Nike’s trademark application for Los Angeles Lakers’ guard Bronny James’ “B9” logo has been refused because of a “likelihood of confusion” with an already-registered mark, according to United States Patent and Trademark Office documents.
The USPTO turned down the application because examining attorney P. Scott Craven deemed the logo too similar to the “B9” logo created by Back9 Golf Apparel, a company out of Austin, Texas. Both “B9” markings were filed for clothing and apparel usages.
Nike applied for the “B9” logo, which has a lowercase “b” in gothic lettering with the number “9” in the middle, in February. James has worn logo-adorned shoes multiple times this season. Nike posted images of the shoes featuring the logo on April 12.
LeBron IX Witness PER for Bronny inspired by his recovery and journey back to the court. pic.twitter.com/NyR1VzgwKA
— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) April 12, 2026
Back9’s “B9” logo has a black background with “B9” somewhat overlapping each other in a racing font. Back9 began using the mark in 2020, filed for the trademark in 2021 and had it officially registered in 2022.
“The marks are similar in appearance, sound and commercial impression,” Craven wrote in his refusal letter to Nike. “In addition, the marks are essentially phonetic equivalents and, thus, sound similar.”
Nike declined to comment on the denial while requests to Bronny James’ agents and Back9 were not immediately returned to ESPN. Nike has three months to appeal the ruling and explain why the company believes the marks are different enough to coexist.
“Nike, do they have a 50-50 shot of that kind of argument, being that the designs are so unique that these are not going to get confused in the marketplace? These are very distinct logos, so they do have that going for them,” said trademark attorney Josh Gerben of Gerben IP. “I think it gives them an argument to make, but it is a little bit of an uphill battle here, I think.”
Gerben, though, said the logo could be “arguably in some jeopardy at this point.”
Gerben said another way to approval would be if Nike approached Back9 and asked the company to consent to Nike’s usage of the mark. If Back9 agreed, Gerben said the USPTO could then grant Nike’s registration.
“The refusal makes sense,” Gerben said. “This is not out of left field. Technically, this is a sound refusal by the government. Nike has got its work cut out for them to work around it.”
James has three other approved trademarks — “Bronny,” “Bronald” and the signature of “B J Jr.” He applied for those in 2022 under a different trademark company.
