Tuesday, March 6, 2007
The Athletics Department is seeking legal action to stop downtown business Joe-College.com from printing shirts that reference the University of Kansas.
Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said the Athletics Department especially took issue with the “Muck Fizzou” slogan and a shirt that said “KU Swim Team” and pictured a sperm cell swimming.
“Many of the shirts attach themselves to the University and are in poor taste,” he said.
The University cited trademark infringement as the basis for the lawsuit.
Trademarks are words, symbols or phrases intended to distinguish one company’s products from another. None of the shirts in the store use specific marks protected by the University, such as the Jayhawk, but that doesn’t guarantee that they don’t violate trademark law.
Trade dress, which refers to identifying features that a consumer may associate with a particular company and become confused, can also be protected. In this case, that may refer to the blue color of many of the shirts in the store and their slogans that reference Kansas Athletics in some way.
Joe-College.com owner Larry Sinks commented through his attorney, Bill Skepnek. Skepnek said his client’s shirts do reference the University but that consumers did not confuse them with officially licensed products.
“Trademark law is not intended to protect a fool,” he said. “It’s intended to protect a reasonable person.”
Sinks graduated from Lawrence High School in 1981 and began printing shirts soon after. He posted a disclaimer on his Web site and inside his store stating his products are unlicensed to prevent customers from being confused.
“We believe that KU is misusing the trademark law in an attempt to monopolize the right to use these ideas,” he said.
Marchiony said unlicensed vendors detracted from sales of licensed shirts. The Athletics Department takes 9 percent royalties on sales of licensed items and some of that money goes towards athletic scholarships.
“There are licensees who pay a fee for the right to use the Kansas marks and it’s not fair to them for others to be circumventing the rules,” he said.
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Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said the Athletics Department especially took issue with the “Muck Fizzou” slogan and a shirt that said “KU Swim Team” and pictured a sperm cell swimming.
Skepnek said he thinks the Athletics Department is bothered most by the content of the shirts.
“I think it’s a huge first amendment issue,” he said. “With T-shirts, people want to adopt the message on the shirt when they put it on. I think it’s clear that KU doesn’t like the message and so they want to stop people from wearing these shirts, but to do that they have to stop someone from making them.”
University law professor Mike Kautsch said trademark infringement lawsuits were common and often involved professional and collegiate athletic teams. He said a lot of evidence would usually be required to prove that a color was a distinctive mark protected by trademark law.
“In a case like this, the outcome will depend on the success of the plaintiff in proving the mark is distinctive in the way it claims,” he said.
Marchiony said the Athletics Department itself did not handle the legal aspects of the trial, but rather turned the issue over to the Collegiate Licensing Company to take action when they felt a product was trying to associate itself with the University.
Skepnek said the case would go to trial in September.
Kansan staff writer Kyle Carter can be contacted at kcarter@kansan.com.
— Edited by Joe Caponio
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Comments
Joe-College.com company may be shut down
This guy isn't even original - he rips his T shirt designs off other people's web-sites - here's a few that he claim as his own -
http://www.threadless.com/product/588/For_Sale_by_Parents http://www.threadpit.com/store/product.php?productid=89 http://www.crazydogtshirts.com/servlet/Detail?no=685 http://www.emerchandise.com/product/BYICN0006-S/s.ESh9e3n6 http://www.donkeyts.com/customize.php?categoryID=2&image=170 http://catch23.com/group-detail.php?item_group_id=2939&rtn_cat_id=2770&sid=575c4e6239a60bb0&rtn_frm_cart=%2Fall-shirts-grpcat.php%3Fts%3D1144171047&ts=1174355866&offset=0 http://www.tshirthell.com/store/product.php?productid=292 http://www.urbanteez.com/Bang_Me_T_Shirt_p/c156259.htm http://www.bewild.com/ggimamefat.html http://www.deathrowtshirts.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=RIGHT%20NOW_DR http://www.bewild.com/mudiint.html http://www.simpletoremember.com/what/Boyfriend_Out_Of_Town.htm http://www.retailjunky.com/acatalog/meat_and_cheese_charcoal_read_this_t-shirt.html http://www.davidandgoliathtees.com/index.php?mode=DETAIL&parent=SRCH&pid=3454&page=1&perpage=16
Close his site down
Joe-College.com company may be shut down
He gives KU a bad name and didn't even go to the University!
His shirts are thoughtless and a total rip off of other people's ideas.
They make KU fans look stupid themselves for wearing that garbage.
Joe-College.com company may be shut down
Here's a novel idea... Don't buy them and don't hang out with people that wear them.
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