WINNIPEG -- A Winnipeg company has a beef with a couple of online U.S. companies that are purportedly selling "Obama fo' Yo Mama" T-shirts.
Richard Abramowicz, president of Yomama Gear Canada, says back in 1998 his company registered the U.S. trademark for the phrase "Yo Mama" on all clothing.
In a news release issued Monday, Abramowicz said the Obama apparel infringes on his rights.
"They have profited at my expense without seeking a license to do so," he said of Califor-nia based online retailers Cafe Press and Zazzle.
"Our legal department has forwarded both a demand to cease and desist any and all sales of items in question, and account for all infringing sales to date."
ADVERTISEMENT
A spokesman for Zazzle, who did not want his name used, said he was not aware of Abramowicz's complaint but said Zazzle has extensive safeguards to deal with such issues.
He said Zazzle is a contributor-based website to which artists and others can post items for sale.
"We have very strict user agreements all over the place that say 'don't upload copyrighted content.' If they've ignored that ... our content management team is notified and it's removed. Also, anybody can go to our website and click on 'report violation,' and it's removed if need be."
He said Zazzle's content team usually resolves such things quickly.
"We get anywhere from 7,000 to 10,000 images posted for sale daily to our website. It's very hard, as you can imagine, to police every one of them," he explained.
"There is a pre-emptive process that's based more on what we would use as far as images. Like, if it's right of publicity, intellectual trademark, things like that. Those are your obvious no-brainers -- use of rock stars, use of movie stars, sports figures, things like that. With phrases that gets a little bit trickier."
Abramowicz said Yomama Gear Canada has been approached in the past by MTV's Yo Momma, a reality show created and hosted by actor Wilmer Valderrama of "That '70s Show."
According to its website, the show has "practitioners of Yo Momma jokes dole out heavy doses of good old-fashioned disses and insults."
ADVERTISEMENT
Abramowicz said the show came to his company when it wanted to produce clothing using the show's title.
"Why should Cafe Press or Zazzle be any different? This kind of profit at a small company's expense can no longer be tolerated."
