University of Alabama Threatens to Sue Clay Travis Over T-Shirt Design

Along with a daily radio show, digital show, and running the website Outkick the Coverage, Clay Travis is in the business of selling t-shirts. One of those is his “Aloha, Bitches” t-shirt in honor of Hawaiian quarterback Marcus Mariota. After the national title game, he created another t-shirt with the same phrase for Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa .

According to Travis, the University of Alabama emailed him a four-page letter and threatened to sue him if he did not stop selling the shirt because they claimed people would believe the university had licensed the shirts.

They also took issue with red “A” on the shirt, claiming it looked too much like the cursive “A” Alabama claimed they had trademarked.

No surprise, Travis is having fun with the threat, using it as a promotional tool for the t-shirts.

He addressed the situation on his Facebook Live/Periscope show Outkick the Show for the first 17:19.

He also posted on his website his response to the Alabama lawyers:

"“The A on our shirt is definitely not the Alabama A that you have trademarked and copyrighted, it is just a cursive A. Moreover no one thinks an Outkick shirt is licensed by Alabama. Certainly not one that was expressly made because we have been selling “Aloha, bitches,” shirts in honor of Marcus Mariota for over a year on the site."

"Is it your contention that Alabama controls the use of all cursive letter A’s on all shirts? Would you like to design and email the site a cursive A that would be permissible to use? I’d be interested to see your version and would be potentially willing to change our A to one you deem more appropriate if it works on the shirt."

"If you’d like us to add a disclaimer that says the shirts aren’t licensed or endorsed by Alabama — or publish your letter on Outkick saying the same — I’m happy to do that as well. But as a lawyer who has worked in trademark and copyright law I’m not sure what claim you guys have here. You don’t have a copyright on our cursive version of the letter A or any claim on the phrases used on the shirt."

"Let me know if you’d like me to add language on the page saying Alabama isn’t involved in any way with the tshirts. Or if you’d like me to publish your letter on the site saying the same. Or if you intend to send me an acceptable cursive A for the tshirts.”"

Travis, who has a law degree, is extemely confident he will win if any legal action is taken.