Now that the A’s have moved to Las Vegas, they can’t even trademark their own new name, as the US Patent Office has rejected their request, and bootleg shirt makers are licking their chops.

Ever since the Oakland A’s left Oakland to become the Sacramento/Las Vegas A’s, their exploits both on and off the field have been a litany of hilarious embarrassments: the radio broadcast hardware in the new Sacramento ballpark has repeatedly gone on the fritz, the team ranks dead last in Major League Baseball attendance, and who can forget the time they printed up A’s hats that actually said A’ss.  

Now there is a new hilarious embarrassment for the team that will eventually become the Las Vegas A’s. The New York Times reports that the US Patent Office has rejected their attempts to trademark their own new team names, “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Vegas Athletics.” Without those trademarks, the A’s have no legal ability to protect any ownership of those names, so bootleg t-shirt and ballcap makers can pretty much have a field day creating and selling their own Las Vegas Athletics merchandise.

In the words of the US Patent Office, the name is just too vague to patent, because it could mean so many things other than just a sports team.

“ATHLETICS means activities such as sports, exercises and games that require physical skill and stamina,” the US Patent Court wrote in their ruling, according to the Times. “Therefore the prior registration do not support applicant’s claim of acquired distinctiveness and the claim is not accepted.”

This is particularly interesting, because as the law firm Gerben IP writes, the A’s organization does own the trademarks and patents on their (many) previous franchise names, such as Oakland Athletics, Philadelphia Athletics, and Kansas City Athletics. And they do still own the trademark on that cursive “Athletics” logo that appears on their jerseys. But the Patent Office would not let them patent the words “Las Vegas” or “Vegas” on that logo.

“The marks in the prior registrations do not support applicant’s claim of acquired distinctiveness because they are not the same marks,” according to the Patent Office’s ruling.

We mentioned that the merchandise bootleggers are likely going to look to make a fortune selling (not illegal!) Las Vegas Athletics gear. The Oakland fan group Last Dive Bar, who’ve organized many humorous reverse boycotts and other fan protests, anticipated this and started selling Las Vegas Athletics shirts months ago. Which is clever, but we have to say, there are a few other Las Vegas A’s mocking t-shirts they sell that we find to be even funnier.

Related: Oakland A’s Mistakenly Print Up “A’ss” Hat, Quickly Remove It, Now It’s Selling for $5,000 on eBay [SFist]

Image: MINNEAPOLIS, MN - AUGUST 21: A detail view of the Las Vegas patch on the Athletics jersey against the Minnesota Twins on August 21, 2025 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Brace Hemmelgarn/Minnesota Twins/Getty Images)