Former MUN women's basketball star's business in jeopardy after being accused of trademark infringement

ST. JOHN'S - What's in a name?

For Erica Kennedy, it could mean the end of six year's hard work.

Over that time, Kennedy - who is a former star on Memorial University's varsity women's basketball team - built a small business offering youth basketball programs. She holds camps throughout the year for hundreds of kids aged five to 16. She calls it Future Stars - a name that is now causing her trouble.

"I'm in a bit of a predicament," said Kennedy. "It feels like I have to start from scratch and it's very disheartening and I wonder if I should just go look for something else because I don't know if I can start all over again."

Everything was going well until last month. That's when George Short sent Kennedy a letter ordering her to cease and desist using the name Future Stars.

"I own the trademark for the name in Canada under the name Future Stars," said Short. "When we found out about (Kennedy's program), we immediately sent her a letter. It's an infringement."

Short has owned the trademark since 1990. The name is used for youth sport camps across the country including hockey, soccer and basketball. Short operates his own programs and also licenses the name to others who he says can each pay him thousands per year for the right to use the name Future Stars.

"If she wants to become a licensee, that's her business. But I've not talked to her, so I don't know," said Short.

Short says he want to "be a nice guy" and negotiate a fair fee, but he won't let Kennedy use the name for free because it's not fair to the other licensees. Short says he has sent letters in recent weeks to four groups that he discovered using the name.

"The Kitchener Rangers hockey team was running a hockey program called Future Stars about the same time as we found the one with basketball. We sent the Kitchener Rangers a letter. Within a week, everything was removed. And for them it was a big deal. They had all their stuff printed for hockey schools."

Kennedy says changing the name would be a big deal to her, too. She has hired a lawyer. She said can't afford to license the name.

"Right now I'm not 100 per cent sure what I'm going to do. I'm just a little frustrated because I've worked six years to build up my program to the point where if you say Future Stars, people have heard of it and there's name branding now. I'm after spending a few thousand dollars over the last few years getting my logos done. I'm not interested in making it a Canadian company. I have no ambition of going across the country."

In a strange twist, issues like this run in the Coultas family. Kennedy's mother, Annette Coultas is involved in a copyright lawsuit with the provincial government. It's over a school reading program Coultas developed called Read to Succeed. Coultas alleges the province acted in a conflict of interest and violated copyright laws when it tendered a reading program called Read and Succeed.

The case was filed in 2001 and has been essentially stalled in the court system ever since.

"My case is just sitting on the burner," said Coultas. "So if Erica just let it sit on the burner, who knows?"

"My mother thought she was protected and eight years later, she's no where," said Kennedy. "So part of me is asking, 'why would I change'? "

Short said that strategy would cost Kennedy a lot of money because he intends to fight his case.

"When we take legal action there will be a lawyer involved and then of course there are costs involved and that's part of the process. I'm trying to do this now so there are no costs involved. But time is drawing nigh. People have to understand we're not just doing this for exercise. When you get a letter you have to respond."