ATLANTA, March 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) has
announced that a motion was filed today for preliminary injunctive relief
in AT&T's suit against NASCAR, seeking to expedite putting the AT&T brand
marks on the No. 31 race car. The suit was filed in United States District
Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
The injunction seeks to allow AT&T to modify the paint scheme of the
No. 31 car, which has been sponsored by Cingular since 2001. Cingular is
currently transitioning its brand name to AT&T, now that AT&T's acquisition
of BellSouth is complete.
Earlier this year, NASCAR rejected a transitional plan to change the
paint scheme that would introduce the AT&T globe on the car, leading to
AT&T filing suit against NASCAR on March 16.
AT&T's suit claims that NASCAR has violated the company's rights to
sponsor the No. 31 race car, noting grandfather clauses in the NASCAR
agreements that were designed to protect its rights after Nextel had
assumed the role of title sponsor in 2003.
The No. 31 car is owned by Richard Childress Racing and driven by
veteran Jeff Burton. Burton currently ranks second in the 2007 NASCAR
Official Driver Standings with 788 points.
"We must bring this issue to resolution," said John Burbank, AT&T vice
president of Marketing. "The season is well under way and so are our re-
branding efforts. This filing is a logical next step for us in the process,
and it is one we must pursue so that we can simply move forward with our
paint scheme -- something our relationship with NASCAR allows us to do."
This AT&T news release and other announcements are available as part of
an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss .
About AT&T
AT&T Inc. is a premier communications holding company. Its subsidiaries
and affiliates, AT&T operating companies, are the providers of AT&T
services in the United States and around the world. Among their offerings
are the world's most advanced IP-based business communications services and
the nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access, and voice
services. As part of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is
expanding video entertainment offerings to include next-generation
television services such as AT&T U-verse(SM) TV. In domestic markets, AT&T
is known for the directory publishing and advertising sales leadership of
its Yellow Pages and YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is
licensed to innovators in such fields as communications equipment.
Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services
provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at
http://www.att.com .
AT&T, AT&T logo, Cingular and Cingular logos are trademarks of AT&T
Knowledge Ventures and/or AT&T affiliated companies. Subsidiaries and
affiliates of AT&T Inc. provide products and services under the AT&T brand.
For more information, please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom
at http://www.att.com/newsroom .
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