Finally my little college of St. Rose is on the map again. We will no longer be known as just the college that Jimmy Fallon attended, but the place Las Vegas hockey fans are pissed about.
Las Vegas was given the honor of hosting an NHL team, making it the NHL’s 31st franchise. They held a massive opening gala on November 22nd with fans and season ticket holders to announce the team’s name and mascot. Shortly after the launch, they hit a speed bump.
The College of St. Rose shares the same name and mascot.
To many it seems like an easy fix. Just have the NHL team that was literally just conceived change its name to any other mascot, but unfortunately the team had already spent millions on creating merchandise.
NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said in a statement Thursday:
“We consider this a routine matter and it is not our intention to reconsider the name or logo of this franchise,” … We fully intend to proceed as originally planned, relying on our common law trademark rights as well as our state trademark registrations while we work through the process of addressing the question raised in the federal applications.”
They probably should have thought about getting the trademark approved before unveiling the name on November 22nd in front of hundreds of fans and season ticket holders.
But as I like to say in my senioritis filled year at college “better to hand in something late than never at all”. So the Sin City based team applied for a trademark.
On Wednesday, the team’s application to trademark the name was turned down by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which cited the similarities between Vegas and The College of Saint Rose Golden Knights as grounds for denial.
This brought the NHL’s newest franchise to a starting record of 0-1.
Although the similarities can be found, it doesn’t seem that crazy to have two existing teams with the same logo or mascot. I mean look at the Chicago Bears and the Cincinnati Reds.
The Las Vegas franchise seems to agree that many teams share similarities when it comes to logos and mascots and responded with this statement on Sports Illustrated 
It seems that the two parties can agree on some sort of compromise. Hopefully working out a deal to help with the college’s growing debt which is currently up to $9 million.