Trademark infringement could make rough ride for UND nickname
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The University of North Dakota's effort to come up with a new nickname is going to have to go through Iowa, apparently.
A junior hockey team there insists it owns the rights to one of the finalists to replace UND's Fighting Sioux name -- Rough Riders, based on Teddy Roosevelt's first voluntary cavalry in the Spanish-American War. Back then -- 1898 -- it was two words, but now it's one.
And that one word has been trademarked by the Cedar Rapids Roughriders of the U.S. Hockey League, according to Forum News Service.
It sent a letter to ND before Rough Riders -- Roughriders -- was named a finalist, the paper says.
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“We have a registered trademark with Roughriders for use in hockey. (If UND chose that name), we would enforce our right,” said Thomas Moore, attorney for the hockey team.
Moore says the team would be willing to sell the nickname to UND.
The school says it conducted an extensive trademark search and found no barrier to any of the finalist names.
(h/t: Ann Arbor Miller)
