University of Wisconsin protecting its W

[Seadragon76]

Something tells me that Wisky has something against Iowa's high schools.

Why? Well, they feel that the most obvious offenders are Waukee, Washington and Willamsburg. All Iowan high schools.

Plus, this has the smell of a double standard here. I know for a fact that the local public high school where I live (Carroll) uses the wishbone 'C' made famous by the Chicago Bears as it's main logo. Yet, the Bears haven't done a thing about the supposed copyright infringment.

[Guest]

It's public domain, I think. This isn't. Also, the Chicago Bears are cooler than the University of Wisconsin.

[Burkell007]

i agree with what both of u said, i mean the kids would be like free work, y are the schools all over this i dont know, then u save $$$ for other things, and in the same time u show off what someone at YOUR school can do.

No thanks.

y not???

[VitaminD]

It's public domain, I think. This isn't. Also, the Chicago Bears are cooler than the University of Wisconsin.

Also, the Bears' wishbone C bears a more than passing resemblance to the Cincinnati Reds' wishbone C, and the old Cleveland Indians' wishbone C. (Yes, the Bears' C is different because it isn't horizontally symmetrical, one prong is longer than the other.) It'd be hard for the Bears to rattle legal sabres when their design is borrowed from another team's design.

[Gothamite]

Well, actually, the Bears' wishbone C is borrowed, but not from another team. It was borrowed from the University of Chicago.

Something tells me that Wisky has something against Iowa's high schools.

Why? Well, they feel that the most obvious offenders are Waukee, Washington and Willamsburg. All Iowan high schools.

Plus, this has the smell of a double standard here. I know for a fact that the local public high school where I live (Carroll) uses the wishbone 'C' made famous by the Chicago Bears as it's main logo. Yet, the Bears haven't done a thing about the supposed copyright infringment.

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

It's only a double standard if the University of Wisconsin is issuing cease and desist letters against some schools but not others. Do you have any evidence that such is the case?

[Sec19Row53]

I just got my copy of the Alumni newsletter in the mail today. This issue is addressed here:

http://www.uwalumni.com/media/images/photo...ing07Sports.pdf

Here's the text of the article (it's really nothing new regarding this discussion, I just found it interesting):

Bucky Badger enjoys tormenting opposing mascots on the court of play, but what about in a court of law? That?s what some are saying about the university?s efforts to stop other schools from using its trademarked logos for their own sports teams.

UW?s enforcement efforts drew ire in Waukee, Iowa ? where the high school?s purple uniforms bore a ?Motion W? similar to the one trademarked by UW-Madison ? and propelled the story into the national media. That prompted alumni around the country to rat out other high school teams that are using the logo in states including New Jersey, Ohio, Texas, and West Virginia.

But the controversy is not the classic David versus Goliath match-up it?s been made out to be. UW officials say it?s a matter of picking smaller battles to protect a valuable trademark and avoid losing rights to it altogether.

A host of former trademarks ? kerosene, aspirin, yoyo, and zipper, to name a few ? fell into the public domain because the owners didn?t do a good job of protecting them from use by others. The Motion W could meet the same fate if the university doesn?t protect it as a trademark, says Cindy Van Matre ?83, the UW?s director of trademark licensing.

?It could be considered to become a generic mark so that any third party could use the logo any way they wanted,? she says.

Other would-be users of the logo, Van Matre adds, ?could turn around and say ?Well, you let all these high schools use it, and you didn?t seem to care.? ?

There?s precedent for that concern, explains Craig Fieschko ?89, MS?91, JD?94, an intellectual property attorney with Dewitt, Ross & Stevens in Madison who also teaches UW law students about trademarks and copyright.

?If you don?t enforce your marks ? even in questions like this, where there are arguments on both sides as to whether the marks are truly infringed ? if you don?t try to enforce your mark and stomp that out, you could lose rights to it,? Fieschko says.

Take the phrase ?March Madness,? which was first adopted by the Illinois High School Basketball Association in the 1940s. It took hold as a marketing tool for CBS?s television coverage of the NCAA Basketball Tournament in 1982 after announcer Brent Musburger referred to the Final Four games as ?March Madness? on the air. The Illinois organization did nothing to challenge the network?s use of the catchphrase for a decade, and a federal appeals court ultimately ruled in 1996 that CBS and the association jointly owned the trademark.

?Basically, the university is a bit afraid of a similar situation here,? Fieschko says.

If the UW doesn?t police how high schools are using the logo, he says, those teams could legally tie their own identity to it, including selling merchandise such as clothing or class rings that bear the Motion W.

