Dustin Johnson in hot water as LIV Golf team embroiled in legal row

Dustin Johnson’s LIV Golf team the 4Aces have found themselves in legal hot water with the University of Alabama over the design of their franchise logo.

Johnson is in charge of one of the 13 LIV teams who compete on the setup, taking charge of the 4Aces whilst playing alongside Patrick Reed, Pat Perez, and Harold Varner III. All four are back in action on the breakaway circuit this week, with LIV heading to Europe for LIV Andalucia in the build-up to next week’s Open Championship.

Away from the action around the iconic Valderrama golf course, Johnson’s focus will be on his franchise’s legal dealings, after the University of Alabama lodged a trademark application complaint.

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Per sports law attorney John Nucci, the University has filed that the branding of the letter ‘A’ within the 4Aces logo has the ‘same literal element’ as that of Alabama’s trademark. Taking to X (formerly Twitter), Nucci wrote: “The University of Alabama has filed an opposition to LIV’s ‘4 Aces’ trademark application.

“Arguing that: The 4 Aces design contains the ‘same literal element’ as Alabama’s, and the style of the letter ‘is visually similar to and creates a commercial impression similar to’ the Alabama design. LIV has faced other trademark challenges from Adidas and Fallen Footwear.”

Mirror Sports has approached both the 4Aces and the University of Alabama for comment on the matter. As alluded to by the attorney, this is not the first time LIV Golf has faced a trademark challenge, with Phil Mickelson’s HyFlyers team posed with a similar problem last year.

Cool Brands Supply – an Argentine company that owns the intellectual property rights to Fallen Footwear – launched the complaint. Attorneys representing Fallen Footwear at the time wrote: ‘The similarities between the two marks, particularly when used on clothing, are striking, and are confusing consumers and causing damage to Plaintiff’s senior mark and brand.

“Plaintiff previously demanded that Defendants cease use of their infringing logo, and they refused.” In the end Mickelson and Co were forced to rebrand their HyFlyers logo, which originally had two letter f’s positioned back-to-back. It has since been changed following the dispute, with the branding now more focused on the letter H.