Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA) has filed a lawsuit against Sports Beer Brewing for trademark infringement, alleging that it is exploiting its ‘Penn State’ and ‘Nittany Lions’ trademarks.
On its website, the Florida-based company owned by Paul Parshall, Sports Beer describes itself as “an intellectual property holding company” with a collection of “sports trademarks, registrations and service marks” for US sports teams. Pennsylvania State University filed its lawsuit last Friday (26 July) at the US District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. The institution is suing Sports Beer for trademark infringement, unfair competition and trademark dilution, claiming that the company has “engaged in a brazen, wilful effort to exploit and trade on the fame and goodwill associated with Penn State’s rights in the famous Penn State and Nittany Lions trademarks”.
It accuses Sports Beer of infringing on trademarks “belonging to many other colleges, universities and professional sports teams”.
Via Centre Daily Times