From the August 23, 1996 print edition

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When is a racoon a bandit? When logo's at stake

Baltimore team may sue Dayton's club

Baltimore Bandits hockey team officials may take legal action to prevent what they consider the work of real bandits.

The American Hockey League franchise is accusing a new minor league hockey team -- the Dayton (Ohio) Ice Bandits -- of using the Baltimore team's name and logo without permission.

"We will exhaust all possible options in an effort to protect our valuable trademarks," said Mike Caggiano, president of the Baltimore Bandits.

The Ice Bandits franchise moved to Dayton this year from London, Ontario, where the team was called the Wildcats. The team plays in the 6-year-old Colonial Hockey League.

The new logo, unveiled this month, features a cartoon raccoon in an Ice Bandits jersey.

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"It's clearly an infringement," said Baltimore Bandits spokesman Jon Schwartz. "Their logo looks like a caricature of ours. It has a raccoon on skates with a hockey stick. It's so close, it's really unbelievable."

Not so, said Dayton spokesman Michael Thornton.

"It's very different," he said. "We have a one-toothed smiling raccoon. Their raccoon is snarling and has razor-sharp teeth."

Both Baltimore's Schwartz and Dayton's Thornton said the name and logo issue is now in the hands of their respective teams' lawyers. Neither team has shown any signs of backing down.

"The ball is in their court," said Schwartz. "Whatever they decide will determine our next action."

The Baltimore Bandits are a minor league affiliate of the National Hockey League's Anaheim Mighty Ducks, a team owned by the Disney Corp.

Disney Sports Enterprises, a marketing arm of the Los Angeles-based corporation, designed the Baltimore logo. It's based on the character Meeko from the popular Disney cartoon film "Pocahontas."

Baltimore Bandits officials hope to make about $1 million from sales of merchandise bearing the team logo this year -- a figure that only a few years ago would have been laughable.

Now, smartly designed minor league logos can generate millions of dollars in revenue for some franchises.

"Logos are big business now," Schwartz said.

Disney doesn't own a stake in the Bandits, but the Baltimore team pays the Mighty Ducks an undisclosed franchise fee each year for the use of players and other support services.

The American Hockey League, to which Baltimore's team belongs, is the equivalent of the "Triple A" minor leagues in baseball. The players in the league are one step below the major NHL.

The Colonial Hockey League is a lower tier minor league. Some of the teams are affiliated with major league franchises, and some are independently operated. The Dayton team is an independent franchise.

Hockey and baseball are the only major sports with minor leagues to develop players. But the two systems are dramatically different.

"A logo or name controversy probably wouldn't happen between two baseball teams," said Bill Pearse, a spokesman for the Lafayette, Calif.-based Coalition to Advance the Protection of Sports Logos -- a new organization that counts the four major sports leagues among its members.

"That's because all of the logos -- including the minor league teams -- are reviewed by Major League Baseball properties for copyright infringement and other concerns."

Hockey isn't tied together as tightly.

"This issue comes up from time to time," said Pearse. "I think you might see [major league] hockey address it at some point in the future."

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