In July 2018, Roger Federer did the seemingly unthinkable and walked away from his 24-year partnership with Nike. After his longtime contract expired, the 20-time Grand Slam winner joined Japanese-based apparel company Uniqlo, but there was one wrinkle in the transition: Federer's signature "RF" logo belonged to the Swoosh. Nike created the emblem in 2010 and thus owned the rights to the logo, but Federer persisted, and now his efforts have paid off.
Twitter fan accounts spotted official filings from the United States Patent and Trademark Office which show that the RF logo now belongs to Tenro AG, a Swiss-based company founded by Federer in 2007.
The process of attaining the logo has been lengthy, with Federer first mentioning he wanted the logo just months after signing with Uniqlo in 2018. "The RF logo is with Nike at the moment, but it will come to me at some point," he said at the time. "I hope rather sooner than later that Nike can be nice and helpful in the process to bring it over to me. It's also something that was very important for me, for the fans really."
Last August, reports surfaced that Federer was getting closer to acquiring the rights, indicating it would happen around February or March of this year. The tennis legend has now made good on his promise, although it remains unclear of how exactly the logo will be used moving forward.
