WILLIAMSPORT—Penn State is seeking a permanent injunction against and attorney fees from a Seattle-based direct-to-consumer business found to have willfully infringed on university trademarks.
The motions filed Tuesday in U.S. Middle District Court follow a Nov. 19 verdict in which jurors found Vintage Brand willfully infringed on Penn State’s trademarks.
Defendants besides Vintage Brand were its founder and CEO Chad Hartvigson and Sportswear Inc. Sportswear applies vintage Penn State images at a facility in Louisville, Kentucky, and ships products directly to consumers.
Vintage Brad markets its products on its website. Orders it receives are sent to Sportswear that does business as Prep Sports to be fulfilled. Hartvigson owns 30 percent of Sportwear.
Penn State argues a permanent injunction is needed to prevent Vintage Brand from continuing to infringe on its trademarks.
It claims as of Nov. 27 the Vintage Brand website continued to offer numerous shirts, sweaters, hats, mugs and other memorabilia bearing university trademarks.
Penn State’s argument in support of an injunction include:
* Licensed businesses will suffer if Vintage Brand continues selling products linked to the university.
* Consumers would be confused believing they are buying official university merchandise.
* Vintage Brand products do not meet the university’s standards.
Although the jury awarded Penn State $28,000, monetary damages are not enough, Penn State contends.
It wants the court to direct Vintage Brand to either destroy or deliver to it materials containing Penn State trademarks that were used in preparing merchandise or in advertising.
Penn State points out in October 2023 Vintage Brand agreed to an injunction after a finding of liability in a similar suit brought by Baylor University.
Penn State also wants Judge Matthew W. Brann to find the case meets the legal definition of “exceptional” so it is eligible for attorney fees.
If the judge issues such a finding, the university says within 14 days it would submit evidence on the amount requested.
It contends the case is “exceptional” for reasons that include complicated discovery caused by misrepresentations and omissions, key evidence being altered in an effort to conceal the infringement and the defendants refusal to comply with a cease-and-desist letter.
The defendants are serial infringers that spent years profiting off the reputations of educational institutions of all sizes including Penn State, the university charges.
Jurors found the defendants infringed on Nittany Lion and Pozniak Lion logos along with the Penn State seal.
Hartvigson testified during the seven-day trial the Penn State images that appear on Vintage Brand’s merchandise come from university pins, programs, tickets, pennants, stickers and decals he spent more than $250,000 to collect.
The parties agreed Vintage Brand, Sportswear and Hartvigson do not have a license to use any of Penn State’s trademarks. The defendants claimed the university-related historic images are in the public domain.
There was testimony that every page on the Vintage Brand website contains disclaimers of affiliation, licensure, sponsorship and endorsement.
It took down its Penn State page from its website when the suit was filed in 2021 but the university claims it would take only a couple clicks for it to go back up.
Attempts to obtain a comment from the defendants were unsuccessful.