Weak sauce: Horns sue Aggies about "saw em off" logo

[47straight]

If I believed in using the smilie with the popcorn and coke, I would use it now.

http://www.sawemoff.com

Aggies selling maroon shirts with altered horn logos. Horn board of regents sue. Hilarity and amateur speculation about trademarks follow.

[starrca23]

I love the phrase: "Weak sauce!"

[CatfishSooner]

'tis week sauce indeed.

[goingoneight]

To think... some whorns wonder why nobody likes them. :pop:

[batonrougesooner]

I think I'll donate.

[Vaevictis]

shrug, as a trademark, UT can either vigorously defend the mark (sue all non-licensed users they know about) or lose it. The correct option for the saw-em-off people is to license the bloody thing.

This is also one of the reasons you'll never see me sporting an upside-down UT Longhorn logo on a hat, shirt, bumpersticker etc -- if it's legal, UT got a cut. I'm just not going to take a chance on that. ;)

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

Pfft.
/me presses the donate button

[MamaMia]

If I believed in using the smilie with the popcorn and coke, I would use it now.

http://www.sawemoff.com

Aggies selling maroon shirts with altered horn logos. Horn board of regents sue. Hilarity and amateur speculation about trademarks follow.Thats popcorn and coke? I always thought it was mini oreos and milk. :eek:

[Herr Scholz]

aggy goes to the University of I hate Texas. They should have to pay for the privelege of wearing the Longhorn. It's only right. ;)

I'm sure if OSU were selling the OU logo illegally, you'd make them pay as well.

[RedstickSooner]

shrug, as a trademark, UT can either vigorously defend the mark (sue all non-licensed users they know about) or lose it. The correct option for the saw-em-off people is to license the bloody thing.



Parody gets special protections. Open up any issue of Hustler, and within the first couple of pages you'll see parodies which, as well as being highly sexually explicit, also typically feature trademarked and/or copyrighted items being woefully "abused" in various ways.

I somehow doubt Larry Flynt publications pays any licensing fees to the trademark holders they mock.

A trademark does not give a corporate (or other entity) license to sue anyone who makes fun of them. I would think mocking a trademarked logo should fall under a type of free-speech which the Supreme Court has been fairly liberal with in the past. Parody is a long and well-respected form of criticism.

Sawing the horns off of the Horn logo strikes me as the epitome of protected parody speech. Any of our resident lawyers want to weigh in?

[47straight]

The correct option for the saw-em-off people is to license the bloody thing.



. They should have to pay for the privelege of wearing the Longhorn. It's only right.


Unfortunately UT would not let them pay for the "privilege." Part of UT's license policy is that you cannot disparage or alter the logo. I'm sure that the Aggie Outfitter guys would gladly pay the flat $500 license fee and go about their merry way. If UT didn't censor its licensees, the fair-use defense that aggies are claiming wouldn't go anywhere.


This is also one of the reasons you'll never see me sporting an upside-down UT Longhorn logo on a hat, shirt, bumpersticker etc -- if it's legal, UT got a cut. I'm just not going to take a chance on that. ;)

Usually the college licensing fees are flat, and the university makes no incremental royalties from the sale of another sticker or shirt. So feel free to buy a sticker and hang it upside down, UT didn't actually get any money from your purchase. I'm assuming that any upside-down-horn shirts or caps are not licensed.

[85sooners]

:pop:

[Herr Scholz]

Well, at least UT will make the proprietor of the 'saw em off' products spend a lot of their money on lawyers. That's just as good.

[JohnnyMack]

The only thing worse that Whorns is the Cult.

This is like watching Jeffrey Dahmer and Hitler fighting to the death and expecting me to give a **** who wins.

[Dio]

The only thing worse that Whorns is the Cult.


Why do you hate Ian Astbury?

[JohnnyMack]

Why do you hate Ian Astbury?

Fire woman, yeah

Shake, shake, shake, shake it, yeah

Wound up, cant sleep, cant do anything right, little honey
Oh, since I set my eyes on you
I tell you the truth
T-t-t-t-twistin like a flame in a slow dance, baby
Youre driving me crazy
Come on, little honey
Come on now

Fire
Smoke, she is a rising fire, yeah
Smoke on the horizon, well
Fire
Smoke, she is a rising fire
Oh, smokestack lightning
Smokestack lightning

Well, shake it up, youre to blame, got me swayin little honey
My hearts a ball of burnin flame
Oh, yes it is
Trancing like a cat on a hot tin shack
Lord, have mercy
Come on little sister
Come on and shake it

Fire
Smoke, she is a rising fire
Oh, smoke on the horizon, yeah
Fire
Smoke, she is a rising fire
Oh, smokestack lightning, baby

I was thinking what Ive been missing
Ill tell you truthfully, well
Shes coming close now
Oh, I can feel her
Shes getting close to me
And I never, yeah

Fire
Smoke, she is a rising fire
Oh, smoke on the horizon
Fire
Smoke, she is a rising, rising, rising fire
Smokestack lightning
A-j-j-j...

