University Goes After Website/Blogger

[tornado]

Here's one that may have significant relevance to BradleyFans.com!!

Richard Lozano owns an online website called "missouritigers.com"
and it is just a blog that's little more than a series of articles reposted and
links to other Mizzou sites.
He also has links to message boards, even to the Rivals Mizzou board.
But, the University of Missouri is now threatening to sue the guy if he
doesn't turn the website and the domain name over to the school!
Actually, the guy once offered to essentially GIVE the site to them (he was
asking the nominal cost of $50) and at that time Mizzou declined.

Lozano's take on this.......
???The bottom line here is that this is a silly, juvenile little fan blog that has
been nothing more than an amusement for me. If they want to acquire it,
then they can approach me. But to throw me up against the locker and
shake me down for it,??? Lozano said, ???my reaction is going to be ???No.??™ ???

http://www.fanblogs.com/missouri/007453.php

http://www.kansascity.com/177/story/456605.html

[Scouter]

It certainly helps Lozano's cause that Mizzou previously turned down the offer to buy the Web site from him. I'm not sure why Mizzou would be so adamant about going after this thing, but I suppose the biggest reason would be they might have a trademark on the "Missouri Tigers" name.

I think there was a case similar to this involving Dan Marino and a guy who had the domain danmarino.com. Obviously, Marino didn't have his name trademarked, but he didn't want the use of his name as a public figure to be included with something that was not affiliated with him.

[Da Coach]

In the early days of the internet, before every company had a website, there were many cases of individuals getting the rights to website names of major companies like Standardoil.com, or americanstandard.com, just hoping to cash in big when those companies wanted those names. I recall reading that many cases went to court, and in virtually every case, the courts decided with the companies that had trademarks on their names. The courts forced the individuals to give up the rights to those websites.

Many more such cases were then settled out of court, as individuals wanted to avoid costly lawsuits that big corporations would more easily afford, or the individuals asked for a reasonable low sum that the companies paid rather than pursue lawsuits.

In this case, the term "Missouri Tigers" is unmistakably associated with the University of Missouri, and probably trademarked by them, that I think they would easily win a court case against the guy. The guy must have been trying to squeeze the university for way too much money, and IMO he's in for a legal battle he is going to wish he had avoided.

[Guinness]

A USPTO search reveals that they have only owned the trademark "Missouri Tigers" since November 6, 2007. All he has to do is prove that he owned/registered it prior to this date. In the case of people registering "standardoil.com", they lost because the companies trademarked the term before the domain was registered and because they were trying to profit off of it from these companies.

Its actually fairly hard to take a domain from someone. Most cases settle due to legal costs. But he does have a legitimate claim on the domain.