Orange County Register July 9th 1997

 Dan Holt says he just wants what is his _ the winged "A" on every Angels baseball cap.

The Anaheim Angels have a new logo this year, unveiled with much flourish and fanfare in December. It was designed by a team of artists, they said, who envisaged a new team, a new era for Angels baseball.

With an old logo, says Holt. His.

He says he drew it up in 1993 for his Hollister Angels semipro baseball team.

"I'm not out to get rich off Disney," Holt says. "I want what's rightfully mine. How do you put a dollar figure on time and heart?"

Holt has notified the entertainment giant, which owns the Angels, that he thinks they have infringed on his trademark. Disney lawyers are claiming Holt is improperly using their logo and ordered the semipro club to cease using the "A" and the Angels name.

No lawsuits yet; the sides are exchanging letters and evidence asserting their own rights to the slanted vowel. Disney lawyers last week referred the matter to Major League Baseball officials, who own the rights to the logo.

In a letter to Holt, Disney lawyer Miriam Beezy said that the Hollister Angels logo "infringes the prior established trademark rights" of the Anaheim Angels.

"We must request that the Hollister Angels and Mr. Holt cease any and all use of the Angels name and Hollister logo," Beezy wrote.

Now Holt is mad.

"What are they going to do, stop the Hell's Angels from using the name? The Guardian Angels? What about kids playing Little League?"

Holt, 35, a former tree service worker, is the general manager and designated hitter for the Hollister Angels, of the American Amateur Association, Stan Musial Division. Players get no pay. The team, which shares Veterans Memorial Park with the Babe Ruth League for teen-age boys, has been around for 14 years and has had a variety of names, including the Yankees.

Four years ago, the team wanted a new identity. They picked Angels after finding out few amateur teams were using the name.

Then Holt went about creating a logo. Playing around with some colored pencils one day in December 1993, he put a slant on the "A" and hooked on an Angel's wing. He took it to catcher Joseph Diaz, a dabbling artist, who polished the drawing and added some color. The new logo went on the uniforms for the 1994 season.

Three years later, the Anaheim Angels unveiled their new logo during a news conference at Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim. Holt's phone started ringing.

He got letters like this one: "I recently saw the new look of the professional California Angels ball club," wrote Jerry Nutter, president of the Humboldt Crabs baseball club on Jan. 21. "It looks to me that it's virtually identical to the logo you have been using the past few seasons. It caused me to wonder if you are now affiliated with them and, if so, what might that affiliation mean to your status as a semipro team? I hope it won't rule out your Angels playing against the Crabs!"

People started asking Holt if he was working for the Angels. He's afraid that in a few years, people in Hollister, a city of 19,000, about 40 miles south of San Jose, will think the symbol wasn't his at all.

"We've got 4,500 man-hours invested in this team, in this logo," Holt says. "People are going to think we stole it from Anaheim and I'm not a thief."

Holt, who hustled to get his trademark registered after Disney released its mark, has no proof Disney stole it. But he believes the opportunity was there. "We play down south, up north, we've been on web pages, we play in front of scouts. The likelihood of them seeing my logo is pretty good," Holt says.

Disney spokesman John Dreyer says he doesn't think so. He "didn't know there was a Hollister Angels." He says the Angels have had their name 30 years and have "used various wings and halos. His claim is without merit."

Dreyer also noted the little halo around the "A" "seems to have been on the Angels logo for a long, long time."

U.S. Patent and Trademark law is a complicated thing. But Holt might have a case if he can prove the Hollister Angels winged mark was already well established in Hollister before the Angels unveiled their logo, said Julianne Blair Bochinski, a trademark and patent attorney in Connecticut.

Holt knows that Disney, which is already selling Anaheim Angels merchandise, probably isn't going back to the drawing board. But if the company insists he give up his Hollister Angel symbol, then they'll have to pay a price.

Holt wants six figures for his trouble, partly for buying new uniforms with new logos and designing a new logo for his team.

And he wants one more thing from the entertainment giant.

A new ballfield.

One with dugouts and lights and some bleachers. So the fans will have stands to sit in and the team wouldn't have to play all their games on Sunday.

"They can call it Disney Field if they want," says Holt's lawyer Peter Brock. "It might help their image."

Disney hasn't shown much interest.

"It's like they're saying, `You're little so we can step on you,' " Holt says. "I'm not easily intimidated."
Illustration

ILLUSTRATION; Caption: LOGO DUEL: The Hollister Angels logo, top, and the Anaheim Angels logo, above, introduced in '97.