The Oklahoma Publishing Company v. Conradt [1]

The Oklahoma Publishing Company and one of its reporters, Jacob Trotter, sued James W. Conradt in federal court in Oklahoma in July 2008, after he posted a fake article [2] that mimicked the appearance of the publishing company's NewsOK.com [3] website and purported to be written by Trotter. According to the complaint [4], the fake article falsely stated that two University of Oklahoma football players had been arrested for intent to distribute cocaine. Conradt allegedly posted links to the article from his Nebraska football fan site, darthhusker.com [5], and from the Rivals.com [6] message board. The day after it was posted, Conradt admitted creating the article [7].

The complaint included claims for federal trademark infringement and dilution, copyright infringement, federal and state unfair competition, violation of Trotter's right of publicity, false light, libel, and deceit. The parties settled for an undisclosed sum, and the court dismissd the case in September 2008.  As part of the settlement, Conradt wrote a letter of apology [8] to be published by the publishing company and Conradt and agreed to never again publish an article in a manner that makes it appear the article was published in The Oklahoman or NewsOK.com.