Arizona State University is suing a locally based porn website, "Sun Devil Angels," for alleged trademark infringement, but here's a tip -- the porn website isn't the first thing with the "Sun Devil" name.
Brent Townsend -- who's with Digital Dream Media, which is one of the parties in the lawsuit -- tells New Times there's a whole lot of stuff with the "Sun Devil" name, like the Valley's Sun Devil Auto or Sun Devil Plumbing or Sun Devil Manufacturing, which makes custom parts for AR-15 rifles.
See also:
-ASU's Lawsuit Against Porn Website Claims Students Are Targeted as "Models"
He also pointed to a tanning bed called the "Sun Angel," so, indeed, we also found it interesting that the university would decide to go after the porn website.
Additionally, the lawsuit mentions that it "prevailed" in a proceeding over the domain name ASUnudes.com, which sounds like "we got it shut down."
As for Townsend, he kind of seems like the brains involved in this whole thing -- and he tells us he's based in New Jersey -- as the actual guy running the Sun Devil Angels website, convict Raymond Coates, was cited multiple times in the lawsuit for stuff he said on the Internet.
Whereas Coates claimed he was cruising for ASU students for the website, Townsend says there are no ASU girls or ASU colors on the website -- the latter we can pretty much confirm.
He also pointed out that there are no women flashing ASU identification cards or anything on the Sun Devil Angels website.
Ahem, Backroom Casting Couch:
Townsend was mentioned in one specific part of the lawsuit, thought.
"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.
This came during a conversation with lawyers for the Collegiate Licensing Company -- which first went after the porn fellas for the trademark issue -- and Townsend explained to us that that's not exactly how the conversation went.
"They're makin' me look like the bad guy," says Townsend, whose Jersey accent is actually pretty light.
He says the lawyers asked him how much it would cost him to change the name, and that's the number he picked -- $50,000.
"This is what it's going to cost to change the site," Townsend says.
So, it's apparently less about being greedy, and more about how much it would cost to launch a site with a new name, while having to reprocess all the videos and photos with watermarks for the new brand, if they were to give up the "Sun Devil Angels" name.
"I'm not sayin' I want a quarter-million dollars," he says.
Townsend suspects that ASU, or Collegiate Licensing Company, are possibly targeting them because they want to use the specific "Sun Devil Angels" name for something, although that's not laid out in the lawsuit. Townsend points out that the site's been online for a little less than a decade.
At the end of the day, though, Townsend says they're going to fight the lawsuit, even though it's going to be an expensive one.
