Once known as the Oakland Athletics are now facing a bit of a roadblock, as their once-discussed future now lies in peril. John Fisher, owner of the Sacramento Athletics, is facing quite a few challenges within the organization, as plans of becoming the Las Vegas Athletics may no longer be the case.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office denied the Athletics from using the franchise names “Las Vegas Athletics” and “Las Vegas A’s.” It now remains uncertain whether the name that once relished within the blueprints of their future will have to be abandoned, simply because “Las Vegas Athletics” has already been taken and has been viewed by some as too general and not specific enough to a baseball team.

Las Vegas Athletics can be attributed to fitness and working out and therefore could already be trademarked by gyms in the Las Vegas community. On December 29th, a decision was made stating it the name change was primarily a geographic descriptive and thus it was not allowed under the “Principal Register.”

From Gerben IP: “As a result, the USPTO found that the marks merely describe a professional sports team located in Las Vegas rather than functioning as unique indicators of source.”

The Athletics have done this before in their organization’s history, rebranding under the Athletics name from the Philadelphia Athletics to the Kansas City Athletics and then to the Oakland Athletics. This time around, however, the team cannot use its history to benefit from receiving the name they so desperately believe they deserve.

At the end of the day, this report has just come out, and it is not definite that the Athletics will have to scrap the “Athletics” name from their brand to adhere to new guidelines once they move to Vegas. The future is shaky, but nothing is definite. For all we know, the Athletics could still keep their name with only mild updates.