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UT/Aggie Lawsuit...over.
July 17, 2007I wrote about this back a long time ago...
Texas lawsuit over the Saw'em off logo
The lawsuit was settled...here's the story
Daily Texan/Zachary PosnerIt 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.
"It was worth it," Fadi Kalaouze said. "We have been selling these shirts for over 10 years, and now we know Aggies can wear this logo and no one can stop them."
UT and the owners of three Aggieland Outfitters stores in College Station settled their suit last week, which was filed against Kalaouze in December - 10 days after the Texas A&M football team upset the Longhorns 12-7 the day after Thanksgiving. The recent agreement requires that the couple stop printing and selling the old shirts within three months.
"We have already ordered the new shirts and are selling them," Kalaouze said. "No one is really buying them, though, because the [old shirts] are a collectors item."
Under the terms of the agreement, the University will not try to stop the Kalaouze couple from copyrighting their new logo, and their logo cannot use UT's orange and white color configuration.
"The color terms were essentially that they would not make it look like a UT shirt," said Allan Van Fleet, the Kalaouze's lawyer. "It's not like they would be able to sell those in College Station anyway."
Louis Pirkey, an attorney for UT, said the University simply wanted the defendants to use a logo different than theirs, and now "people will know that it is not UT's."
"The main objective of the case was not money," he said. "It was to get [the defendants] to change the mark. If the case had gone to trial it would have been extremely expensive. At this stage the money was not an issue."
Pirkey also said that the University has handled around 50 similar cases, but that only a half dozen or so have ever gone to court.
"I am glad we are not going to court," Kalaouze said. "I am just relieved that this is all over with."
And here's what the logo was changed from/to.
Media Credit: Graphic courtesy of Aggieland Outfitters
Posted by Jason Palmer at 1:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Comments
hmm...where can i obtain this shirt? hahaha
