In March we reported on a lawsuit filed by the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) against smaller upstart DCKickball. It seemed that kickball behemoth WAKA was none-too-happy that DCKickball, founded by WAKA defector Carter Rabasa, was using the same rules of play and had allegedly called its larger competitor “the Microsoft of kickball.” For both indiscretions, WAKA demanded that DCKickball shell out $356,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.

Since we hadn’t heard much of the lawsuit in recent months, we assumed a judge had simply declared it the biggest waste of the judiciary’s time and thrown it out. Or at least demanded that WAKA and DCKickball settle their differences over a came of flip-cup. Apparently not.

It seems that the lawsuit is still alive and well, though it may not hit the courtroom for another 12-18 months. Rabasa recently sent out a fundraiding request to DCKickball players, asking that they throw a little money into the DCKickball Legal Defense Fund. Why? Because their lawyers, Novak Druce & Quigg, don’t come cheap, and, more importantly, winning the lawsuit would defend the “opportunity for people and organizations who care about protecting the rights of independent kickball league across the U.S. to operate without interference or intimidation.”

We’re miffed that WAKA would really push this lawsuit. After all, the rules of kickball aren’t any more proprietary than are the rules of Paper, Rock, Scissors. Moreover, Rabasa may have called WAKA “the Microsoft of kickball,” but doesn’t this lawsuit somewhat expose the fact that that’s what they are? And though WAKA could probably stand to lose a few players, we’ve heard rumors that plenty of teams defected to DCKickball once the lawsuit became public. That seems to make sense — after all, kickball has always tried to present itself as a fun, carefree alternative to organized sports.

Should this actually go to trial and reach the stage where it would merit a judgement, we’re guessing it’ll go down in American legal history alongside the hot-spilled-coffee lawsuit and the I-had-no-idea-eating-50-Big-Macs-a-day-would-be-bad-for-me lawsuit.

Right about now it should be mentioned that I played on a DCKickball team from April-July, my first foray into the sport since I was 13.