TELEVISION - Sept. 25, 1991

Have Patience, Win Battle: A former rodeo rider, who for decades has claimed that CBS used his trademark black silky shirt, cowboy hat, giant silver belt buckle and mustachioed cowboy persona for the 1950s series “Have Gun, Will Travel,” has won his long battle with the television industry. A federal jury in Providence, R.I., determined that Viacom International, a former CBS subsidiary, was using Victor DeCosta’s trademark without his consent by distributing the series, and awarded him $3.5 million. DeCosta, 83, feels he finally “got justice,” but said, “Most of all, what I want is to knock it off the air.” A judge is to decide Friday whether to prohibit Viacom from distributing the series, which ran from 1957-1964 and has aired in syndication ever since.