Kansas are a Bunch of Logo Stealing Jabronis Who Don’t Deserve to Win: An Opinion

[BBTV]

Saw this in a blog I occasionally read and thought it was relevant here.  Definitely not claiming I agree with all of this - it's just the author's opinion.  Now I totally get Kansas (why are they KU rather than UK?  Is UK TMd by Kentucky?) defending their trademark - that's the whole point of trademarking something - I don't get how it took so long to come to a licensing agreement (or whatever you'd call it) since, as noted, there's no confusion possible and the TM is (IMO) mostly done for athletic reasons and merch, for which there's no competition between schools here.

 

Also, I disagree with the author, who is implying that Kansas spent 4x the amount of money for the same logo as Kutztown.  I'm willing to bet that the 4x included a lot more branding work since the Kansas stuff will have a broader reach than a a school who markets to the Lehigh Valley and Philadelphia and isn't on TV and doesn't sell as wide a variety of merch.  The package probably also included a lot of non-athletic marks, and things like letterheads too.  Plus, why shouldn't a firm charge more to client A when their work is going to generate client A 100x the revenue of similar work for client B?

 

 

 

 

http://www.crossingbroad.com/2016/03/kansas-are-a-bunch-of-logo-stealing-jabronis-who-dont-deserve-to-win-an-opinion.html

 

Kansas are a Bunch of Logo Stealing Jabronis Who Don’t Deserve to Win: An Opinion

 15

Jim Adair - March 25, 2016

 

The University of Kansas – known as KU for some backwards reason – advanced to the Elite Eight last night on the back of Perry Ellis, who went to high school with your dad. They’ll face off against Kyle Scott’s Villanova Wildcats tomorrow night, and that alone is plenty of reason for me to root for Kansas. But there are so many reasons to dislike them. For example, they’re quasi-affiliated with Marlins Man. They’re also a bunch of logo stealing dickwads who ripped off their logo and wouldn’t admit it.

In 2003, my Alma mater, Kutztown University, did a branding overhaul and paid a firm $20,000 to develop a new set of logos for the school and its athletic teams. The “KU” they paid for is above on the left. Two years later, the University of Kansas – who should be UK and I will hear no arguments otherwise – paid a Pacific Northwest firm $88,900 for their new logo, which is similar to Kutztown’s in the way that Bruno Mars’ “Gorilla” is “similar” to about a dozen different Prince songs.

Sure, Kansas has owned the trademark on “KU” for higher education purposes since 1979, but I refuse to acknowledge it because that’s some Midwestern nonsense.

The earliest story I could find on the dispute is from 2005 and it consistently refers to Kutztown as Kutzdown (nice work, Associated Press), but acknowledges there wasn’t much of a competition between the schools so it was no big deal. It does contain this sick burn from a Kutztown senior though:

“What do I care?” he asked. “It’s so far away.”

He said he wasn’t even that familiar with Kansas University.

“I have heard of it. Your colors are, I guess, purple and white?” he said.

Those are the colors of Kansas’ in-state rival, Kansas State, who as far as I know aren’t low-down logo thieves.

But a month later, things heated up. Kansas was considering pulling the trademark card to get Kutztown to change their logo, completely going against the well accepted legal precedent of “we had it first.” The schools were looking into “cross-licensing” deals but Kansas said making a legal move was unlikely.

Fast forward a couple of months, when Kansas and Kutztown were close to a binding agreement “allowing Kutztown” to use the KU initials, and had mostly moved on from the ordeal. Kutztown acknowledged that they weren’t on Kansas’ academic or athletic level, especially since, by law, Kutztown’s student-body had to be 90% Pennsylvanian. But this wasn’t good enough for Kansas, who at this point had their uniform shorts in such a bunch that they began to carry Kutztown’s maroon colorway. Paul Carttar, Kansas’ executive vice chancellor for external affairs (which I refuse to think wasn’t also a title in the USSR), wouldn’t take it lightly. “We are relevant to Pennsylvania,” Carttar said. “Wilt Chamberlain was a Philadelphian.”

Excuse me while I roll my eyes so hard I pass out for a few minutes.

Okay, I’m back.

