Cartoon stick figures looking and pointing at an outdoor marquee — representing a blog post about the Madison Square Garden Marquee configuration mark trademark registration.

Trademark: Madison Square Garden Marquee Configuration

First Used: 1968

Registered: 2007

Current Owner: MSG ENTERTAINMENT HOLDINGS, LLC [1]

Trademark Type: non-traditional trademark; trade dress; configuration mark

Primarily Associated With: arena services, namely, providing facilities for sporting events, concerts, conventions and exhibitions [2]

Brief (and likely incomplete) History [3]:

The Knicks are back in the 2026 NBA Finals, which means playoff basketball at MADISON SQUARE GARDEN® [4] for the first time in over 25 years (or you can call it by one of its many nicknames like THE GARDEN® [5], MSG® [6], THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS ARENA® [7], or MADISON SQUARE GARDEN THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS ARENA® [8] in full)! You may think of the venue as an iconic building in New York, but did you know that “Madison Square Garden” has been built, demolished, moved, and rebuilt across four different venues in three different locations? In fact, the current Madison Square Garden venue isn’t even at Madison Square.

In 1874, P.T. Barnum converted the former New York and Harlem Railroad depot at Madison Square, near East 26th Street and Madison Avenue, into an open-air arena called the Great Roman Hippodrome. The venue originally hosted circuses, sporting events, bicycle races, and boxing matches (which were called “illustrated lectures” because boxing was illegal at the time). The venue later came under the control of William Kissam Vanderbilt, who renamed it Madison Square Garden (I) in 1879.

By the late 1880s, the drafty building had fallen into disrepair, and it was torn down and rebuilt on the same site based on a design by Stanford White. Opened in 1890, Madison Square Garden (II) featured Beaux-Arts and Moorish-inspired architecture, a 32-story tower, and a gilded statue of Diana at the top, making it one of New York’s most recognizable public buildings. This new venue would never turn a profit, and was unceremoniously closed in 1925 and demolished to make way for the New York Life Building.

That same year, Madison Square Garden (III) opened over 25 blocks away at Eighth Avenue between West 49th and 50th streets. Unlike Stanford White’s ornate showpiece, this version was built more for utility with seating for more than 18,000 spectators. It became one of the city’s great gathering places, hosting boxing, hockey, basketball, political rallies, religious revivals, concerts, and other large public events. Marilyn Monroe famously sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy there in 1962, and for more than 40 years this was the Garden that helped turn the name into shorthand for big-city spectacle. The iconic building was eventually closed in 1968 and demolished soon after.

Madison Square Garden (IV) opened in 1968 above Pennsylvania Station, between 31st and 33rd Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and includes the iconic marquee welcoming visitors (the appearance of which is now protected by multiple configuration mark registrations [9] [10]). The current venue became home to the New York Knicks and New York Rangers and has hosted championship fights, major concerts, political conventions, papal visits, and countless one-night events.

Madison Square Garden Marquee configuration mark trademark registration

Madison Square Garden Full Marquee configuration mark trademark registration

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN word mark trademark registration

THE GARDEN word mark trademark registration

THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS ARENA word mark trademark registration

MADISON SQUARE GARDEN THE WORLD'S MOST FAMOUS ARENA word mark trademark registration

[1] Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp., https://www.msgentertainment.com/.

[2] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,274,256, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78587999&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[3] History of Madison Square Garden, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN, available at https://www.msg.com/madison-square-garden/history; History of New York City, A TLTC BLOG, available at https://blogs.shu.edu/nyc-history/msg-2/; The Unusual History of Madison Square Garden, EXPERIENCE FIRST, posted April 15, 2025, and available at https://www.exp1.com/blog/untold-nyc-history-madison-square-garden/.

[4] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 835,284, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=72269147&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch; USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,078,978, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78522908&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[5] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,167,339, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78235281&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[6] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,049,889, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78522952&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch; USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,097,675, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78579675&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[7] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 4,587,997, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=86149716&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[8] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 6,765,045, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=90752416&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[9] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,274,256, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78587999&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.

[10] USPTO, U.S. Trademark Registration No. 3,408,983, available at https://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78588012&caseSearchType=US_APPLICATION&caseType=DEFAULT&searchType=statusSearch.