Swim club threatens legal action if new hoops team doesn’t drop
name
GILROY – An ongoing squabble over the Gilroy Gators’ name has reached its pinnacle this week as the long-standing, well-known swim club has issued a final mandate for the first-year junior high basketball organization to change its name.
Attorney Mark Good – representing the swim club – demands that head basketball coach Ed Jensen drop the name and sign an agreement never to use any variation of Gilroy Gators or legal action will be forthcoming.
“This is ridiculous that it has escalated to a point where the Gilroy Gators (swim club) had to get an attorney. The way (the basketball program) is reacting defies common sense,” said Good, who cited violations of unfair competition under California State Law as well as trademark infringement under Federal Law.
Coach Jensen – who formed an AAU travel 13-14 year old hoops team made up of local players mostly from South Valley Junior High and Brownell Academy – has officially changed his program’s name to the Gilroy Basketball Association.
“I don’t want it to be a battle,” Jensen said. “We are changing our name. We want the community to support us and the swim team. But we just want people to know that we changed our name and the reason behind it.”
The underlying reason for the swim club’s legal action has to do with fundraising in the Gilroy area, according to Good, a long-time Gilroyan who works for the Davis & Schroeder lawfirm in Monterey.
“Obviously, it’s a problem. If you say who are the Gators to anybody around Gilroy they know it’s the Gilroy Gators swim club,” said Good, a retired Gilroy police officer . “They have a common law trademark because their known in the area as the Gators or Gilroy Gators so this basketball team cannot fundraise in Gilroy using the Gator name.”
Jensen claims he did not know about the Gilroy Gators swim club and allowed his players to name their own team. They chose the Gators after the Gators from the University of Florida, Jensen said. They wear orange-and-blue uniforms just like the college team.
“I think that it just shows you where we are as a society when they start dragging in attorneys for something that is meant for kids and that this is a situation, as is the swim club, where we have the opportunity to be positive role models in these kids lives,” Jensen said. “So that they don’t start running the streets and hopefully this gives the kids an opportunity to reach out for their goals and dreams. That’s why we do it.”
After an March 28 article published in The Dispatch on the basketball team – then named the Gilroy Gators – Jensen said he received a letter from Good on May 6 stating that he needed to seize using the team name as well as shut down his Web site at gilroygators.com.
“First thing I did was I looked them up,” said Jensen, who then contacted Good and agreed to change his team’s name. “I said we’d drop the name Gilroy Gators and then I changed the name in the next article to GatorHoops.
“I then received another letter saying we were not allowed to use that name either because the good people of Gilroy can’t tell the difference between GatorHoops and the Gilroy Gators swim team.”
The Gilroy Gators swim club – now more than 200 swimmers deep – was established in the 1960s and has 0been incorporated for more than 20 years. So when the swim club noticed the article on the basketball team using the same name and saw that they were fundraising under the name, they contacted Good.
Good – whose daughter, now 28, was a swimmer for the Gators as a child – took up the case on a pro-bono basis, something his law firm rarely does but made an exception this time. Good then called Jensen, outlined the laws he was violating, and told him to stop using the name.
On May 8, Good received an e-mail from Jensen notifying him that his basketball team would no longer use the Gator name.
“I figured it was over and done with and everyone went on their way. Then we saw that they were using GatorHoops and we were back to square one again,” Good said. “He thinks he’s done nothing wrong, but it’s a violation of the California unfair competition law and a trademark infringement.”
“It’s a common sense thing. It’s beyond me that he doesn’t get it,” Good added.
Jensen, however, thought he did what the swim club asked by changing the name to GatorHoops.
“I am just thoroughly blown away by it,” Jensen said. “We don’t have money to hire attorneys over this… I sent him (Good) an e-mail stating we don’t want to be served. They can have the name. We don’t want it.”
Good, not wanting another misunderstanding like the first time, now wants something in writing.
“The Gators were satisfied with his verbal affirmation made earlier. We thought it was done the first time without having it in writing,” Good said. “Now we want something in writing… I’d like to hear from Mr. Jensen and for him to say, ‘yes, we’ll stop using the Gator name.’ He talks to everyone except the person he needs to.”
Jensen – who has yet to receive or sign any documents affirming the action – went on KSBW News with his story last week. Good was also interviewed on the broadcast, giving the swim club’s position.
“I just went into the story and how this is for the kids, not for the name or the money,” Jensen said. “Nobody owns the name Gator. Why can’t we call ourselves GatorHoops? If we fundraise in the community, people are not going to be confused about what organization they are giving to. We’re not trying to deceive anybody.”
Along with the use of the team name, Good said that the use of the Web site – as gilroygators.com – is similar to what his lawfirm deals with on a consistent basis called “cyber squatting”. He cited code 15 USC 1125D.
“It’s very common,” Good said. “They either try to pass themselves off as the trademark and sell products or in this case fundraise, or they try to sell the Web site name back to the trademark company.”
Jensen – who is from Gilroy, grew up in South San Jose, and lived in Morgan Hill after college – has since shut down the Web site and started another one under the name g-hoops.com.
“I’m just ready to sign (the agreement). I just want it to go away,” Jensen said. “I think it will be a dead issue. If I had the money and time, I would completely fight this… We did nothing wrong. We’re just trying to do something good. As soon as we found out about it being a problem, we changed our name.”
So the Gilroy Basketball Association – headed up by Jensen as well as his brother Cord Jensen, an assistant at Brownell Academy – will no longer use the Gators in any way, shape or form. But Jensen wants to expand his program into other age groups and allow the players on each team to choose their own name.
“To be honest with you, I look up to swim club. That’s what I want our basketball club to be in 40 years. I want to leave that legacy,” Jensen said. “My dream in life was always to establish a community program. I am very passionate about giving back to the community and leaving something for many kids and families to go through. It’s always been my dream.”
Aside from the controversy over the team name, Jensen has begun his dream. His 13-14 year old squad won the championship by going undefeated in the highly-touted Oakland Slam-N-Jam League. They are considered one of the top eight travel teams in Northern California.
“They really clicked and bought into our philosophy of defense,” Jensen said. “You’re talking about kids coming from Gilroy going up against teams from San Francisco and Oakland who can just pull from an abundant of talent,”
The first-year program amassed an overall record of 15-2 – warranting a berth into the national championship tournament July 29-August 1 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
“It means the world to our kids,” Jensen said. “Now we are having teams contact us because they want to play in tournaments in our community. We keep hearing over and over again, ‘I had no idea Gilroy had ballers.'”
The basketball team wants to be able to fundraise within Gilroy and has gotten support from city council member Charlie Morales. The team will hold a car wash this weekend on the corner of Monterey and Leavsely at the old Marx Chevrolet lot. All proceeds will go to the team. To send in donations, call Ed Jensen at 464-3619 or go to g-hoops.com.