Kutztown was realistic about the whole thing. “If somebody out there has $100 million, we’d be happy to become Joe Smith University,” Philip Breeze, Kutztown’s then Director of Communications said. “For the right price, this university can have your name on it, probably.”

A bit later, the schools settled and both continue to use their logos today. But that’s the story of how Kansas spent four times as much money for the same logo as a small state school in PA, two years later, and got so embarrassed about it that they started name-dropping Wilt Chamberlain. They deserve no wins, they deserve no joy, and they should go by UK – Kentucky be damned.

 

Go ‘Nova.

 

[timberwolf]

Amen. Go 'Nova.

 

This was an interesting read. Odd how no ones heard of this before....#coverups.

[slapshot]

Maybe the University of Kansas goes by "KU" for the same reason the University of Oklahoma goes by "OU".

 

Off the top of my head, UCLA, USC, UMass (and UMass-Lowell), UConn, UNH, and BU (Boston University) are the first schools I think of that actively include the word "university" in the school's commonly referred-to name and athletics branding.

 

Aside from state schools, like Arizona State, tOSU, etc., most universities names after states just go by the state's name, without the "university": Michigan, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee, etc. Even Kansas mostly goes by just "Kansas". Surprised they don't just use a K.

[camly]

Interesting read, although I don't understand the hate for Marlins Man.

[Lights Out]

1 hour ago, slapshot said:

Maybe the University of Kansas goes by "KU" for the same reason the University of Oklahoma goes by "OU".

It was an old Big Eight Conference thing - they all put the "U" last in their initials regardless of where it was in the actual school name: KU, OU, NU, ISU, CU, KSU, MU, and OSU. Not sure why, honestly.

[MJWalker45]

On 3/28/2016 at 8:08 PM, Lights Out said:

It was an old Big Eight Conference thing - they all put the "U" last in their initials regardless of where it was in the actual school name: KU, OU, NU, ISU, CU, KSU, MU, and OSU. Not sure why, honestly.

Maybe to identify the conference as belonging to those states in the league? Just glancing at those logos without taking the time to measure distance and such, I can tell they belong to different schools. Unfortunately it's probably because I've worked in graphic arts since high school so I can notice subtle differences without even thinking about it.

[-kj]

On 3/26/2016 at 2:13 PM, BringBackTheVet said:

 

Go ‘Nova.

 

The real sin here is the use of an opening single quote in place of an apostrophe.

[BBTV]

apostrophe catastrophe.

[LEWJ]

I didn't read this as soon as I realized they refer to those "KU" letters as logos.

 

Select font: Trajan

Type: "KU."

 

Neato. So they're b*tching over who was first to PAY for lazy, stupid, and unoriginal.

 

Mark an "L" for both schools. Pretty lame.

[oddball]

If you want people to actually take you seriously, then your opening statement should be compelling and not laughable. I see that Kutztown offers less than a high school C- education. No one will ever take your argument seriously when you use the phrase "a bunch of logo stealing dickwads", you have no credibility. And to make matters worse, he loses more (if he had any at this point) credibility when he says that Kansas trademarked the "KU" for educational purposes in 1979 for educational purposes and he refuses to aknowledge it because it's some Midwestern nonsense. What? So they trademarked it for educational purposes, and athletics is a department in the University where people can get degrees and an athletic education, which means, that it is fully acceptable and legal to use the "KU" for athletics too. Athletics still falls under the educational umbrella, even though it's the money maker for most institutions. This guy needs to go back to school and go to English 22 - Introduction to College Composition, which might prepare him for English 23 - College Composition at Kutztown. Yes, those are the classes at Kutztown University.

[Captain Poncho]

That whole op-ed was classic and hysterical.

 

Well done.

[ICTknight]

On 3/27/2016 at 6:12 PM, slapshot said:

Maybe the University of Kansas goes by "KU" for the same reason the University of Oklahoma goes by "OU".

 

Off the top of my head, UCLA, USC, UMass (and UMass-Lowell), UConn, UNH, and BU (Boston University) are the first schools I think of that actively include the word "university" in the school's commonly referred-to name and athletics branding.

 

Aside from state schools, like Arizona State, tOSU, etc., most universities names after states just go by the state's name, without the "university": Michigan, Maryland, Texas, Tennessee, etc. Even Kansas mostly goes by just "Kansas". Surprised they don't just use a K.

