#FleurtyGirl and others still face fight after Settlement reached in 'Who Dat' lawsuit
 

Even though the fight for Who Dat may appear to have ended for the NFL, local businesses are now left without the NFL to help defend against Who Dat Inc. for copyright infringement. Many fans have it wrong as the cheers ran across Facebook.

Late Monday afternoon, Who Dat?, Inc. announced it has reached a settlement with the NFL over use of the popular “Who Dat” phrase -- seemingly bringing an end to the dispute.

But Lauren Thom, who owns the Fleurty Girl apparel line, said her fight is far from over.

Thom and other local merchants were first ordered to stop selling “Who Dat” gear in 2010.

Thom said the NFL later vowed to side with her and take control of the dispute against Who Dat?, Inc., but she said, now, the situation has taken a turn.

"Instead of having the NFL with us to fight for the phrase, for it to be in the public domain, they're now out of it," Thom said. "I don't know what the terms were. It just kind of puts us in a position of scrambling because we still have to go to court in April and this really does change things. So, we're the ones that become the placeholder in the fight for the 'Who Dat' phrase in the public domain."

Who Dat?, Inc. said it reached an agreement with the NFL to voluntarily dismiss all claims against one another.

In a press release, the company wrote: “(The NFL / Saints and Who Dat?, Inc.) have also agreed to make available to fans, co-branded merchandise bearing the marks and logos of the New Orleans Saints and the phrase, WHO DAT.”

Thom doesn't know where that leaves her or anyone else wanting to use the phrase, but she plans to keep the fight going.

"We've been through so much with all this that I want to see it through for the people, for all of us. I don't care if I ever sell another t-shirt. At this point, it's like, it belongs to the fans. It was the fans before 1983 and it should be ours still," Thom said.

Thom said she plans to meet with her attorney to discuss how best to move forward, but as of now, she still expects to face Who Dat, Inc. in court.

Steve Monistere of Who Dat?, Inc. did not immediately respond to our request for comment on whether the company plans to continue with any legal action over the issue.

LINK

Money grubbing bastards!!

Now they're going to pick on the little guy. It really stinks.
If you have Who Dat in your website name or you make a shirt with Who Dat on it, look out --- here comes Who Dat? Inc.

I think that was settled last year the phrase is ok to use by anyone but you can't use the Saints or NFL logos with the Phrase.
The ones still in trouble are the ones who used Saints logs with the phrase?

Who Dat Inc.. The name in and of itself is ridiculous

Somebody look up their business license in Louisiana and let's see some public information on the company.

I'd like to make sure they get as much publicity as they can stand.

Alaska

Naw, unfortunately there's a company named Who Dat? Inc. made up of the original guy who helped produce the original "Who Dat" song and he was somehow granted a trademark on the phrase "Why Dat" way back in the day.

He always let the Saints and fans use this without squatting on it... until the NFL decided it was going to try and own everything.

Who Dat, Inc. NOW also owns the phrases "Two Dat" and others. It's a real sucky, greedy situation... unfortunately. This all developed after the NFL tried to be greedy and take ownership of Who Dat during the Superbowl run. I also blame the NFL for starting all this BS.

Personally, I think he's exploiting a flaw in the legal system to try and get control of this and hope he loses his shirt and is granted nothing because he's GREE DEEE.

In the end, it's going to be the "little people" like Fleurty Girl etc. who will suffer from this. They'll try to force them to pay royalties on shirts already sold.

History of Who Dat? | Who Dat Online

Nevermind. Here they are.

Feel free to say hello to them.

Alaska

Here ya go...

http://img546.imageshack.us/img546/9...0131153212.jpg

So Ellis Pailet, the registered agent...Is this the "owner" of Who Dat Inc.? Am I understanding this correctly? If so, I googled the name and he's a NO attorney, which makes me even more angry!!

I hope Fleurty Girl and others like that company don't end up having to pay back royalties to some crooked attorney. I hope I am misunderstanding something here. Because, if so, that's one of the things about this City that pisses me off!! The beurocratic red tape that makes it SO HARD for small business in NOLA is ridiculous! And as much as I love this City, it's one of the things about it that I hate the most!!!

Yep, I read it right. Who Dat Inc. is owned by a local New Orleans attorney. That's about right. Good old boy system still rearing its ugly head around here!

If I understand things correctly, this isn't so much a NOLA issue as much as it is a wider, US Copyright/Trademark Issue.

1) A Company or individual has claimed the rights to a phrase that should probably be public domain.
2) Another company who is adversely affected by this claim attempts to do something about it.
3) The company with more money eventually wins out, usually because they can just keep the case going for a longer period of time. Meanwhile, the smaller company runs out of cash and has to give up the fight.

All the while, the claim should never have been honored to begin with. It's actually a shame the NFL gave up, here. They had an opportunity to do the right thing for the smaller company instead of simply looking out for their own interest.

The fundamental concern for me is it was not a matter of importance until the Saints were a matter of importance over 25 years later. I'll never buy or wear anything with the phrase on it from here on out and I wish all Saints fans would scoff at the site of it. I have no problem honoring someone else's creation, but there is a limit that needs to be established on when you can stake a claim in that creation for profit. I don't know all the in's and out's of the case but the bottomline is it reeks of greed in it's purest form to the point that it's sickening.

I believe the registered agent is just the local attorney that you would serve papers to. The owners are probably the folks in San Antonio. I work for a national company and we have a registed agent in every state. So if you want to sue us in TN you need to send it to our registered agent in TN.

On-Going BS concerning Our WHO-DAT chant!
 

EFF EM.

And I don't own any "Who Dat" merchandise, so beyond that it's just free speech!

Alaska

Dear Sal and Steve Monistere,

On behalf of the SaintNation/BlackandGold Nation/WhoDat Nation. I would like to inform you money grubbing, cheapa$$, TOOLS; that you are no longer members of our Nation. Saints fans do not put themselves above the team. True fans don't proclaim themselves "Founding Members". So if you want to continue this B.S. lawsuit.... go ahead. It won't stop the fans from saying the words.. WHO DAT!

So, to end this; I leave you with this.....
:needle:

These leeches didn't come up with the name & didn't invent squat! They just decided to play attorney and rush to trademark as much as they could as "their own". Makes me sick.

And I almost forgot......take Dis (you own Dat too?)

:needle:

I do not like this .
Correct me if I am wrong, but the NFL doesn't care about this anymore. Fine.
However , a N.O. atty trademarked it , jumped on it first and now is going atfer any other N.O. company to stop them?

It's all about the money !

Wow ... I always thought 'WhoDat' was local terminology specific to New Orleans ... didn't realize you could trademark something like that ... this kind of stuff ruins things for the fans. I'm disappointed in the NFL for not carrying on the fight too. Big money/big business wins out again, all's you can do is not support them with your own dollars, I guess.

Just spell it differently.

Hudeht

Hoodaht

Homonyms are problematic for copyrights.

Gene Simmons put a trademark on "O.J."

Yeah, he gets money whenever people use the letters "OJ".

So yeah, people are scum bags.

I just copyrighted the letter "E"...
all you b1tches owe me BIG TIME!!

<humour> I was thinking about that, biotch ... don't o you anything for this post :mrgreen:

Well your copyrighting is all Grεεk to mε. I can gεt along just finε. :mrgreen: