New details are emerging about an ongoing lawsuit over the Cleveland Indians' planned switch to the Guardians nickname.
A Cleveland-based flat-track roller derby team that goes by the Guardians monicker made headlines earlier this week when they sued the Indians for what they say amounts to the stealing of their trademarks in violation of legal precedent.
According to the lawsuit, the Indians attempted to purchase the trademark rights from the Guardians in June, just weeks before the public announcement in late July.
Those talks led to a "lowball offer" from the Indians, according to Kyle Jahner of Bloomberg Law.
The proposed deal would have paid the Guardians somewhere around $8,300 for the rights to their name, the report said, which is just a fraction of what the roller derby team estimated to be the Indians' $290 million in annual revenue.
The Guardians said they countered the Indians' offer, but did not get a response.
In their lawsuit, they accuse the Indians of knowingly lying by claiming to be unaware of any other entity that had the rights to "Cleveland Guardians."
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The Indians have downplayed the allegations, and told Bloomberg they are confident there's no conflict between two teams with the same name in different sports.
In the Bloomberg piece, an intellectual property lawyers recommends the Indians reach an agreement with the Guardians as quickly as possibly.
“They should make this go away,” said Andrew Skale. “They would be foolish to keep it in the system.”
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