Thumbs down: No problem telling these knights apart

It’s a long ways from here to Las Vegas, where the Golden Knights are vying to become the most successful expansion team in NHL history. But the team has a close connection with Sonoma County: the owner is wine magnate Bill Foley. That may not be enough for local hockey fans to drop their allegiance for the Sharks, but we hope they’ll join us in rooting for Foley to prevail against a ridiculous trademark challenge filed by the U.S. Army.

As columnist Kerry Benefield reported, the army’s parachute team also is known as the Golden Knights. We had no idea - and we guess that practically no one else did either. The trademark case claims that people are likely to be confused by the matching names - you know the same way they confuse the NFL’s New York Giants from baseball’s San Francisco baseball Giants or the NBA’s Houston Rockets from Johnny Rockets restaurants. Here’s one time, perhaps the only time, the U.S. Army should stand down.