The newly renamed Cleveland Guardians aren’t the only Guardians in town.
When the Cleveland Indians announced their name change last week, the move was met with a mixed reaction among baseball fans. It also raised a red flag with a local roller derby team named the… Cleveland Guardians.
That could spell trouble for the baseball club, as their neighbors on skates are the owners of the clevelandguardians.com domain, as well as social media monikers it might be interested in — @ClevelandGuardians on Instagram and Facebook.
Using @Guardians is not an option either, as the handle is owned by Disney and its “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise.
While the roller derby team appears to have abandoned its trademark, the Bryant Street Sports LLC of New York filed for trademarks protections for “Cleveland Guardians” in 2020. The Indians objected to the application this month, and the filing was withdrawn on July 21 — which may signify the sides worked something out, or that the baseball team filed its own application.
That would just leave the URL — with an unknown ownership calendar with the roller derby team having first right of renewal — and social media handles to be worked out.
The Indians don’t plan to make the Guardians switch until after the 2021 season, so there’s some time to work things out, though with the team five games out of an AL wild-card spot with 65 games left in the regular season, there may not a whole lot of it left.
