Salt Lake City-based Offside Apparel Owner Nate Bowen said that his company will "no longer be able to sell" Univ. of Utah merchandise because of a "misunderstanding over another company's design and production of a shirt intended to poke fun" at rival BYU, according to Ben Lockhart of the DESERET NEWS. The Utah Trademarks & Licensing Program "refuted those claims." It said that Offside Apparel "frequently breached its contract" with the school. Bowen claims that the school's decision was made due to images on social media shared by Offside with a T-shirt reading, "The Only Cougar I Like Is Your Mom." The image was shared "leading up to the Las Vegas Bowl between BYU and Utah." Offside "didn't design, print or sell the shirt... but only shared the images." Univ. of Utah Trademarks & Licensing Dir Brett Eden said that the decision not to renew a licensing agreement with Offside "had nothing to do with the T-shirt Bowen cited." Eden said the licensing agreement was not renewed because of a "pattern of behavior that didn't align with their contractual obligations." Eden: "We've had several conversations over the past year (and told the company), 'Hey, we see you're selling this. The artwork hasn't been submitted. We can't approve it. Stop selling it.' ... To their credit, in most of those cases, they did stop" (DESERET NEWS, 2/29).
