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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN TUESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2007
Trademark battle to continue
After failed mediations Friday, Joe College trial still scheduled for January
BY MARK DENT
mdent@kansan.com
The Athletics Department and downtown T-shirt store Joe-College.com did not reach an agreement during a mediation Friday concerning the University's trademark infringement lawsuit. The trial is still scheduled for early January.
Mediations are confidential, so neither side could give specific details about what was discussed during the mediation session. The session started Friday morning and lasted several hours.
"We did not come to an agreement, and we're going to wait for a judge's ruling," said Judy Potterff, corporate counsel for the Athletics Department.
"We have several motions that we're going to put before the judge."
A motion is a request to a judge to give a ruling on a legal matter. A judge can prevent a case from going to trial by issuing rulings. Pottorff declined to say what motions the Athletics Department asked the judge to consider But she said the Athletics Department expected the judge to make a decision about the motions soon. Larry Sinks, Joe-College.com owner, said he thought the case would go to trial.
The Athletics Department originally filed the lawsuit in March. Associate Athletics Director Jim Marchiony said the University believed Joe-College.com inappropriately used its trademarks and sued the business to protect
them. Some of Joe-College's T-shirt designs feature slogans such as "Muck Fizzou" and "Lawrence, a Drinking Town with a Basketball Problem."
Sinks said his store didn't infringe on the University's trademarks. He said his shirts featured the name "Kansas" but never featured trademarks such as "University of Kansas" or "Jahawk."
"Thousands of companies sell shirts with Kansas on them," Sinks said, "and I'm the only one being sued. I mean, that's our state. Does that mean the other university is going to have to go by State University? There's a music group called Kansas. Are they going to sue them?"
Pottorff said the University took action against Joe-College.com and not other companies that used
"Kansas" or "jayhawk" because Joe-College.com produced apparel, and the University has licenses for apparel. She said Joe-College.com's apparel was in direct competition with the Athletics Department.
The start of the trial can't come soon enough for Sinks. He said he had received plenty of community support but was having trouble covering all the court costs.
"They've tried to make me go broke," Sinks said, "and they've done an OK job. I've had to dip into my own children's college funds. We want to win the suit. We want to keep Joe College open."
SPEAKER
Edited by Rachel Bock
Debate pits porn addict against porn star
BY ERIN SOMMER
erommer@kansan.com
esommer@kansan.com
Porn star Ron Jeremy squared off against recovering porn addict Michael Leahy last night in the "Great Porn Debate" at Washburn University in Topeka.
Jeremy, who has starred in more than 1,800 adult films in his 29-year career, defended the porn industry against accusations that the industry uses the Internet to market to children.
Jeremy said that he did not represent all adult films, only the films done under unions, which are careful to not hire people who are younger than 18 to participate in films. He also said that the porn industry did not target children.
"I'd be the first person to prosecute it," Jeremy said. "We're against that. We want consenting adults having consensual sex. We're not advertising on
billboards outside elementary schools."
Leahy said that the porn industry allowed minors to view Web sites with easy loops to get through, such as the ability to easily lie about age in order to view the site.
Leahy spoke about what he called his "sexual addiction", which he said was the largest addiction in the country and cost him his 15-year marriage, his relationship with his children and a business partnership with his brother.
"Sexual addiction is really an intimacy problem," Leahy said. "A big part of this recovery is just being honest to myself and others."
"My problem is not so much with the porn industry but with the Fortune 500 companies who use sex to promote products." Leahy said.
He said that he had to censor what he watched on mainstream television, and he cut himself off
entirely from cable television and the Internet for his first year of recovery.
Jeremy, who said that he respected Leahy's addiction and realized that he cannot view pornography, said that he did not agree with Leahy's view that the industry fosters addictions such as his.
"You don't take an entire industry and blame it as a whole because a few people had problems with it," Jeremy said. "To me, porn is just simple this: You want to laugh, watch Monty Python. If you want to get a little excited, watch a late night film on HBO or Cinema."
Mike Ditch, Washburn senior and executive director of campus activities, said that Washburn paid $14,000 for Jeremy and Leahy to speak. He said that Washburn decided to bring the pair in for a discussion because Internet porn was relevant to college students.
"We figured we could use this as a stepping stone to get a debate started," Ditch said. "We knew it would reach a wide range of students."
Shane Turben, Topeka resident and Washburn alumnus, said that he attended the debate because he was a fan of Ron Jeremy and wanted to see him in person.
"I'm more of a believer that any addiction is more from your own personal patterns," Turben said.
Jeremy and Leahy have gone to several institutions throughout the country to discuss the porn industry. They are scheduled to speak at Central Washington University on Oct. 18 and Southern Illinois University on Jan. 28, 2008.
Leahy is speaking Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in 120 Budg Hall to give a presentation entitled "Porn Nation."
— Edited by Dianne Smith
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Judge acquits doctors in tainted-blood case
Noella Baker holds back her emotions after the verdict in the tainted blood case was handed down Monday in Toronto. A judge acquitted three doctors, a New Jersey company and a former Red Cross official of criminal charges Monday in a tainted-blood crime that infected thousands of Canadians with HIV or hepatitis and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths.
John Plater of the Canadian Hemophilia Society expressed bewilderment at the verdict, questioning how the judge could suggest that the defendants' actions "were somehow professional and reasonable."
BY ROB GILLIES ASSOCIATED PRESS
TORONTO — A judge acquitted three doctors, a New Jersey company and a former Red Cross official of criminal charges Monday in a tainted-blood scandal that infected thousands of Canadians with HIV or hepatitis and resulted in more than 3,000 deaths.
"The allegations of criminal conduct on the part of these men and this corporation were not only unsupported by the evidence, they were disproved. The events here were tragic," the judge said. "However, to assign blame where none exists is to compound the tragedy."
Toronto Superior Court Justice Mary Lou Benotto ruled that the defendants did not show conduct displaying wanton and reckless disregard in the use of the blood and that there was no marked departure from the standards of a reasonable person.
The case involved blood products produced by New Jerseybased Armuore Pharmaceutical Co.
The Canadian Red Cross no longer has control of the Canadian blood supply for all provinces except Quebec.
The Canadian Red Cross pleaded guilty in 2005 to distributing blood tainted with HIV and hepatitis C and was fined 5,000 Canadian dollars, now about $5,000. The Red Cross apologized and provided 1.5 million Canadian dollars for a scholarship fund and research project for reducing medical errors.
in the 1980s and early 1990s that turned out to be infected. Also charged were Dr. Roger Perrault of the Red Cross; Dr. John Furez and Donald Wark Boucher, formerly of Canada's Health Protection Branch, and Dr. Michael Rodell, a former vice president of Armour.
Perrault pleaded not guilty to criminal negligence causing bodily harm for allegedly giving hemophilia patients an HIV-infected blood-clotting product. The other doctors and the drug company also pleaded not guilty. Lawyers argued that prosecutors didn't present enough evidence to prove its case.
A second trial for Perrault is set to begin later this year in Hamilton, Ontario, where he will face more criminal charges alleging that the Red Cross and its senior officials failed to take adequate measures to screen blood donors.
Suffering from ADD/ADHD Symptoms? (Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity)
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Cotton-O'Neil
Clinical Research Center
(785) 270-4622
Division of Stormont-Vail HealthCare
www.stormontvail.org