Jay Bilas, an ESPN college basketball analyst, tells the Observer’s Scott Fowler about the time he subpoenaed Barney the Dinosaur to appear in court.

By Jeff Siner / The Charlotte Observer

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Most famous case I think was when you Went against Barney the dinosaur yeah That's that's the one that that brings a Smile to everyone's face and wants me to This day You may have even known this person's Name was Philip Morris he was a costume Uh yeah Morris costumes Morris costumes And he was a he was a a famous guy in Charlotte back in the 60s and 70s had His own TV show and he referred to Himself as the Colonel Sanders of the Costume industry and he was being sued By the company that owned Barney for a Copyright and trademark infringement Because he had he along with others Around the country had costumes that They felt looked too much like Barney That he would rent out and people would Use for birthday parties things like That so when the case first walk through The door my first thought was we need to Settle this because this looks exactly Like Barney you know the company was Just protecting their trademark Copyright rights they have to do that But they had a they had I don't want to Say animus but they had a they had a Difficulty with this guy and they wanted To make an example out of them for Others and so the amount they were Asking for to settle was way over what They would get at trial so we had no Chance to settle it so we had to take it

To trial it went to trial in the Western District of North Carolina in the in the Federal court system before judge Graham Mullen and I had to stand up you know I Always thought in law school I'd be Arguing these you know complex cases Maybe some sort of constitutional First Amendment issue and it'd be really Hoity-toity and here I am arguing over Over Barney the purple dinosaurs I Actually had the subpoena Barney to the Trial whoa uh because the other you know The opposing counsel pissed me off so Bad that I I said screw it i'm Subpoenaing this thing to the trial and When they were when they were arguing Against the Barney being brought in one Of the arguments they made to the judge Was you know they're only a certain Amount of these costumes they're all Being used at shows around the country At least you have traveling Barney shows We actually went to one of them with our Kids and they said and argued that it Was too unwieldy because the costume was So big you know it's six foot eight Inches tall and all like getting into The courtroom and it weighed like 240 Pounds and I stood up and said your Honor I'm six eight two forty I got in Here just fine and the judge ordered it To the trial It was so stupid but it was it was funny

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