The Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf Tour had its trademark application blocked by a Miami nightclub that features a similar name, LIV.

LIV Golf debuted in the summer of 2022 and has been heavily criticized for its ties to Saudi Arabia, with critics accusing the tour of “sports washing” the country’s brutal human rights record. On Tuesday, a trademark attorney, Josh Gerben, released a lengthy Twitter thread announcing that the sports league was denied a trademark due to the Miami nightclub, LIV.

The club’s owner, David Grutman, filed a lawsuit against the controversial golf tour. Gerben wrote:

LIV Golf’s attempt to register its trademarks has been blocked.

The owner of the famous Miami-based nightclub, LIV, has filed a court action to oppose LIV Golf’s trademark applications.

Gerben explained that Grutman founded LIV Miami, which has been ranked as one of the top nightclubs in the world. He posted a note made by LIV Miami that was released by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It reads:

The Contested Applications consist of a mark that is confusingly similar to and dilutive of Opposer’s LIV Trademarks and in particular, the incontestable LIV registration. The marks depicted in the Contested Applications consist of the whole of Opposer’s LIV mark. They are visually, phonetically, and aurally similar and the goods/services share similarities.

Ironically, both entities use “LIV” as their name for the same reason — the Roman Numeral 54. The nightclub’s location was built in 1954, while the golf league plays 54 holes per tournament, which is 18 fewer holes than the traditional 72 holes the PGA Tour plays.

The new golf league does have a nightclub-like atmosphere with loud music blaring during their events, the complete opposite of how the PGA Tour operates.

You can read the whole Notice of Opposition here.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]