A small Baton Rouge business is taking on a company co-founded by Tiger Woods in a trademark dispute.

Sun Day Red is suing Tigeraire, which makes products and apparel designed to keep people cool in hot conditions, saying that its claims of trademark infringement are meritless.

Both companies use right-facing leaping tigers as their logos – Tigeraire’s is reflective of its ties to LSU and Sun Day Red’s is reflective of the nickname of its co-founder.

Tigeraire launched in 2020, and Sun Day Red launched in February of this year.

Tigeraire’s social media pages confirm the fact that it has been using its logo since its inception.

“We started using out logo in August of 2020,” notes Tigeraire founder and CEO Jack Karavich, “and it’s been a federally registered trademark for several years now.”

Karavich says Sun Day Red, which also has the backing of golf giant TaylorMade, is trying to bully him by filing its lawsuit in California to make him go there.

“They really don’t have any grounds to sue us, per se, because we’re the ones that are being infringed upon,” says Karavich. “So really what they’re really attempting to do is to drag us to California for a judgment.”

Karavich says given the similarities between the two logos, people are now confusing his company for Tiger’s, as evidenced when some of his company’s representatives were at The Masters tournament this year wearing Tigeraire-branded apparel.

“We had PGA Tour executives, we had analysts and media folks that were coming up to us from ESPN and others, and everyone thought that our group that was there was from Sun Day Red,” says Karavich.

As a result, Karavich people are thinking that it’s his company that’s infringing on Sun Day Red, instead of the other way around.

Karavich says, “The unfortunate reality is, people start to then question, ‘Well, you guys obviously ripped off Sun Day Red. You’re trying top make your company’s logo look like Sun Day Red’s.’”

Karavich says that was the last straw, and he has filed a lawsuit against Sun Day Red in a Baton Rouge court, asking that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office deny that company’s trademark applications.

Louisiana Radio Network reached out to Sun Day Red for a response, but a company representative said the company has no comment.