The St. Louis Blues are a professional American ice hockey team. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, they compete as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL).
Often referred to as simply the “Blues”, they were named after the popular W.C. Handy 1914 jazz song “Saint Louis Blues”. The St. Louis Blues ice hockey team was founded in 1967 as one of six NHL expansion teams. Despite being a successful franchise, they were the final active team from the 1967 expansion to win their first Stanley Cup.
The Blues have qualified for the playoffs in all but nine seasons (the most playoff appearances outside of the “Original Six” NHL teams) and have played in the Stanley Cup four times. Though the team didn’t win its first Stanley Cup until 2019 – 52 years after they were founded.
The team has played their games at the Enterprise Centre in downtown St. Louis since 1994, which seats 18,096 people. The Blues have a high average attendance rate of 98.6%. With music being such a big part of the team’s heritage, they have a tradition of playing live organ music at their games, starting with the W.C. Handy “Saint Louis Blues” song, and they also play “The Blues Have the Urge” – a song written in 2018 by local St. Louis band, “The Urge” – after every goal.
Famous St. Louis Blues trademarks
Despite being a relatively successful NHL ice hockey team with a solid following and attendance rate, the St Louis Blues don’t have many trademarks to their name. They have 14 registered trademarks in total. Registering trademarks with USPTO can help protect their IP and assets, and save them a lot of money in future legal battles. Let’s take a look at some of the most famous St. Louis Blues trademarks, registered by St. Louis Blues Hockey Club, L.P.
St. Louis Blues logo
The St. Louis Blues team logo has remained largely unchanged since its creation in 1967. The two biggest changes were made in 1978 and 1984, however, only one of these was trademarked. The emblem of the team, called “the Blue Note” has always been featured in every logo and consists of a royal blue musical note with wings coming off to the right-hand side. The blue note signifies the musical history of the franchise and the team name, but the note is also said to resemble the 64th note which could be a reference to the founding of St. Louis in 1764.
Over its time, the note has been outlined in gold, or red, or has had the words “St. Louis” written on the wing. In 1978 the blue note was encapsulated in a golden circle with “St. Louis Blues” written in the inner lining of the circle. This then changed to just the blue note with “BLUES” written above it in big bold capital letters in the same blue color outlined in red. Neither of these logos lasted very long. The latest logo has been used since 1998 and has gone back to the simple blue music note outlined in gold without any writing on it. This logo was the franchise’s first registration in 1971 and applies to:
- Money clips
- Key chains
- Hockey pucks
- Tie clasps, pendants, cufflinks, earrings, compacts unfilled and made of precious metal, and pins
- Men’s, women’s, and children’s shirts, athletic jerseys, hats, and caps
- Emblems for wearing apparel
- Clothing; namely, shirts, jerseys, sweaters, jackets, sweatshirts, T-shirts, pants, sweatpants, warm-up suits, wristbands, headbands, shorts, caps, hats, socks, nightshirts, mittens, and cloth bibs
- Entertainment services in the nature of professional ice hockey exhibitions
Related: Officially trademarking a logo
St. Louis Blues
Despite being a team since 1967 and having never changed their name, the St. Louis Blues didn’t register their team name for a trademark until 1992. The trademark for the wordmark applies to:
- Clothing; namely, shirts, jerseys, sweaters, jackets, sweatshirts, T-shirts, pants, sweatpants, warm-up suits, wristbands, headbands, shorts, caps, hats, socks, nightshirts, mittens, and cloth bibs
- Entertainment services, namely providing professional ice hockey exhibitions
St. Louis Blues alternate logo #1
Like most franchises, the Blues have had two alternate logos in their time which vary quite differently from each other. The first was only used from 1996 to 1998 and featured a golden circle surrounded by a royal blue circle with a red outline on the inside and outside. “ST. LOUIS BLUES” is written in white within the blue circle. In the center, there’s a stylized blue trumpet outlined in yellow. Though this logo was not trademarked at the time, it has been trademarked as recently as 2020 – following the current trend of using retro logos on fan merchandise. This trademark applies to:
