Lawsuit accuses Rowdies of trademark infringement

A Texas company that deals in classic sports logos is suing the owners of the Tampa Bay Rowdies professional soccer team for trademark infringement, alleging an improper use of the team name on sports gear.

Dallas-based Classic Ink Inc. filed the lawsuit April 29 against the Rowdies, Citrus Sports Group LLC, Citrus Ventures, Team IP Sports LLC and Team IP Holdings LLC.

Citrus Sports Group and Citrus Ventures are the owners of the Rowdies soccer team. Team IP Sports and Team IP Holdings are companies that deal in apparel decorating and national event marketing.

The lawsuit alleges that Classic Ink Inc. legally owns trademark rights to the "Tampa Bay Rowdies" name and that the Citrus companies are improperly selling products with the registered trademark. Team IP Sports and Team IP Holdings are using their Web site to market the Rowdies gear, the lawsuit alleges.

"It's hurting our business," said D. Scott Hemingway, attorney for Classic Ink. "Any use of our trademark not authorized is hurting our ability to sell our product line. And it's actually been an issue with respect to our licensing of our product line to another entity."

Lisa Brock, a spokeswoman for the Rowdies, said team owners had no comment.

The lawsuit alleges that a former owner of C.S. Anderson Enterprises, the company that later became Classic Ink, executed a false assignment of the Rowdies trademark to the soccer team's owners in May 2008.

"He had no ownership rights to transfer and no authorization to sign any paperwork on behalf of the lawful owner," Hemingway said. "Therefore nothing was transferred and nothing was sold."

The original Tampa Bay Rowdies played in the North American Soccer League in the 1970s and '80s before folding in 1993. Last June, an ownership group led by Andrew Nestor, Hinds Howard and David Laxer announced a United Soccer Leagues First Division team called the Rowdies that would wear the former team's green and gold colors.

The team still intends to play its inaugural season starting in April 2010 in a rented stadium.