Schools

Los Altos Hills Teacher Filed for 'Linsanity' Trademark

The Pinewood school physical education teacher, who was head coach at Palo Alto High School 2008-09 also has owned the Linsanity domain name since 2010.

There's been a bit of a stir since Bloomberg News reported that two people have already filed a trademark application for the term "Linsanity."

One is an import/export trader in Southern California. And the other of them is a physical education teacher at Pinewood School and the former 2008-09 boys varsity head coach at Palo Alto High School.

Andrew Slayton, who told Patch he never coached Jeremy Lin, filed a trademark application Feb. 9 which would allow him to sell athletic apparel, namely, shirts, pants, jackets, footwear, hats and caps, athletic uniforms.

Find out what's happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Slayton, a Los Altos resident, has the domain names linsanity.com and TheBookofJeremy.com.

He told the New York Post in a Feb. 12 article that "'Linsanity” just popped into his head" while watching Lin's performance at Harvard, and that he obtained the domain names in 2010.

Find out what's happening in Los Altoswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

"Please note that I was NOT Jeremy's coach, nor have I ever said that I was, this fact was first mis-reported by guyism.com and the story has been picked up as such since then," Slayton wrote in an email to Los Altos Patch. Lin graduated Paly in 2006 while Slater became head coach in 2008.

Slayton declined to be interviewed about the trademark or the sites, which he told the New York Post were done in homage to Lin in 2010. Now the t-shirts are selling, and hits went through the roof, Slayton told guyism.com.

"We are just trying to enjoy the Jeremy Lin Show and have a bit of creative fun at the same time – as a writer, the T-Shirts and The Book of Jeremy that I am writing on the site are a blast for me but not nearly as much fun as watching Jeremy deal on Deron Williams," guyism.com's article quoted Slayton.

Meanwhile, another Pinewood School staffer is in the spotlight for a different reason. The Mercury News reported Lin's former coach at Paly, Peter Diepenbrock and Doc Scheppler, the girls basketball coach at Pinewood High School in Los Altos Hills, are flying out Saturday night to attend Sunday's game with Dallas. Lin credited Scheppler with working him last fall to improve his jump shot to the point Lin was confident in the clutch, such as Tuesday night's three-pointer with .5 seconds remaining, Newsday reported.


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