Though this is one of the goofier copyright infringement cases of late, ’tis no more turgid to read about than A&M going after the Seattle Seahawks for that whole 12th Man business. From the Daily Texan’s Zachary Posner.
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.
“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.
“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.”