LAS VEGAS, NV – Though the Raiders have yet to officially made the move to Las Vegas, all signs are pointing to the team picking up their bags and heading out of Oakland to promising pastures a state over.
The latest, and from face value, most telling, comes from Thursday’s news that the team had submitted an application for the trademark of ‘Las Vegas Raiders’. The Raiders filed on August 20, 2016 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for the mark.
Though it seems liely at this point, the submitted trademark application does not a guarantee that the Raiders will be moving to the new location. The San Diego Chargers, who also are actively looking for a new home have themselves applied for the mark “LA Chargers,” and are of course still in San Diego.
According to Forbes, the trademark itself provides the team with protection from alien use in various categories including education and entertainment services, clothing, mobile applications, football helmets, trading cards, jewelry and play figures.
Though the city picked up an NHL franchise earlier this year, the NFL will still have to approve Las Vegas as a location for one of it’s teams, a city in which they’ve show obvious intentions of staying away from due to gambling, stigma, and other factors. The team’s ownership also faces a long battle ahead including stadium deals taxes, but the trademark shows the Mark David and the Raiders are ready to fight it.
The team also released renders of the proposed Vegas stadium:
Here's a rendering of a proposed Las Vegas Raiders stadium pic.twitter.com/D24qGT9gCc
— Darren Heitner (@DarrenHeitner) August 25, 2016
A look at the proposed stadium for the Las Vegas Raiders (1/2) pic.twitter.com/fYoEjctAF4
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) August 25, 2016
