The German parent company behind Jägermeister has filed a formal notice of opposition to the Milwaukee Bucks’ primary logo, citing, among other things, the likelihood of confusion between the two brands and the “false suggestion of a connection with persons, living or dead, institutions, beliefs, or national symbols, or brings them into contempt, or disrepute.”

The similarities are there for the taking — in fact, I noted the resemblance when the Bucks launched their new visuals back in April 2015.

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Does this action mean that the Bucks will have to go back to the drawing board for a new logo? Probably not, but Team Jägermeister has sent a stern message here that could well result in some kind of financial settlement. The Jägermeister folks track the first American usage of their logo to 1968, the same year that the NBA awarded an expansion franchise to Milwaukee.

The company, Mast-Jägermeister, says the Bucks launched their new logo “in bad faith with an intent to cause confusion and deception, to create a false suggestion of connection or association with (Jägermeister), and to trade on the fame, popularity and goodwill associated with” the liquor’s famed deer-head identity.

Once we slog trough all the legalese, we are faced with several key questions.

Both logos feature the head of a 12-point buck. There are plenty of logos that feature a deer, right? And a professional basketball franchise couldn't possibly be mistaken for a brand of bitter herbal liquor, correct?

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Maybe, and maybe not. Trademark law is a deeply arcane field, but in this case the Jägermeister logo was trademarked first, with a huge variety of goods and services in mind, including “entertainment, sporting and cultural activities.”

I have been creating visual identities for professional sports franchises for a quarter century. There are literally millions of logos out there, but sports logos are among the most visible. The potential for litigation is always in play. While both form and function drive the creative process, top-notch designers are generally well aware of the need for a discrete approach when it comes to passing trademark sniff tests and knowing what the potential risks are.

That said, we can be absolutely certain that the design team behind this logo did its due diligence and took all of that into consideration. Additionally, the whole thing doubtlessly passed through the hands of multiple trademark attorneys on the NBA side (getting these things blessed by the legal folks is always the final step before it gets released into the larger world.)

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To me, the visual similarities here are all about the fact that in both cases, the forward-facing buck is enclosed in a circle. The proportions of these two elements could be construed as being somewhat similar. Strip out all color, pull this deer head out of the circle, and different things start to happen:

https://images.daznservices.com/di/library/sporting_news/28/13/bucks-logo-2_nf3a883dropy1l403c32pnplv.jpg?t=-278755920&w=500&quality=80

While I’m not saying that these represent viable commercial approaches, I am suggesting that a few small moves can go a long way toward eliminating visual similarities.

The NBA and the Bucks will no doubt respond with a statement of their own. In the meantime, we can look to the NHL's newest franchise, the Las Vegas Golden Knights, and see how their own trademark dispute plays out.