Burnin out
And shake it baby
Gotta have money

Stand down in front of me
Say, stand down in front of me
Say, stand down in front of me, yeah

Fire woman, youre to blame...

[bluedogok]

The "protection" of these marks sometimes get a bit ridiculous, they sued a restaurant on I-35 called Bevo. I read somewhere that Miami sued the Tulsa Union school district over the use of the "U" logo. The Texas Roadhouse chain (based in Indianapolis) has sued actual Texas roadhouses for trademark infringement against places that have been there much longer and are the actual roadhouses as opposed to a crappy steak place.

Sometimes "protecting" the trademark is just overkill.

[BIG_IKE]

I remember when Pat Riley had the term 3 peat Trademarked.
He ended up earning $300,000 dollars when the Bulls won 3 in a row. From Merchandise sales.

I think I am gonna patent the term BEVO and begin selling a new brand of toilet paper. The logo can be a pink cow or something, with BEVO on his forehead. Then I can sue those bastards in Austin and reap untold fortunes as the world ****s on BEVO..yyyyeahh..maybe I should not be drinking this morning.

[bluedogok]

Bevo already is registered by them, that is why the restaurant was sued.

OSU Sucks or Texas Sucks......maybe those could be registered.

[BoonesFarmSooner]

aggy goes to the University of I hate Texas. They should have to pay for the privelege of wearing the Longhorn. It's only right. ;)

I'm sure if OSU were selling the OU logo illegally, you'd make them pay as well.


Making t-shirts is easy.

Our aggy camps out on Thursday for a basketball game against an unranked Sooner squad.... For a GAME ON MONDAY NIGHT!

[MRNOTDUCKS]

t.u. might have a hard time explaining why they have known about these shirts for more than 10 years and are just now deciding to do something about them. Or could it be that we punked them in football and will punk them on the hardwood, too?

[Herr Scholz]

Making t-shirts is easy.

Our aggy camps out on Thursday for a basketball game against an unranked Sooner squad.... For a GAME ON MONDAY NIGHT!
Both our aggy schools live for us. They would have no identity without us.

[tru2ou]

For what its worth, the flat fee logo use does come with an approval by the University on the product it will be used on.

I doubt any University would allow someone to put their logo on toilet paper, tampons, etc... and I doubt ut would give approval for their logo to be changed in any way.

Yes, they have flat fee usage laws but they do have to be approved.

- Tru

[Herr Scholz]

t.u. might have a hard time explaining why they have known about these shirts for more than 10 years and are just now deciding to do something about them.
Not a lawyer but probably because UT doesn't go after every little student group which defaces our logo. This particular group is probably just now hitting the big time, making a lot of money and marketing and such.

In any case, I find it funny. Enjoy the legal fees, saw em off people.

[MiccoMacey]

Not a lawyer but probably because UT doesn't go after every little student group which defaces our logo. This particular group is probably just now hitting the big time, making a lot of money and marketing and such.

In any case, I find it funny. Enjoy the legal fees, saw em off people.

I always thought you were a lawyer. Like lid.

[Herr Scholz]

I always thought you were a lawyer. Like lid.
Nope, I'm just underemployed and bored. ;)

[Landthief 1972]

Nope, I'm just underemployed and bored. ;)

Things slow at the McDonald's, eh? :texan: ;) :D

[MiccoMacey]

Nope, I'm just underemployed and bored. ;)

Must be tough to be the assistant fry guy. :D

[OK2LA]

Nope, I'm just underemployed and bored. ;)

I underemployed a "massage therapist" once. Best hundy I ever spent.

[pott_2]

Don't tell Bevo about www.hornhater.com.

[OnlyOneOklahoma]

they said on sawemoff.com that they will "Gig'em together" that sounds to me like a circle-jerk

[Vic n Tulsa]

To think... ALL SOONERS wonder why nobody likes them. :pop:

fixed...

