Dive Brief:

• Sports apparel retailer Under Armour is, like most retail companies, protective of its brand, to the point, these days, of going after any company it can find (it seems) with the word “armor” in it.

• The Washington Post details a series of litigious battles between the retail giant and much smaller companies that create a “David and Goliath” feeling of an uneven fight.

• The United States Patent and Trademark Office, though, does take “trademark bullying” seriously — that is, when a huge company with deep pockets threatens a smaller enterprise with litigation, and the smaller company abandons its trademark out of fear of the cost, regardless of the merits.

Dive Insight:

The kind of aggressive brand-protection that Under Armour undertakes is pretty much par for the course for major brands. One difference these days, though, is social media. And that can actually work against the “Goliath” in these "David and Goliath" cases.

That is, while giant companies have long gone after even dubious cases of trademark infringement, essentially bribing or threatening small companies to take theirs down, the smaller companies can make a case in the public sphere, including via social media, that wins them sympathy.

Such cases are helped when companies go after small brands whose names don’t seem to have much to do with that of the corporation’s — as when a small Vermont-based “Eat Your Kale” T-shirt and bumper sticker maker was sent “cease and desist” letters by Chick-fil-A, which tried to say that its “Eat Mor Chikin” tagline was hurt. “Eat Your Kale” essentially ignored the threat and eventually trademarked its own brand. The ordeal won Chick-fil-A plenty of ridicule, and “Eat Your Kale” made hay with another T-shirt reading “Kale Isn’t Chicken.” 

Now Under Armour is getting similar attention for some of its brand-protecting lawsuits, including one against a small T-shirt company, Armor & Glory, that uses inspirational quotes from the Bible, including “Put on God’s armor and receive His glory.”

“It’s trademark bullying at its finest. I’m the little kid in the group and they’re trying to kick dirt on my new shoes,” Terrance Jackson told the Washington Post. Jackson is the high school football star who started the company, inspired by a phrase in Ephesians, “the full armor of God."

“When God gave this [name] to me," Jackson says, "I never thought once about those guys. We don’t even spell it like them.”

The issue is getting a lot of attention on Twitter at the moment. And the glory isn't going to Under Armour.