letters T and S intertwined and predominantly yellow. Toronto’s logo also has an orb overtop.
The Sceptres "embodies Toronto's regal history" and pays homage to Queen Street and the nickname Queen City.
— Mark Colley (@MarkColley) September 9, 2024
"The ornamented Sceptre itself is a symbol of power and strength found in courts and palaces. Today, it will be wielded on the ice by Toronto’s hockey royalty." pic.twitter.com/Zd7dBONxrs
Within hours of the PWHL reveal, fans online were quick to point out the similarity. Neither the musician nor her legal team had commented publicly by Monday evening.
“We admire Taylor Swift’s dedication to female advancement and empowerment, values that the PWHL proudly shares,” PWHL said in a statement to the Star. “While we welcome the comparison to Taylor, our logo started with the Sceptre symbol at its core, with the top and bottom points of an ornamented rod. From that starting point, the Toronto Sceptres logo was born.”
Great idea to recruit all the T-Swift fans!!! pic.twitter.com/tQxUdGo3mV
— lc (@LauraCh35627405) September 9, 2024
The team called its emblem “a striking multi-element logo in which an orb sits atop an overlapping T (for Toronto) and S (for Sceptres), uniting to form the shape of a sceptre.”
“This monogram is not just a typographic choice but a symbol of power, strength and courage,” the team posted on social media.
According to sports marketing expert Vijay Setlur, the league is more likely to face a backlash from fans critical of the branding than from Team Swift.
“You can launch a legal action, but then how is it going to look to your fans?” he said of Swift, whose Eras Tour will stop at the Rogers Centre for six sold-out shows in November.
“You have to manage your reputation. This might be something that’s not even worth bothering. Plus, it’s a women’s hockey team and not a drug company or a political organization. It’s a good thing, an entity that’s respectful.”
Setlur, a marketing instructor at York University’s Schulich School of Business, added that superstars such as Swift are much more concerned about intellectual property theft, with the proliferation of artificial intelligence and other technologies used to steal their music and make money from it.
To make a legal case for trademark infringement, he said, Swift and her management would have to supply proof of deception — for example, that the pop icon’s fans bought PWHL tickets expecting that she would perform there because they saw the symbol.
In that situation, the PWHL team could counter with a “fair use defence,” Setlur added, claiming that there is nothing connecting the team’s logo to Swift’s music.
“There are a lot of factors involved in terms of how (Swift’s team) monitors the environment, how litigious they are and if this is a severe enough infraction for them to want to invest money and time to go after the league,” said Setlur.
In 2015, rapper Snoop Dogg launched a marijuana brand called Leafs by Snoop. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, reportedly considered launching a trademark challenge the following year. The rapper reportedly abandoned that label and replaced it with Death Row Cannabis.
Swift’s Eras Tour is at the Rogers Centre in November for six sold-out shows.
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