Screengrab via Leafs by Snoop
Toronto Maple Leafs ownership hopes Snoop Dogg's latest business venture goes up in smoke.Snoop Dogg's new line of weed products, coined Leafs by Snoop, is causing a sticky-icky situation between the rapper and the parent company of the Maple Leafs.Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment—owners of the Leafs, Raptors and TFC—is locked in a legal battle with Snoop over his bid to trademark Leafs by Snoop, according to TSN's Rick Westhead. MLSE is unhappy that Snoop's product shares a similar name and logo as its hockey team.MLSE filed an opposition to Snoop's logo on June 8, asking the trademark office for more time to detail its case, which likely includes the concern that Snoop's logo will tarnish the Maple Leafs' brand, professor Christopher Springman of NYU's School of Law told Westhead.Sprigman also said that MLSE could attempt to argue that its logo meets the requirement for fame under US trademark protections.
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The Leafs by Snoop brand—which Snoop (whose real name is Calvin Broadus Jr.) filed a trademark application for with the US Trademark and Patent Office in November—has been selling in Colorado pot shops and includes eight strains of marijuana flower sold as buds, concentrates, and edibles. "Leafs By Snoop is truly the first mainstream cannabis brand in the world and… is blazing a trail for the industry," Snoop told The Cannabis last year."Since I've been at the forefront of this movement for over 20 years now, I'm a master of marijuana. So naturally, my people can trust that I picked out the finest, freshest products in the game. Let's medicate, elevate and put it in the air."It's too bad MLSE is being such a stickler about this, especially considering how dedicated a Leafs fan Snoop is. Even back in '94, Snoop was rocking a Leafs jersey on The Arsenio Hall Show.Maybe Snoop should send the lawyers over at MLSE some of his product to help them relax and make some new buds out of the situation.The Maple Leafs would have to successfully argue that the general U.S. consuming public, elderly adults, young adults and children across the country, are familiar with and identify with the Leafs logo. I don't think that's true. Maybe in hockey markets, but I really don't see the Leafs being a familiar brand in Iowa or Arkansas or other non-hockey cities.