Marketing Company Suing OSU For Pulling Licensing Agreement

Marketing Owner Claims An OSU  Official Has Personal Feud With Him

Columbus-based Silver Knight Sales & Marketing Ltd. Owner & President Michael DiSabato is suing Ohio State Univ. (OSU), his alma mater, claiming that a school official "with a personal beef axed a licensing arrangement that accounted for more than half of his sports memorabilia company's revenue," according to Carrie Ghose of BUSINESS FIRST OF COLUMBUS. Silver Knight, "which has licensing arrangements with about 65 schools, had a deal starting in May 2004 to sell Ohio State clothing and novelties." However, the contract "was not renewed after June 30, 2007, a year in which Silver Knight had nearly $5[M] in revenue and paid the university $200,000 in royalties." DiSabato: "It significantly impacted our business on a national level. When you're not able to ship Ohio State, you can't leverage those other licenses as effectively as we'd like to." DiSabato said that he was notified of the cancelled agreement in December '06, three days after he talked to the Columbus Dispatch and questioned a "proposed deal to give Nike Inc. the exclusive right to produce Ohio State jerseys." Ghose notes Silver Knight had exclusive marketing agreements "for using the name and image of several former [OSU] football players," including Packers LB A.J. Hawk, Jets K Mike Nugent, former NFL RBs Eddie George and Keith Byers and two-time Heisman Trophy-winning RB Archie Griffin. OSU is "one of just a few universities to run its own program for licensing the school's name and trademarks" (BUSINESS FIRST OF COLUMBUS, 10/17 issue).