A steal at $16.99

The "Heistman'' parody infringes on the Heisman image, a licenser says.

By BETH KASSAB

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 17, 1999

[Times photo: Michael Weimar]

GAINESVILLE -- The hottest T-shirt in town is turning up the heat on the Florida-Florida State football rivalry.

With Saturday's big game approaching, a bookstore across the street from the University of Florida has had a hard time keeping shelves stocked with a T-shirt disparaging FSU Heisman Trophy candidate Peter Warrick.

Depicted across the front in a parody of college football's most prestigious award is Warrick as the "1999 Heistman."

The Florida Book Store sold more than 1,000 of the shirts that show a "Heistman" trophy with a Dillard's bag in tow -- a spoof on Heisman candidate Warrick's recent arrest after taking more than $400 in Dillard's clothing and paying about $20. He pleaded guilty to petty theft.

"It's not like he shot the president," reads the back of the $16.99 shirts. That's a play on Warrick's first comments after the investigation became public: "It's not like I shot the president."

After about a week's sales, the shirts were pulled from the shelves.

The Collegiate Licensing Company notified the Florida Bookstore that the image on the T-shirt bore too close a likeness to the actual Heisman Trophy, violating the trademark of the Downtown Athletic Club.

"They basically flew out of our racks," said bookstore manager Nandy Ojanguren. "It was probably our biggest seller."

Ojanguren got word from her corporate office last week to pull the shirts fearing a violation of licensing laws.

Wayne Curtiss, owner of the St. Petersburg company Smack Apparel that created and manufactured the shirts, got written legal warnings from the Collegiate Licensing Company to stop printing the shirts.

"There's no way anyone would be confused that that's a Heisman," Curtiss said. "It's been changed more than 30 percent. If it was a newspaper or I was Jay Leno or something like that it would be 100 percent within my First Amendment rights."

UF licensing coordinator Debbie Gay said she alerted the national licensing office after she saw the shirts advertised in Gainesville. "I thought they would probably have a problem with it and they did," she said.

Joe Hutchinson, who oversees Southeastern Conference schools for the Collegiate Licensing Company, said the shirt is a blatant infringement of the Downtown Athletic Club's trademark. The club is also a client of the Collegiate Licensing Co.

"There are plenty of licensed shirts out there that kind of promote that fun rivalry," Hutchinson said. "There's a line there where the company can go over just having good fun or getting crude or obviously doing something in the design that the schools would not approve of."

Hutchinson said the collegiate licensing business is a $2.5-billion industry.

"It's big business," he said. "It hurts business when shirts are done without approval. A non-licensed shirt hurts the business of the guy following the rules."

The shirts will be back on sale in Gainesville today. Tampa trademark lawyer Walter Aye met with Curtiss on Tuesday and said the shirt should be protected by the First Amendment.

The Florida Bookstore will not restock the shirts, but they are available at other Gainesville stores.

The few sports apparel stores in the Tampa Bay area are carrying the shirt.

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