While watching the game at the OVO Bounce men's basketball tournament in 2014, McKeyra Peter's hoop dream to create a social network for basketball came to him.

He called it BALLINTHE6, which also described the look of the logo he designed. It was a nod to international hip hop star Drake and his nickname for Toronto.

"Drake had just said he was from the Six and I came up with the six degrees of basketball," Peter told CBC Toronto..

Peter's plan included raising money for an app to bring those six degrees together — players, teams, coaches, fans, leagues and the business.

McKeyra Peter's BALLINTHE6 logo was created in 2014. He says he was 'bewildered' when he found out Mitchell & Ness, a subsidiary of Adidas at the time, was selling Raptors-related products with a similar logo. 1:31

Between 2014 and the summer of 2015, he had a BALLINTHE6 kickstarter account, products on social media sites and giveaways at events like Raptors games.

Then at the OVO Bounce basketball tournament in the summer of 2015, where it all began a year before — it all started to crumble.

'Extremely similar'

"Someone called me and they said that they'd bought one of the BALLINTHE6 T-shirts in stores. Obviously I was a bit bewildered" he said.

"Less than five minutes later I saw someone walking in front of me. I'm like, 'Yo, that looks like my T-shirt but it's not my T-shirt.'"

He said the shirt's logo had the same font as his creation, except with a tiny slant. It had the numbers 416.

With his logo, the number "6" has a basketball in its centre. This other logo also had a basketball in the centre of the "6" but the stripes were the Raptor's claws.

.<a href="https://twitter.com/Mitchellness">@mitchellness</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Scarface?src=hash">#Scarface</a> collection is now in 🇨🇦 stores. <a href="https://t.co/5GB3Tz9KFK">pic.twitter.com/5GB3Tz9KFK</a> —@champssports

"This is virtually the exact same with a very minor alteration and regardless it's BALLINTHE6. It's a descriptive name," Peter said.

Peter said he found out the shirt was made by Mitchell & Ness, a subsidiary of Adidas at the time.

It was being sold at Champs Sports stores.

"My heart dropped because you know I'm self-employed ... and to see someone, a large company who has the resources have something extremely similar to your logo, it's very trying."

At that time, because of the cost of going through lawyers, he decided not to do anything and just hoped the company was only selling two types of shirts.

A few months later he came across more products.

"When we found out that it was six products and then found out that it was across Canada, I almost had my back to the wall," said the designer.

Battle for BALLINTHE6

After the 2016 NBA All Star weekend in Toronto, Peter decided to take action.

He started emailing officials with the Raptors and Adidas.

'My heart dropped,' says McKeyra Peter about discovering that Mitchell & Ness products had what he says is a similar logo to his. (Makda Ghebreslassie/CBC)

He says in March, he was contacted by lawyer Will Federspiel, who was handling the matter for Mitchell & Ness.

Peter says he was assured over the phone and in emails that the matter was being investigated.

Although the company did not agree that it infringed on his rights, Peter said he was told all the products were removed from stores in May.

But Peter says that didn't happen and in July he purchased one of the hats and kept the receipt as proof.

In a phone conversation with CBC Toronto on Thursday, Federspiel said "our policy is not to comment on matters of the sort raised by Mr. Peter."

Federspiel was asked whether Mitchell & Ness have removed the products from all stores, whether he disagrees that the BALLINTHE6 logo is similar to the logo used by Mitchell & Ness, and was the company still negotiating with Mr. Peter.

His response was that the company had no comment.

Legal advice

As part of his discussion with the company, Peter says he was asked to provide his monetary demand to settle the matter.

Peter turned to lawyer Bruno Soucy, who specializes in intellectual property rights, for help.

"From a financial prospective he's suffered," Soucy told CBC Toronto.

Soucy said he's not at liberty to disclose how many products Mitchell & Ness claimed to have sold.

He also could not reveal how much the company offered to settle the matter.

"Let's just say it was less than five percent than what we were asking and it would be a fraction of the costs that McKeyra spent on legal fees to date," said Soucy.

Although the outcome was not ideal, Soucy does give the company credit for agreeing to no longer have those products with that logo.

Bruno Soucy, a partner at Blaney and McMurtry LLP, took on Peter's case. (Makda Ghebreslassie/CBC)

Soucy believes other entrepreneurs could learn from this experience.

He says his client's copyright protection began the minute he designed the logo. Which should prevent it from being duplicated.

But duplicated and a similar design are two different things, he says.

Soucy says a registered trademark could have given him more protection in the event of similar designs.

Peter filed an application for a registered trademark in 2014, but bumps along the way have caused some delays.

Soucy said, had the trademark application been finalized and registered, Peter "probably would have been taken a little more seriously."

Given that a trademark application usually takes between 12 to 18 months, Soucy advises that entrepreneurs go through the process before launching their products.

Still McKeyra is holding out hope that he will be compensated for going to battle for his BALLINTHE6 logo.

"It's all about what's right."