?If the horse bolts the stable, it?s hard to bring it back,? he says.

UW ranks fifteenth for merchandise royalties among the more than two hundred colleges and universities represented by the Collegiate Licensing Company, which helps schools handle legal issues connected to trademark infringement.

Wisconsin generated nearly $2 million in royalties from its trademark licensing program in 2005?06, the highest total in the program?s history.

More than four hundred companies pay for licenses to sell items featuring Wisconsin logos ? provided university officials don?t find them to be in bad taste. That means diehard fans can buy everything from dog collars to windshield ice scrapers to rubber duckies to toilet seats with Wisconsin logos. Officials did reject a proposal to use the Motion W on casket liners, something other schools have approved.

Before Bucky Badger was licensed in 1988, Van Matre says, the mascot could be found on everything from condoms to obscene T-shirts, which have popped up on eBay.

Licensing royalties are divided equally between the Athletic Department and the Bucky Grants scholarship program, which provides financial assistance to low-income students, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college. Since 1994, the program has provided $6.5 million to 2,800 students.

When it comes to ?On, Wisconsin,? the university?s fight song, it?s a distinctly different situation. Rumors once abounded on campus that Paul McCartney or Michael Jackson owned the rights to the song, but it has been in the public domain since 1984. It is performed by thousands of high school bands, according to the UW Marching Band?s Web site.

Waukee school officials thought their choice of the purple W, which bears striking similarity in font and design to UW?s logo, would be just as innocuous. The school adopted the logo after dropping an image of an Indian warrior to be sensitive to Native Americans. ?The irony is we were trying to do the right thing,? says Waukee Superintendent David Wilkerson. The community, he says, was dismayed that using a letter of the alphabet ? not Bucky Badger himself ? was under dispute.

?I kept telling people this is a learning experience for everybody,? he says. ?We have people who think we should have fought it and people who stepped up and said it?s no different than pirating software and pirating music.?

Meanwhile, the university is allowing Waukee to phase out use of the logo to avoid any financial burden, and the school district has asked the Collegiate Licensing Company to review its proposed new W before moving ahead with ordering new uniforms or other equipment.

Wilkerson says the ordeal, without a doubt, has alerted more schools and the public to protected trademarks.

?You?re not just free to grab them willy-nilly as you see fit,? he says.

? Jenny Price ?96

[EatSleepJeep]

Waukee HS has resolved their issues with Collegiate Licensing:

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs...ID=200770312027

Waukee unveils new W logo

By GRANT SCHULTE

REGISTER STAFF WRITER

March 12, 2007

The Waukee school district has settled on a new ?W? logo remarkably similar to its predecessor, minus the tilt, shading, tail and prospect of a lawsuit.

Administrators began circulating the emblem late last week after months of retooling, a response to complaints that the ?W? too closely resembled the logo used by the University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin holds a trademark on its ?W,? used to market millions of dollars in Badger merchandise, and could have sued for infringement.

Waukee school district administrators decided not to contest the accusation in court, which most likely would have cost more than changing its ?W? design. News of the change angered some parents and students, who felt bullied by Wisconsin.

?We deliberately tried to distinguish it,? said Waukee district Superintendent David Wilkerson.

The new ?W? satisfied a Wisconsin licensing representative, he said, and ?I think it?s time we lay the W to rest.?

Wilkerson said the licensing representative, the Collegiate Licensing Company, had agreed to let the district phase the current logo out, sparing the district any unnecessary expense.

Waukee?s ?W? adorns a slate of items throughout the district, from uniforms to business cards to Waukee High School?s score board. The district has already removed the ?W? from its Web site and must repaint the giant ?W? on the high school gym floor within five years.

[Gothamite]

"Minus the tail"? What tail?

I was really hoping that they were using the proposed Motion W that Barry Alvarez rejected....

[EatSleepJeep]

The left side of Sconie's W sits lower than the right, even when rotated flat. I think that's the 'tail' they speak of.

[Bucks6thMan]

And the overly-litigious nature of American society rears its ugly, unwanted head once again.

But personally, I didn't think the motion W was worthy of gracing the helmets of my alma-mater's notoriously bad football team anyway

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/apps/p...5/70222022/1978

Here's the article, poorly written as it is (it doesn't identify the states of where these schools are located - not quite a good job of describing the "where" part of the story [unless they're all in Iowa?]).

There's a reason why the Packers are the only major pro team whose flagship newspaper is out of town.

