Judge: AT&T can put logo on No. 31 car

NASCAR can't stop AT&T Inc. from featuring its logo on Jeff Burton's No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, a federal judge ruled Friday.

U.S. District Court Judge Marvin Shoob in Atlanta issued a preliminary injunction barring NASCAR and any entity affiliated with it from interfering with AT&T's rights as primary sponsor of the car in NASCAR Cup Series races.

NASCAR tried to prevent the Cingular logo from being changed to the AT&T logo on Burton's car. AT&T is the sole owner of Cingular and is rebranding the cell phone company's name to AT&T.

Sprint Nextel Corp. sponsors NASCAR's premier series, the Nextel Cup, and has exclusive rights as the telecommunications company for the series. Attorneys argued the only exceptions are companies, including Cingular, that already sponsored cars when Nextel reached its agreement with NASCAR.

San Antonio-based AT&T became the full owner of Atlanta-based Cingular when it completed its purchase of Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp. in December.

Cingular argued that its rights included changing its brand name to AT&T.

In his ruling, Shoob said, "The court concludes that the continued appearance of the Cingular brand on the No. 31 car, unaccompanied by any indication that Cingular now does business as AT&T, is likely to confuse NASCAR fans."

Shoob also concluded that AT&T has shown it will suffer irreparable harm in the form of loss of goodwill and loss of exclusive rights to renew its sponsorship agreement unless the court issues the injunction.

NASCAR had argued that AT&T would be welcome to sponsor a car in NASCAR's Busch series or truck racing, but that Nextel was entitled to exclusivity through its 10-year, $700 million investment that began in 2004. It also said it could be sued by Sprint Nextel if the court granted the injunction in favor of AT&T.

"Regardless of whether Sprint Nextel could or may bring suit against NASCAR, the court finds that the threat of such a suit does not outweigh the actual and imminent irreparable harm plaintiff will suffer if the court does not issue an injunction," Shoob said in his ruling.

Attorneys for NASCAR and Sprint Nextel did not immediately return calls asking for comment.

In a statement, AT&T said it was pleased with the ruling.

"We look forward to the debut of the new paint scheme and to directing our focus back to the action on the track and to Jeff Burton's fantastic start to the 2007 season," said John Burbank, AT&T vice president of marketing.

The No. 31 car has been sponsored by Cingular Wireless LLC since 2001. Cingular had been a joint venture of AT&T and BellSouth before AT&T purchased BellSouth.

According to AT&T, earlier this year NASCAR rejected a transitional plan to change the paint scheme and introduce the AT&T logo on Burton's car. AT&T later filed suit against NASCAR.

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