Council of Presidents: African-American Sororities and Fraternities File Trademark Infringement Suit Against Converse.

Business Editors

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 19, 2003

Suit Alleges That Converse Gained at the Expense of

African-American Groups and Consumers

The Council of Presidents announced today that they have sued sports apparel company Converse, Inc. for trademark infringement and deceptive trade practices.

"We were concerned that Converse, using unfair competition and infringing upon our groups' intellectual property, had deliberately and callously decided to target the members of our organizations for sales of its shoes without obtaining any sort of permission from our groups," said Helen Owens, Chair of the Council of Presidents and national president of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc.

The lawsuit, which has been filed in the United District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division, maintains that Converse has been manufacturing, marketing, and selling athletic footwear, called the GreekPak, to members and supporters of African-American fraternities and sororities and that this conduct constitutes trademark and trade dress infringement, as well as unfair competition and deceptive trade practices. As indicated by Harry Johnson, national president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., "The Converse shoes we're looking at contain the identical founding year and organizational colors as our respective organizations and was an obvious attempt by Converse to capitalize on the goodwill our groups have worked so hard to develop. This was no coincidence." The lawsuit charges that Converse has enriched itself at the expense of the African-American fraternities and sororities and the unsuspecting consumers who believe that Converse has permission from and endorsement by these African-American groups to sell these shoes. The lawsuit seeks damages for past acts of infringement, punitive damages, and requests that Converse be enjoined from continuing to sell these products without permission. Converse was purchased by Nike in September 2003.

"This lawsuit will send the message to large and small companies that our organizations will aggressively protect our rights and will not tolerate anyone infringing upon these rights without us taking action. If any person or organization wants the right to market our intellectual property, they must come to us to discuss a license or endorsement agreement. If they don't, they may find themselves in court, said George Grace, national president of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. To be fair, competition has to be based on a level playing field -- companies must compete on the basis of originality and according to the laws of this country. All we ask is that Converse play by these rules and stop infringing our rights."

The Council of Presidents is comprised of the heads of the nine predominately African-American fraternities and sororities, which includes Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc., Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, Inc., and Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Inc. The Council of Presidents represents the interests of the hundreds of thousands of its members, who are in fields such as medicine, law, professional sports, bi-partisan elective offices, accounting, engineering, aviation, finance and banking, print and broadcast media, entertainment, sales, law enforcement, firefighting, communications, teaching, telecommunications, data processing, human resources, social work, etc.

The Council of Presidents collaborates on matters upon which the National Pan Hellenic Council organizations share a common interest. The nine NPHC member organizations each have hundreds of chapters on college campuses and alumni chapters in cities across the world and are actively involved in programs that enrich the educational and economic lives of African-Americans.

Intellectual property litigation attorneys Aubrey "Nick" Pittman of Dallas, (214-459-3454) and John S. Kendall of Chicago, (312-857-1997) represent the fraternities and sororities in the lawsuit.