[Ground_Attack]

The UT Logo is a cow head with sawed off upside down horns? (Uterus with droopy fallopian tubes)? Can we trademark anything with an "O" and a "U" in it? 25 cents to the University anytime someone types the word "you"?

[Ground_Attack]

fixed...

I hope you are fixed :rolleyes:

Go away troll

[goingoneight]

aggy goes to the University of I hate Texas. They should have to pay for the privelege of wearing the Longhorn. It's only right. ;)

I'm sure if OSU were selling the OU logo illegally, you'd make them pay as well.

They already use OUr logo. In fact, 9 out of ten OSU sports related items suggest something "Bed-lam" on it, and we don't give a rats *** about them. The best way to deal with an aggy is to let them no nobody cares about them and ignore them.

[goingoneight]

fixed...

fixed what? OU fans and students/alumni know why people love or hate them...


and I'm not the one trolling around on a rival message board. :rolleyes:

[Vaevictis]

Parody gets special protections.
(...)
Sawing the horns off of the Horn logo strikes me as the epitome of protected parody speech. Any of our resident lawyers want to weigh in?

Parody is protected, but it's pretty common in IP law for things that were protected to become "less" protected when you start making money from it.

I expect this one will get less protection because they're making money, and even less so because they're making money exclusively by abusing the trademark. It's closer to "just a business raking in cash on someone else's mark" than "someone making a statement."


Usually the college licensing fees are flat, and the university makes no incremental royalties from the sale of another sticker or shirt. So feel free to buy a sticker and hang it upside down, UT didn't actually get any money from your purchase. I'm assuming that any upside-down-horn shirts or caps are not licensed.

My expectation is that the "flat" fee is based on how marketable the image is, and every additional image sold contributes to the measure of how marketable the image is.

If you think that the hundreds or thousands of OU/TAMU fans buying legitimate UT merchandise just to hang it upside down or with broken horns doesn't drive up the marketability (and thus price) of the mark, well, let's just say I think you're wrong. :)

[Ash]

If alterations have been made to the logo, couldn't it be argued that it is different from the uterus logo (i.e., it's no longer the logo, it's a different image altogether) and therefore not subject to their copyright, trademark or whatever rights?

Or can anyone sue anyone because something looks similar to their product?

[47straight]

Parody is protected, but it's pretty common in IP law for things that were protected to become "less" protected when you start making money from it.

I expect this one will get less protection because they're making money, and even less so because they're making money exclusively by abusing the trademark. It's closer to "just a business raking in cash on someone else's mark" than "someone making a statement."

Nearly all parody that ends up in court is the result of commercial parody, and for a lot more money than can be generated by a store in the college station/bryan metroplex. Barney, Barbie, and Elvis all failed to beat parodies that were indeed making money for someone else, sometimes just as part of advertising.


If you think that the hundreds or thousands of OU/TAMU fans buying legitimate UT merchandise just to hang it upside down or with broken horns doesn't drive up the marketability (and thus price) of the mark, well, let's just say I think you're wrong. :)

What percentage of horn merchandise is sold to OU/aTm fans? Not nearly enough to even make a blip in the demand for the marketing fees.

[finster]

Slap fight.......http://media.www.thebatt.com/media/storage/paper657/news/2007/01/25/News/Rivals.Battle.Over.saw.em.Off.Images-2677438.shtml?sourcedomain=www.thebatt.com&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

[Tear Down This Wall]

I saw this earlier in the week. Legally, UT is trying to argue that the Aggie t-shirt could confuse people, and thus, hurt the University's image.

Yes, it's completely lame...the University who kept a professor who runs around the country saying America was to blame for 9/11 is worried about its image because of a t-shirt...surely there's something else out there that would be of more concern to the UT administration. Or not.

[Napolean Dynamite]Idiots![/Napolean Dynamite]

[Jdog]

UT sued Ft Worth a few years ago over their logo. It seems that Cowtown's logo too closely resembled UT's.

[SleestakSooner]

Huddleston cited A&M's lawsuit against Seattle Seahawks for using the 12th Man as an example of a violator not complying with the letter.

"We wrote the Seattle Seahawks for two years before we had to sue them," he said.

seems to me they are getting what they deserve. UT is also wasting tons of their money pursuing these idiotic law suits, which is always nice.

[josh09]

If I believed in using the smilie with the popcorn and coke, I would use it now.

http://www.sawemoff.com

Aggies selling maroon shirts with altered horn logos. Horn board of regents sue. Hilarity and amateur speculation about trademarks follow.

Wow another reason to hate them. Its smack talk, suck it up whorns.