Stanford Sues Stanford Over Trademark
Following speculation that Sir Allen Stanford may bow out of his five-year multi-million pound deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board, the Texas billionaire is reportedly being sued by Stanford University.
The prestigious American university has claimed that the Stanford cricket tournaments violate the school’s trademark copyright.
The filed suit comes days after rumours flooded the media regarding Sir Allen Stanford’s questionable continued involvement with the ECB would cease after just one year.
An established university on the sport scene – with successful teams in American football and basketball – it is allegedly charging Stanford of registering trademarks without clear reference to his company. The institution also stated the use of the Stanford name in cricket is causing confusion in the market place to its detriment.
The success of the university’s suit would force Stanford to change the name of his cricket tournaments or pay substantial damages.
The largest of these would be the annual $20m Stanford Series, which garnered its own fair amount of criticism earlier this year. The Texan also has his name on the Stanford Quadrangular at Lord’s and the Stanford 2020 tournament in the Caribbean.
Stanford Twenty20 communication and media manager, Imran Khan, has reportedly claimed that Stanford’s future involvement in cricket would be revealed ‘by the end of January 2009’.
