Nike or Kawhi Leonard?

4.23.20

Kawhi Leonard’s drawing vs. Jordan Brand execution

Never share your business ideas. Protect your name. Trademark you logo, the saying you’re known for, your brand. This is what we are always taught, but sometimes this gets tricky when doing business with a superior team. Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers just lost his legal battle to Nike, in attempts to trademark his own ‘Klaw’ logo.

Kawhi was a Nike athlete from 2011-2018, where he had played a large role in the design of his “Klaw” logo to be used on his footwear. Both sides admit that Kawhi had sketched up his idea for his logo, and then Jordan Brand team perfected it.

Kawhi wanted the logo to include his initials. He sketched an outline of his hand, where he envisioned the letters coming through. Jordan Brand definitely took this idea into deep consideration, and changed a number of aspects of the design to make it what it has became.

Today, Kawhi is the face of basketball at New Balance. Of course, he would want to use the logo he helped design, for himself. Kawhi sued Nike last June, claiming that Nike wrongfully copyrighted the logo in which should belong to himself. In doing so, Nike counter-sued.

In the end, the judge sided with Nike. Based off of the illustrations, and past conversations from Kawhi that had been documented, the judge believes the Jordan Brand Klaw logo is an “independent piece of intellectual property.” Basically, he believed that the logo had significant enough differences to which the design did not belong to Kawhi. During an interview in earlier years, Kawhi said he gives all the credit to Jordan Brand for perfecting his sketch, which may have backfired on him in this situation.

Kawhi Leonard has a new shoe out with New Balance, OMN1S, including a new logo. The logo is much more simple, reading KL2. Though it is nice his name and initials are still being represented his designs, it is still a bit unsettling that the man cannot use his own logo.

I think I would need to review the rules on what a logo needs to look like for it to be considered infringement or copyright, in order to have an opinion. It is clear that this sketch was used for creation direction. But of course, the actual exclusion is lightyears more impressive, and does include a number of additional elements.

I wish this could have been done without either party suing the other. However, I think the only way this happens is if Kawhi had his own logo trademarked prior to putting it in the hands of another brand. Though I feel for Kawhi in this situation, I also feel like he never should have left Nike for a New Balance basketball sneaker. Even if you’re going to be the face of their basketball program, shouldn’t his team have let him known this would be an issue going into the new deal?

Verdict: Sorry Kawhi, Nike takes it.