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A motivational post on Twitter by the King’s College football coach not only failed to spur his team to victory, it also resulted in a copyright infringement lawsuit against him and the school.
An Austin, Texas sports psychologist filed suit against the school and coach Jeffery Knarr nearly two years after the Monarchs lost to the rival Wilkes University Colonels 24-17 in the Nov. 12, 2015 Wilkes-Barre Mayor’s Cup game.
On his Twitter page leading up the game, Knarr retweeted a post, “Winning Isn’t Normal,” that contained a passage from Keith Bell Ph.D.’s 1981 copyrighted book by the same name, according to the suit filed Monday in U.S. District Court, Scranton.
Knarr copied the post from Northeastern State University of Tahlequah, Okla., that responded to a cease and desist letter from Bell in September 2016 and removed it from its account and subsequently cleared all retweets, according to the suit. But prior to its removal the post remained on Knarr’s Twitter page for approximately 11 months and likely inferred that either he or Northeastern State U. originated it rather than Bell, the suit said.
The suit said King’s was at fault because it failed to direct Knarr to remove the infringing post.
“Defendants have engaged in unfair competition by passing off the text as theirs and obtained a windfall by using without compensating plaintiff for that which they were legally obligated,” the suit said.
Bell is seeking unspecified damages, alleging copyright infringement, state and federal trademark infringement and unfair competition.
John McAndrew, a spokesman for King’s, said it is school policy not to comment on pending litigation.