Knicks Order State Senate Candidate to Drop Campaign Logo That Mirrors Team Emblem
knicks-cease-and-desist-campaign-logo
The New York Knicks have demanded that New York State Senate candidate Aber Kawas stop using a campaign logo that closely resembles the NBA team’s insignia.
According to a cease-and-desist letter obtained by the New York Post, Madison Square Garden Sports accuses Kawas of adopting the Knicks’ signature orange-and-blue palette, basketball graphic and lettering style, substituting only the team name with her own.
Attorney Brian N. Warner, representing the Knicks, wrote that neither the organization nor the NBA authorized the design and warned that it could lead voters to believe the team supports Kawas’s campaign.
“The campaign’s activities constitute, among other things, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, false advertising, false association, and unfair competition,” Warner stated in the letter.
This is not the first time the franchise has objected to political use of its branding. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani previously received a similar notice after featuring a modified Knicks logo in an advertisement that was later withdrawn.
Kawas recently won the Democratic primary for a Queens Senate seat, but the dispute indicates she has yet to win favor at Madison Square Garden.
Source: Hoops Wire