- Clothing, namely, bandanas, beach cover-ups, belts, body suits, boxer shorts, baseball caps, cloth bibs, coats, dresses, footwear, ear muffs, gloves, hats, headbands, hosiery, housecoats, jackets, jerseys, leggings, leotards, mittens, nightshirts, pajamas, pants, raincoats, rainwear, robes, scarves, shirts, shorts, skirts, socks, suits, sun visors being headwear, suspenders, sweaters, sweatpants, sweatshirts, swimsuits, swim trunks, T-shirts, ties, toques, underwear, vests, warm-up suits, and wristbands
- Entertainment services, namely, professional ice hockey exhibitions
St. Louis Blues alternate logo #2
The second St. Louis Blues alternate logo has been used from 2009 to the present day. It features the classic blue note in a darker navy color in front of a grey archway – the St. Louis Gateway Arch. Both are encapsulated in a navy circle with a golden outline. “ST. LOUIS BLUES” is written in white within the navy circle. This logo was registered as a trademark in 2010 and applies to:
- Clothing, namely, bandannas, boxer shorts, caps, coats, footwear, ear muffs, gloves, hats, headbands, jackets, jerseys, mittens, nightshirts, pajamas, pants, raincoats, rainwear, robes, scarves, shirts, shorts, socks, suits, sun visors, sweaters, sweatpants, sweatshirts, swimsuits, swim trunks, T-shirts, ties, toques, warm-up suits, and wristbands
- Entertainment services, namely, professional ice hockey exhibitions
Heartland of Hockey
St. Louis is often referred to as the “Heartland of Hockey”, this is largely due to the position of St. Louis being smack bang in the middle of the Midwest. They are also one of the top five hockey cities in the nation, which contributes to the nickname. The St. Louis Blues Hockey Club, L.P registered this slogan for a trademark in 2017 and it applies to:
- Clothing, namely, T-shirts
- Entertainment services, namely, organization and presentation of professional ice hockey exhibitions and games rendered live and through radio, television, the Internet, and other broadcast mediums; organizing and conducting community street hockey and ice hockey youth and adult programs and competitions; entertainment services in the nature of live musical and dance performances provided during intervals at sports events
We Went Blues
“We Went Blues” is a popular slogan used by the NHL ice hockey team. It was first used by Brett Hull – former ice hockey player and general manager, and current executive vice president of the St. Louis Blues. During the 2019 Stanley Cup parade when the Blues has just ended a 52-year drought by winning the Stanley Cup, Hull said in a passionate speech,
“You can say ‘Let’s Go Blues’ all you want. You know what? We went blues. You don’t have to go anymore. We already did it. These guys won the Stanley Cup for this city. There is nothing more they have to do. So, instead of saying ‘Let’s go blues’ we’re going to say, ‘We went blues.’”
Since then, the team regularly uses this slogan, including using the hashtag “wewentblues” on social media and even having a “We Went Blues Day”, celebrated in early June each year. The team applied for the trademark in June 2021 and it’s still pending, but if granted, will apply to:
- Beverage containers, namely, cups and mugs; housewares and glass, namely, beverage glassware, mugs, drinking steins, bottle openers, thermally insulated cups; thermally insulated wraps for cans and bottles to keep the contents cold or hot; disposable cups; plates, cups, and bottles sold empty, the aforementioned items made of paper or plastic; paper plates and paper cups
- Headwear; clothing, namely, sport shirts and T-shirts, sweatshirts, headbands, and bandanas; infant wear and toddler and children’s clothing, namely, shirts, hats, caps being headwear, and socks
- Entertainment services, namely, providing professional ice hockey exhibitions
Wrapping up
The St. Louis Blues is a relatively successful NHL ice hockey team with a solid fan base. However, despite this, they’ve only registered 14 trademarks with USPTO.
While they’ve got the basics trademarked, like their name, logos, and a couple of slogans, these trademarks aren’t covering a lot. If the franchise was ever looking to sell merchandise outside of clothing, they’d need to register a lot more trademarks to cover this.
In addition, there’s a lot that the team hasn’t trademarked, like anything relating to their 2019 Stanley Cup Victory, team nicknames, such as the “Blues”, the team mascot, Louie, or the song written for the team – “The Blues Have the Urge”. As a team that’s worth $880 million, they could save themselves legal disputes, money, and lots of headaches in the future if they trademarked more of their assets.
