Just how far down the road does the Texas Dept. of Transportation want to take its court battle with a Houston romance novelist, her publisher, and a bookstore? Yesterday a federal judge in Austin denied TxDOT’s request for a restraining order that would have required all 35,000 copies of a new book to be recalled from distributors and destroyed — and be given a new title. Christie Craig’s shirtless-hunk-filled novel, Don’t Mess with Texas, was released on Tuesday. TxDOT complained that the book used the agency’s trademarked slogan for a statewide anti-littering campaign as its title without permission. But under questioning, TxDOT’s attorneys had conceded that none of the trademark registrations for the phrase “Don’t Mess with Texas” specifically covers books. In his decision, Judge Sam Sparks found that point significant, and noted that the costs of recalling the book would likely be very high.
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But Judge Sparks appears to be somewhat skeptical of the book’s potential mass appeal. “Finally, in light of the questionable popularity of Defendants’ book, any harm TxDOT might suffer is merely speculative,” he writes in his opinion. Has he even read the thing? An attorney for the defendants tells the Austin Business Journal he doesn’t know whether TxDOT will proceed with the lawsuit.
- Judge: Author can ‘mess with Texas’ all she wants [Austin Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Don’t Mess with Don’t Mess with Texas
TXDot needs to practice what it preaches. Spur 527 at Richmond is an absolute mess, full of all varieties of garbage. They also need to take down the dead pine trees there before the beetles attack and spread through the neighborhood. TXDot has money for landscaping but none for maintenance; so quit all the landscaping. Also, street people camp out and hide in the dense growth. It’s a shelter for some of their necessary activities.
Leave it to TXDOT to mess with romance novels and other little people for messing with their anti-litter slogan. I guess TXDOT doesn’t want to pick fights with people with missiles. People like the U.S. Navy whose nuclear submarine, USS Texas, carries the motto, “Don’t Mess With Texas.”
Obviously TxDOT hasn’t heard of the term “Streisand Effect.” (See Wikipedia Entry)
As a result of the publicity, my bet is the book will sell out, if only for the collectors. For me, personally, when I read about the lawsuit, I trotted over to Barnes and Noble’s website and bought the eBook, just to stick a thumb in their eye.
Lighten up, Rick.