ASU Wants Porn Site To Stop Using the Name 'Sun Devil'
ByArizona State University (ASU) has taken legal action against a New Jersey porn website - sundevilangels.com - for allegedly violating its trademark and intellectual property.
Sun Devils are the athletic teams representing Arizona State University in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, swimming/diving, track, and wrestling matches.
The university wants the website to immediately stop using the term and remove it from its domain name and from every other location.
The university says that otherwise it will have to force the website to shut down completely.
The university feels that prospective students and their parents may get confused when searching for the university on the Internet. It's name and reputation is at stake , it feels.
The university also claims that the logo used in the adult website, somewhat resembles its logo.
A representative from Sun Devil Angels told Fox news that the website has been using the term "Sun Devil" since 2004 and hasn't had a problem with ASU until last November. They also said that it would cost them around $50,000 to make the necessary changes.
ASU spokeswoman, Julie Newberg, told the channel it has filed an arbitration hearing under the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number's (ICANN's) Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy so that both the parties can work to solve the issue.
Donald Hudspeth, a business attorney, told CBS5az that the creator of adult website SunDevilAngels.com, Raymond Coates, should've expected these allegations earlier when his trademark application was denied in 2008 because it coincides with ASU's trademark, Sun Devils.