Motorcycle Safety Foundation Files Lawsuit Against Oregon St

[totalmotorcycle]

Motorcycle Safety Foundation Files Lawsuit Against Oregon State University
Monday, December 18, 2006 - Ag-ip- News - ag-ip-news.com



IRVINE, CA - The Motorcycle Safety Foundation (MSF) filed a lawsuit against Oregon State University (OSU), its president, and against Stephen Garets, both individually and in his official capacity as director of the Team Oregon Motorcycle Safety Program of OSU, charging the parties with copyright infringement and violation of the MSF’s rights under the Lanham Act, a press release by the foundation stated.

The suit, filed in United States District Court for the Central District of California, alleges that the defendants willfully misappropriated the MSF’s motorcycle safety and training curriculum materials in connection with the development and publication of Team Oregon’s Basic Rider Training (BRT) curriculum materials, and prepared derivative works based on the MSF’s copyrighted curricula. It also alleges that the defendants have sought to distribute the misappropriated curriculum outside the state of Oregon.

The suit further alleges that the defendants falsely associated the MSF with, and identified the MSF as an endorser of, the Team Oregon BRT, and that, in naming the BRT, they infringed on MSF’s service marks in its current curriculum, the Basic Rider Course (BRC).

“MSF attempted many times to resolve these issues without a lawsuit, but Oregon State University and Garets were unwilling to stop their unlawful conduct,” said the attorney of Ross, Dixon & Bell, LLP Stuart Philip Ross.

“After Team Oregon began attempting to market, distribute and offer the BRT curriculum materials to motorcycle safety programs in other states, and it became clear OSU would not prohibit this activity, the MSF had no choice but to take legal action to protect its intellectual property rights,” he added.

“The MSF has worked with the state of Oregon in connection with motorcycle safety training and policy for more than 20 years, and continues to support Oregon motorcyclists,” said the Director of Communications at the Motorcycle Safety Foundation Dean Thompson.

“The MSF currently works with the Oregon Division of Driver and Motor Vehicle Services on licensing issues. In fact, the MSF granted permission to Oregon, as it has to other states, to use content from MSF’s Motorcycle Operator Manual in the 2005-2006 Oregon Motorcycle & Moped Manual,” he pointed out.

The MSF has been developing and maintaining high quality, research-based rider education and training curricula to best meet the safety-related needs and interests of the motorcycling community for more than 33 years. The MSF invests significantly in the scope, quality and continuous improvement of its rider education and training system curricula, applying decades of experience and the intellectual rigor of experts immersed in motorcycle training and educational best practices.