The Nets have been playing well lately, much to the chagrin of certain local blog editors who made fun of their expensive haircuttery right before this hot streak. Still, that doesn’t mean everything is great in the Nets Land. Brook Lopez is still injured, they still have no draft picks in the future and now some lunatic is suing them for $600 million because he says he patented the name “Brooklyn Nets” ten years before they came carpetbagging across the river.
Even for committed Nets haters like ourselves, this shit is just cuckoo bananas. The plaintiff, one Dr. Francois de Cassagnol, claims that he patented the name “Brooklyn Nets” in 2003 in the state of Louisiana. He also says that in talking with the Nets, the organization promised him the team name would be the “New York Nets.” Jeez, if we can’t trust our basketball team, who can we trust?
Instead of the New York Nets though, we got the Brooklyn Nets, because Brooklyn is cool. de Cassagnol appealed to the US Patent Office to put a stop to the whole thing, but he didn’t get anywhere with it, since they helpfully pointed out that paperwork he filed was submitted after the team was rumored to be moving to Brooklyn. Still, the “disgruntled entrepreneur” is soldering on and is taking his fight against Jay-Z, the Nets, Bruce Ratner and Brett Yormark to US District Court. Our solution? An amicable settlement that lets de Cassagnol have the patent on “Brooklyn Nets” in other states, like Ohio and Minnesota.