Klutch Sports was founded by Cleveland area native Rich Paul and has had a meteoric rise to prominence in the sports world. The sports agency’s most prominent client is Los Angeles Lakers superstar and the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, LeBron James.
However, Klutch Sports is in no way affiliated with the cannabis store Klutch Cannabis. Klutch Cannabis was founded eight years after the sports agency and has five stores across Ohio.
On Monday, a federal lawsuit was filed alleging that the cannabis company is using its branding to “confuse customers” into thinking the sports agency is involved, [per MJBizDaily.com.](https://mjbizdaily.com/news/ohio-cannabis-company-sued-for-using-branding-owned-by-lebron-james-agency/615054/)
The suit claims federal trademark and copyright infringement and counterfeiting and seeks unspecified damages at a jury trial.
“Multiple individuals have contacted Klutch Sports employees and executives under the mistaken belief that Klutch Sports owns or operates Klutch Cannabis,” the suit alleges.
The suit also claims that Klutch Cannabis employees are encouraging an affiliation between the agency and the store: “(A)t least one of Klutch Cannabis’s agents or employees informed at least one person that there was a connection between Klutch Cannabis and Klutch Sports.”
Patent attorney Josh Gerben, who is not involved in the case, believes there is a strong chance that Klutch Sports prevails in the suit.
“You’ve got the same name, not just phonetically similar, but spelled the same way with a ‘K’,” [he wrote.](https://www.gerbenlaw.com/blog/klutch-sports-files-trademark-lawsuit-against-klutch-cannabis/)
“You’ve got similar logos and visual branding. You’ve got geographic overlap in Ohio. And you’ve got a market reality where athletes and cannabis brands increasingly intersect.
“If the company had used a ‘C’ instead of a ‘K’ and a different logo, this might be a closer case,” he added. “Instead, the combination of identical spelling, similar logos and overlapping markets makes this case look more like a knockout on the first punch.”
Klutch Cannabis’s vice president for compliance and communication, Pete Nitsch, told Signal Akron that his company has not yet been served with the suit.