PEORIA - The alphabet soup leagues are at war.
The National Indoor Football League filed a 44-page lawsuit on May 11 seeking an injunction to shut down its rival indoor leagues, including the UIF.

The Peoria Rough Riders are among 47 teams in the UIF, American Professional Football League, American Indoor Football League and Intense Football League accused of patent and copyright infringement by the NIFL.

The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Louisiana by NIFL executive director Carolyn Shiver, who is based in Lafayette.

Lawyers for the UIF were fighting over jurisdiction of the case this week, attempting to have the case moved out of Louisiana.

"Shiver claims to have a UIF document that shows a draft of our rules, and refers to use of overhead nets and other similarities with the NIFL rule book," Rough Riders owner Pat Ward said. "We don't have overhead nets. Should she win, it would mean financial damages and rules changes for our league.

"Could she put us under? I don't think so."

The United States Patent and Trademark Office lists the NIFL as holder of Patent No. 6045466 (awarded in 2000), which outlines the indoor football concept, including the configuration of the field and the rules.

The NIFL's rule book is under copyright as well, and the UIF rule book is included among 500 pages of court documents obtained by the Journal Star.

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BY DAVE EMINIAN
THE JOURNAL STAR