They website’s owners are apparently claiming ownership of the word “politico” — a term found in the dictionary and with a long history in the American vocabulary.

This is the second time Allbritton Communications will have gone after this particular blogger, whose site design and branding look nothing like the news website. The only coincidence is the word “politico” — again, a term found in the dictionary.

In a three-page letter from D.C. law firm Dow Lohnes, an attorney representing Politico explained that because Gutowski’s conservative college blog covered “the same subject matter” as Politico, Gutowski would have to stop publishing and hand over his domain.

Thanks to a pro bono legal team composed of Josephy Leone and Tyler Sisk, that never happened. Gutowski graduated in May 2009, but kept using his site, which he says is completely distinguishable from Politico.com.

“I was lucky enough from the publicity from the blogosphere I was able to get some pro bono legal represenstaion,” Gutowski told The Daily Caller. “There were talks between [Politico's] lawyers and my lawyers, and then it just sort of stopped several months ago.”

Until this week, when Gutowski received another take-down notice [PDF], this time arguing that he’s “squatting” on the TheCollegePolitico.com domain.

“We have not received any response to our demand that Mr. Gutowski immediately cease all use of any marks or domain names that are confusingly similar to the POLITICO Marks, including all use of the mark THE COLLEGE POLITICO and the domain name ‘thecollegepolitico.com,’ and that Mr. Gutowski promptly take all necessary steps to transfer ‘thecollegepolitico.com’ domain name to out client,” the letter reads.

In other words, Gutowski — who has built up his own blogging brand — should just hand over his domain and blog because Politico wants it. The legal justification? Both sites contain the word “politico” in the name. Under that legal reasoning the New York Times would be justified in shutting down the Los Angeles Times. People may get confused!

Politico is engaging in thug tactics with no actual legal justification behind its actions. From this point forward I pledge not to link the site, and I encourage other bloggers to do the same.