The Country Music Association has asked a court’s help to stop trademark infringement on the sale of CMA Music Festival merchandise.

The CMA filed suit in U.S. District Court Wednesday, the day before the start of its headline event, claiming that various vendors have at past CMA Music Festivals have sold counterfeit T-shirts and other merchandise of inferior quality using the CMA Music Festival trademark and logos.

CMA is seeking a temporary restraining order, a permanent injunction and a court order enabling law enforcement officers to seize counterfeit merchandise on sale during this week’s festival. The organization also is asking for damages.

This morning, the court posted the temporary restraining order, which Judge William J. Haynes Jr. signed late Wednesday afternoon. It allows law-enforcement personnel, as well as "any person over the age of 18 years" selected by the CMA, to seize alleged counterfeit goods. Any property seized will be held pending a June 25 hearing.

Festival organizers claim in the court filing – available here – that the association has suffered and will suffer “substantial damages and injury to its reputation” and that the counterfeit merchandise confuses festival goers into thinking “that CMA is associated with and actually sponsored and approved the inferior quality counterfeit t-shirts.”

The court filings cite the Lanham Trademark Act and the Anti-Counterfeiting Consumer Protection Action of 1996, but also point to the success of a suit filed in Kentucky by Toby Keith and SKS Merch LLC.

In that suit, the court granted a temporary restraining order and ordered all unauthorized merchandise within a 25 miles of the performer’s upcoming concert to be seized.

CMA has an exclusive agreement with Music City Merchandise to make, distribute and sell its festival’s official merchandise. According to an affidavit by Carl Gibbs, owner of Music City Merchandise, the T-shirt bootleggers purchase defective or irregular shirts — identified by cuts through their tags — from manufacturers for as little as $1 per shirt.

They then print images on the shirts and sell them for up to $20 out of car trunks, the backs of vans or even after sneaking them into the event itself, according to the affidavit.

Gibbs claims that, when approached, counterfeiters working with backpacks or bags in the event quickly pack up their wares and blend into the crowd or surrender the counterfeit goods on them only to return to their vehicle to restock.

Gibbs’ affidavit states that, although law enforcement has tried in the past to protect his right to licensed goods and thwart the sell of counterfeit items, police gain little ground because they’re limited to handing out citations as opposed to having the power to actually seize the counterfeit merchandise.

In the suit, the CMA points out that it’s a nonprofit that “has earned substantial income and profit” from the music festival, half of which goes to Keep the Music Playing, a program focused on music education in Metro’s public schools.

And for this year’s profits, CMA said it would donate the other half to flood relief efforts.

R. Horton Frank III of the Luna Law Group PLLC brought the suit on behalf of CMA.