They have in the past. The baseball team still uses this cap.

And the basketball team had a K on their shorts in the 80s.

[BBTV]

On March 30, 2016 at 0:12 AM, oddball said:

If you want people to actually take you seriously, then your opening statement should be compelling and not laughable. I see that Kutztown offers less than a high school C- education. No one will ever take your argument seriously when you use the phrase "a bunch of logo stealing dickwads", you have no credibility. And to make matters worse, he loses more (if he had any at this point) credibility when he says that Kansas trademarked the "KU" for educational purposes in 1979 for educational purposes and he refuses to aknowledge it because it's some Midwestern nonsense. What? So they trademarked it for educational purposes, and athletics is a department in the University where people can get degrees and an athletic education, which means, that it is fully acceptable and legal to use the "KU" for athletics too. Athletics still falls under the educational umbrella, even though it's the money maker for most institutions. This guy needs to go back to school and go to English 22 - Introduction to College Composition, which might prepare him for English 23 - College Composition at Kutztown. Yes, those are the classes at Kutztown University.

 

Well if you want any credibility, you should get your facts straight -

 

-He called them jabronis, not dickwads. 

[pianoknight]

Listing the "U" at the end of university names is an old-time Big 8 quirk.  IIRC, only Kansas State is the only school who did not formally use the U-at-the-end naming convention, but everyone call colloquially calls them "KSU."  When the four SWC schools joined were bailed out of their crappy conference situation by the Big 8, Texas A&M, Texas Tech and Baylor coincidentally used this naming convention (TAMU, TTU and BU). 

 

Only Texas (because freaking Texas) went by "UT" instead of "TU."  

 

In fact, some Oklahoma and Nebraska fans (and others, too, I'm sure) still refer to the Longhorns as TU solely out of disrespect.  It's kind of similar to "That School Up North" for Buckeyes talking about Michigan.  

 

All the original Big 8 schools (save KSU) have formally used U-at-the-end logos at some point:

 

 

 

 

[-kj]

...though including the blank-State schools in that same vein is a little unfair; their names really do end in "University".

[BBTV]

I forget if it was Champion or Russel but when I was in jr high everyone wore essentially the same shirt but for different colleges (big "UNIVERSITY OF" on top, helmet in the middle, and then school name on the bottom.)  The problem was that Champion or Russel or whoever never changed the template for the state schools, leading to the awkward situation of seeing a shrit that reads "UNIVERSITY OF PENN STATE".

[pianoknight]

16 hours ago, Mockba said:

...though including the blank-State schools in that same vein is a little unfair; their names really do end in "University".

 

That's true, my point was just that the whole conference abbreviated the same way for whatever reason. 

[MC Buffalo]

On 3/30/2016 at 0:12 AM, oddball said:

If you want people to actually take you seriously, then your opening statement should be compelling and not laughable. I see that Kutztown offers less than a high school C- education. No one will ever take your argument seriously when you use the phrase "a bunch of logo stealing dickwads", you have no credibility. And to make matters worse, he loses more (if he had any at this point) credibility when he says that Kansas trademarked the "KU" for educational purposes in 1979 for educational purposes and he refuses to aknowledge it because it's some Midwestern nonsense. What? So they trademarked it for educational purposes, and athletics is a department in the University where people can get degrees and an athletic education, which means, that it is fully acceptable and legal to use the "KU" for athletics too. Athletics still falls under the educational umbrella, even though it's the money maker for most institutions. This guy needs to go back to school and go to English 22 - Introduction to College Composition, which might prepare him for English 23 - College Composition at Kutztown. Yes, those are the classes at Kutztown University.

Thing is, when I read this. I don't actually think the author of this document does want you to take it serious.

it reads like the whole article was written tongue in cheek, making fun of the whole situation and absurdity with which people get wrapped up in logo identities.

It still amazes me how many people want to serve High Schools and Little Leagues with court papers making them stop using their logos. Yeah, who wants the free advertisement of having a local school wear the Packers "G", Oh I'm sorry I mean Georgia "G"... no wait Grambling "G"

[Gothamite]

You actually undermined your point there, since Grambling and Georgia license the "G" from the Packers.  Why shouldn't anyone else who wants to use it?