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Baylor files lawsuit over trademark abuse in websites using name, mascot
By: Travis Measley
Issue date: 2/27/08 Section: News
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What separates Baylor from Texas A&M's 12th Man battle, or the University of Texas' fight against the "Saw 'Em Off" logo on merchandise, is that this fight comes against one of their own, and, oddly enough, indirectly involves the Aggies.
On Feb. 6, an administrative proceeding began between Baylor University and John Stipe, a graduate of Baylor, over the lawful ownership of five domain names: baylorbears.biz, baylorbears.name, baylorbears.net, baylorbearssuck.com, and baylorbears.tv.
In response to the proceedings, Stipe redirected all five of the domain names to the A&M athletics website, aggieathletics.com. As of Tuesday, all five of the domain names will go directly to
aggieathletics.com
"After they filed and paid the fees to have the hearing, I redirected the addresses to the Aggie athletics website as a joke," Stipe said. "To me it seemed funny to do that and I look at in the same light as whatever Aggie painted the horns off on the Texas football field long ago."
Steven Moore, the chief marketing officer at A&M, said that he was not aware of the issue, and that A&M wasn't involved in the case. He said he wasn't surprised this was an issue because the domain name business is a tough, slippery one to deal with.
"A lot of people register all types of domain names, forcing anyone that wants them or feels they have legal rights to them to go through the owner to get them," Moore said. "I have no idea what the case here is, but its still a tough situation for both sides."
During the early part of April 2007, Stipe was searching through the expired .net domain names and stumbled across the domain name baylorbears.net, which was available for purchase on the open market to anyone for registration fee.
Stipe said he thought that Baylor used to own the domain name, as well as others. When asked if this were true, Baylor spokeswoman Lori Fogleman said that the University would not comment until after the litigation.
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