CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Indians and the roller derby team Cleveland Guardians have reached an agreement to both use the team name "Guardians," the Indians announced in a statement Tuesday morning. 

What You Need To Know

  • The agreement comes after the Cleveland Guardians roller derby team filed a lawsuit in Oct. against the Cleveland Indians to prevent the team from using the same name

  • The roller derby team claimed the Indians talked with them in June over intellectual property rights and after a counter offer was made by the Guardians, the Indians allegedly never responded

  • The Cleveland Indians will go by the new team name, the Guardians, in 2022

The agreement comes after the roller derby team filed a lawsuit in October against Major League Baseball's Cleveland Indians in federal court to block the team from going by the same moniker.

"The Cleveland Guardians Baseball Company, LLC and Guardians Roller Derby are pleased to announce an amicable resolution of the lawsuit filed by Guardians Roller Derby, whereby both organizations will continue to use the Guardians name," the statement read.

No specifics have been disclosed on the agreement, and neither side are commenting on the agreement. 

The Cleveland Indians formally announced its plans to change to the Cleveland Guardians in July, which is slated to take effect in 2022. 

The lawsuit claimed the Indians talked with the Guardians in June over intellectual property rights. The court documents state the Guardians told the Cleveland baseball franchise it would be open to selling the rights, giving the baseball team the Guardians name and the roller derby team would rebrand.

The Guardians felt the offer that was made wasn't enough, made a counteroffer and claimed they never heard back.

The Cleveland Indians filed for federal trademark protection for the name “Cleveland Guardians” on the same day the name change was announced. The roller derby team then also filed for federal trademark protection four days later on July 27.

The roller derby team claimed the change was disrupting their business, facing struggles with selling merchandise and having suppliers refusing to fulfill orders due to concerns over property rights. 

This story will be updated when more information is available. 

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