Industry Standard, The: Napster's at It Again - legal action against Sport Service - Company Business and Marketing

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Napster's at It Again - legal action against Sport Service - Company Business and Marketing - Brief Article

Andrew Morse

You can't deny that Napster has chutzpah. The service that lets people share copyrighted music files has taken legal action yet again to protect its own trademark demon logo.

The target this time is Indianapolis-based Sport Service, which sells "official" Napster hats and T-shirts at www.napsterstore.com, where a casual visitor would have no idea the site or products have no ties to Napster. The only difference: Sport Service has added a "TM" trademark symbol to the word Napster, which not even Napster bothers to do. Sport Service did not return phone calls.

Napster's brief history is one long legal tangle. In addition to the the recording industry's landmark suit brought against it, Napster has aggressively defended its own logo, locking legal horns last year with Napcrap.com and rock band The Offspring for offering Napster gear. Also, late last month German security agents pressured Napster's mainstream media partner Bertelsmann to keep Napster users from distributing Nazi material. Bertelsmann officials said they were powerless to stop the trades.