Do you notice the difference in the two logos displayed above? If you do you're making lawyers for the University of Texas very happy this morning after they forced the owner of three College Station clothing stores to make a change to a t-shirt they sold to mock the Longhorns.
It cost more than $200,000 in legal fees, a $25,000 settlement and the addition of nostrils and a tuft or "blaze" of hair between the eyes of their longhorn logo for Texas A&M graduate and College Station resident Fadi Kalaouze and his wife to continue selling "Saw Em Off" T-shirts parodying UT's prominent logo.
The logo on the left was too close for comfort for UT lawyers even though you'll notice that the horns are pointed down on the Kalaouze design. It's the other way on football helmets and whatnot in Austin, of course, but attorneys need to eat too so the lawsuit commenced. It was filed 10 days after A&M knocked off Texas in their annual Thanksgiving weekend game and seems like more than a little bit of sour grapes on the part of Texas. It's hard to imagine that many people in Aggieland Outfitters would be shopping for a product that came directly from their biggest rivals.
Texas A&M is no stranger to frivilious football lawsuits themselves. They tried to get the Seattle Seahawks to stop using the phase "The 12th Man" to refer to their fans and ended up getting themselves a licensing fee from the NFL team for use of the phrase. The conclusion drawn in each case is that people in Texas should probably take a step back from football now and again.
Comments