[DrBear]

There's a reason why the Packers are the only major pro team whose flagship newspaper is out of town.

And the worse part is that the better newspaper in town closed two years ago.

[Gothamite]

The Shepherd Express shut down?

[DrBear]

The Shepherd Express shut down?

That's Milwaukee. I'm talking the Green Bay News-Chronicle, 1972-2005, rest in pieces.

(and yes, I'm prejudiced, I was news and sports editor there at various times).

[Gothamite]

I hadn't heard about that one. RIP.

[Bucks6thMan]

I just got my copy of the Alumni newsletter in the mail today. This issue is addressed here:

http://www.uwalumni.com/media/images/photo...ing07Sports.pdf

If the UW doesn?t police how high schools are using the logo, he says, those teams could legally tie their own identity to it, including selling merchandise such as clothing or class rings that bear the Motion W.

So they're afraid that schools which adapt their own colors to the motion W and sell merchandise with said colors would somehow ruin UW's ability to sell its own merchandise? The :censored: outta here!!!

Besides, it's hard to feel bad for UW supposedly "losing money" when they already get nearly half of Wisconsin's higher education budget. The rest of the UW schools are considered a joke thanks to Madison.

[Gothamite]

So they're afraid that schools which adapt their own colors to the motion W and sell merchandise with said colors would somehow ruin UW's ability to sell its own merchandise? The :censored: outta here!!!

Um, yes.

It's called "brand dilution." And it's recognized by every authority on marketing.

In short, the more a mark can become associated with other entities, the less it is worth to its originator. The whole point of a logo is for you to see it and think "Oh, it's _________." These types of infringement cases happen all the time.

The only thing at all unusual here is that the University is sending C&D letters to high schools, not traditionally seen as a marketing force. The legal advice they have received seems to be: under the law, if the University does not protect its trademark vigorously wherever it is infringed upon, it cannot protect the trademark at all.

They can't pick and choose, saying "Well, that school's not worth going after, but that guy selling t-shirts on the corner of Regent and Monroe, him we want to stop." Uh, uh. Doesn't work that way.

Besides, why shouldn't they protect their design? They're the ones who paid for it.

[no97]

Besides, why shouldn't they protect their design? They're the ones who paid for it.

This sums it up nicely. Here's what I don't get. A thread shows up here every now and again with a fantasy league's web-site, or, worse, a low level minor league, that has stollen logos from this very board. Folks rally around and scream that who-ever stole the logo is the worst person on the face of the earth, and should be tared and feathered. Well, tell me how what Waukee HS (and numerous other HS's) did/are doing is any different?

Moose

[EatSleepJeep]

Besides, why shouldn't they protect their design? They're the ones who paid for it.

This sums it up nicely. Here's what I don't get. A thread shows up here every now and again with a fantasy league's web-site, or, worse, a low level minor league, that has stollen logos from this very board. Folks rally around and scream that who-ever stole the logo is the worst person on the face of the earth, and should be tared and feathered. Well, tell me how what Waukee HS (and numerous other HS's) did/are doing is any different?

Moose

It isn't different and I've pointed it out in this thread, I believe. They admitted the y mixed Washington and Wisconsin and Wisconsin thought it was too close. I have to agree. Trademarks are trademarks no matter what.

[Bucks6thMan]

So they're afraid that schools which adapt their own colors to the motion W and sell merchandise with said colors would somehow ruin UW's ability to sell its own merchandise? The :censored: outta here!!!

Um, yes.

It's called "brand dilution." And it's recognized by every authority on marketing.

In short, the more a mark can become associated with other entities, the less it is worth to its originator. The whole point of a logo is for you to see it and think "Oh, it's _________." These types of infringement cases happen all the time.

I could see your point if the schools in question were using the similar logos AND color schemes, but no one in their right mind is gonna mistake my schools purple and yellow Motion W for Wisconsin's cardinal & white one. That'd be like someone mistaking a Georgia Bulldogs helmet for a Packers one.

Besides, why shouldn't they protect their design? They're the ones who paid for it.

Well seing as how the University of Wisconsin is a publicly funded university, it's ultimately the Wisconsin taxpayers who paid for it.

But I'm not too upset... I plan to use this opportunity to submit some of my work to my high school so they no longer have to use that lame-ass W.

[Vicious]

lapeer west got their logo threatened by wisconsin, and they even added a panther into the logo.

http://www.lwhs.lapeer.org/Athletics/index.html

i dont think wisconsin should care. thats like michigan going after every school that has a block M, or winged helmets.