NAU - Nookie Always University?

College, porn maker settle dispute over name
Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — National American University has agreed to drop its lawsuit accusing a California pornography provider of trademark violations and cyber piracy for its use of Naughty American University and the acronym NAU.

The school’s parent company, Dlorah Inc., filed the federal complaint in Rapid City, where the company is based, against La Touraine Inc., a Nevada corporation based in San Diego.

National American University offers online degrees and has 16 campuses in South Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas.

The privately owned NAU announced last month it’s merging with Baltimore-based Camden Learning Corp. The $162 million deal is to be completed in November. The new publicly held company will be known as NAU Holdings Inc.

The lawsuit, filed in May, sought to prevent the use of the school’s trademark and asked for financial damages.

According to the complaint, La Touraine registered a domain name in 2003 and started offering pornographic and sexually explicit adult entertainment services under a Web site called Naughty American University. In 2004, the company began selling sexually explicit content with college and academic themes under a Web site named Fast Times at NAU, the lawsuit states.

The first site has since removed college themes, though it still sells porn. The other site is now under construction.

I found this story especially interesting, not just because it deals with porn but because the volleyball coach at my former job used to coach for NAU. You would think an institution of higher learning could learn to take a joke. Plus, is anyone really getting National American Univ. and Naughty American Univ. confused? How many times has a potential coed showed up on a casting couch thinking she was going to freshman orientation? How often has a retiree ended up being cast in a "mature" movie when she was just trying to go back and get some credit toward her bachelor's degree? I'd say not often enough.