Court rules that AT&T cannot file suit against NASCAR

Hey, it’s been a while since we’ve seen anything on the AT&T/NASCAR front. That’s a good thing in one way, since it gives us time to focus on other aspects of the wireless community. It’s a bad thing, though, since we are eager to see how this case will be resolved. We’ve been firmly in AT&T’s corner on this one, arguing that AT&T’s buyout of Cingular should give them the right to rebrand any sponsorships. It would be silly to roll out a Cingular car when there is no longer a company called Cingular. However, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals didn’t agree, saying that AT&T “doesn’t have the right to sue NASCAR over a sponsorship disagreement.” This doesn’t meant that NASCAR can forcibly remove the logos from the No. 31 car — for now. AT&T has five days to decide what to do, so they’ll have the logos on the car for this Sunday’s event at Michigan International Speedway. They really have two options: remove the logos, or ask the 12-member appeals court to reconsider the ruling. Should they deny appeal, AT&T would have to go to the U.S. Supreme Court for a hearing. We think there’s little doubt that AT&T will pursue this until it cannot be explored any further. They’re in it this deep, so they might as well take it all the way to the top. However, the ruling from the 11th Circuit seems rather damning.

The 11th Circuit panel ruled AT&T had no legal standing to bring the lawsuit in the first place and, for this reason, can no longer try and interpret Richard Childress Racing’s agreement with NASCAR to its advantage. The court noted that AT&T was not a party to the sponsorship contract signed by NASCAR and Richard Childress Racing. Moreover, the court said, AT&T was not the intended beneficiary of RCR’s agreement and any benefit AT&T gained from it was merely “incidental.”

Heh, so it appears that we may have misinterpreted how the sponsorship contracts were drawn up — or were at least misled by the previous judge in this case, Marvin Shoob. We were to understand that the sponsorship agreement was between AT&T and Richard Childress Racing, with no intervention from NASCAR. However, if the agreement is between RCR and NASCAR, well, that puts a completely different spin on the story. Thankfully, this seems to be winding down. AT&T may have been dealt the death blow by the 11th Circuit. It would be some spectacle, though, if this was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]]>