Sure enough, Arizona State University's suing a locally based porn website, "Sun Devil Angels," for a variety of reasons, including trademark infringement.
Rumor mill TMZ actually got wind of this lawsuit last week, but the lawsuit itself hasn't been made public until now, as it was filed in federal court Monday.
See also:
-ASU in Battle With Local Porn Site "Sun Devil Angels," TMZ Claims
ASU owns trademarks for both "Sun Devils" and "Sun Angel," and the lawsuit contends that the "Sun Devil Angels" logo -- the porn website's logo -- is similar to a couple of ASU's.
Additionally, the lawsuit points out some other ways in which "Sun Devil Angels" and the man behind it, convict Raymond Coates, ahem, utilize the University:
- 81. On information and belief, pornographic content posted on ‹sundevilangels.com› and its related websites was filmed and/or photographed in Arizona.
- 82. On information and belief, one or more of the models featured on ‹sundevilangels.com› is or has been a student at ASU.
- 83. The one or more of Defendants intentionally target women on or near ASU's campus in Tempe to appear as models on the website.
- 84. In online forum posts dated in 2008 and 2009, Coates stated that the "girls" on SunDevilAngels.com are "hand picked right off the streets at ASU" and that he "will only handpick them from ASU in person."
- 85. On an official online forum for Sun Devil Angels, the administrator stated as follows: "I am in Tempe, AZ next to ASU so I have lots [of girls] to choose from."
- 86. In another forum string, Coates stated, "I have four more girls i am shooting right now from ASU!!"
- 87. One description of a video from Sun Devil Angels advertises the following: "We found this amazing girl at ASU who was looking at a part time job near campus."
The lawsuit also references an online forum in which Coates gets berated for taking pictures in front of a multimillion-dollar house, as he pretended to own it -- which isn't relevant to the lawsuit -- but it also contains a conversation about how Coates is setting himself up for a lawsuit with "Sun Devil Angels." (Read the thread here).
So, last year, lawyers contacted Coates and a colleague, Brent Townsend.
"Townsend refused ASU's demand that Defendants voluntarily cease use of the Sun Devil® Marks, but he suggested that Defendants would be willing to change the name of the website if ASU paid $50,000," the lawsuit contends.
ASU doesn't appear to be happy about that, and the lawsuit eventually gets to what the University wants -- an order banning the people named in the lawsuit from using anything related to ASU, plus all of the related Internet domain names, damages, profits, and attorneys' fees.
You can peruse the lawsuit here.
