High Schools stealing College Logos

[spidey69]

Interesting article. Not sure that this sits well with me. (Colleges going after high schools.....especially when the use has been well established) There are Longhorns in state as well. Are we going after them?

Chrysler seems particularly out of line in the handling of their issue.

High School Logos

 

[Longhorny630]

they steal nfl ones too. i know my local town uses the same G logo of the packers. lousy freeloading schools!

 

[l00p]

Youth football teams as well as baseball teams use logos, jerseys and names as well. They are not profiting from them and maybe even making new fans or creating interest. They are also paying money for the merchandise. There needs to be a stopping point but then again, I am not the owner of the logo so it's easy for me to say from my chair in front of a computer.

 

[TigerPride]

Florida St. better step the **** off. I know of two teams that were using their logo long before they were.....The 'Skins and Oaks HS in northeastern OK.

Several years ago in our youth baseball association a memo was circulated that if you were using a ML baseball logo that you could possibly face legal action from MLB>
I laughed, said **** 'em and had all of our new uni's made to look exactly or as close as possible to the Texas Rangers.

 

[Skippylou]

Wisconsin went after an Ohio High School last year, not sure what the outcome was.

 

[daytonhorn]

Patents protect the inventor from someone using her idea.

Copyrights protect the creator of (usually) an artistic thingy from someone copying it or playing it or producing it (as in a play).

Trademarks and trade names are associated with (usually) a business. The UT guy had it right when he said it was a problem of dilution and confusion as to whom the mark/name belongs to. Many valuable trade names have been lost. For example the Zipper Company company invented the slide fastener. But the public came to call all "slide fasteners" "zippers", thus the name became generic, and the value in the name was lost to the Zipper Company. Similarly Kleenex has become generic. The Xerox Company struggles to keep their very valuable company name from becoming generic/diluted--"Hey, make me a zerox of this letter Ms. Smith."

If 100 high schools in Texas adopted the Longhorn® logo, I would look upon the UT Longhorn® logo as being less valuable. Kinda like if an excessive number of guys have had sex with your fiancee or daughter before they get married. Maybe one or two, or 10 or 12, but a number>50 would tend to dilute the whatever. But this is coming from an intellectual property law attorney, so I'm biased in favor of protecting intellectual property just as a real estate attorney would want to protect her clients from trespass, taking by adverse possession, etc.

 

[Texas Taps]

If you allow one entity to use your logo then you open the door for everyone to use it and make money off of it which eventually decreases its value, so....let's just jack up ticket prices to make up the difference

 

[accuratehorn]

Is Daytonhorn suggesting we put a chastity belt around the UT logo?

 

[Namewithheld]

From a High School in Tennessee

 

[msdw24]

The Laredo United Longhorns in district 29-5A

The Axtell Longhorns district 11-2A

The Lockney Longhorns of district 6-1A

The Bronte Longhorns

More Bronte Longhorns of District 12-1A

The Cedar Hill Longhorns of District 5-5A
Not our logo but could be similar something the baseball team had in the past?

The Pasadena Dobie Longhorns of District 22-5A

The Early Longhorns of district 3-2A

The George West Longhorns of District 15-2A which look nothing like our logo.

The Hamshire Fannett Longhorns of District 21-3A

The Harper Longhorns of District 27-2A

There are tons more that probably use some sort of variation of the logo. You can see just about all the logos at www.texashelmentproject.com

 

[msdw24]

Well that didn't work how I wanted it too

 

[longtex]

In reply to:

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[LongJohn]

University of Wisconsin came after Westwood high school here in Austin because the "W" on the side of the helmet, while a different color, was the same (the running W). Westwood changed the font of the W. Should've done that in the first place because I didn't like it looking like friggin' Wisconsin.

 

[Statalyzer]

Rice should sue the Philadelphia Eagles...

 

[Austin Orange]

I heard the Browns were not happy with a high school too.

 

[ViperHorn]

Cedar Hill was caught and had to settle with Texas. If I recall correctly, the agreement was for school usage only. (The City was using it also.) There was one had one up on a water tower near the school and I believe that was grandfathered.

On the other hand, the City of Ft. Worth was using the Texas longhorn in their City emblem Texas refused to grant a waiver and Ft. Worth had to settle for a longhorn with wavy horns.

 

[yelladawgdem]

The high school I went to (with Skip Bayless in OKC) is Northwest Classen. About the time Northwestern became competitive in the 1990s and went to the Rose Bowl, Northwest slapped that block "N" on those purple helmets and there has been no problems.

Go Knights.

 

[Oilfield]

I heard somewhere that the maker of MLB uniforms was cracking down on Youth League teams for using logos but not buying their gear.

 

[atxbomber]

When I was at Leander we had the Detroit Lions' logo. The only difference was ours had a darker blue with a red outline. I know they've since changed to an original design, which is good because I can't imagine why anyone would want to be associated with the Detroit Lions if given the choice.

 

[orngblud]

I've always wondered why there is such a lack of logo creativity at the HS level. Just look at some of the violations: linky

Some even ripping off band logos (spot the Van Halen gaffle!)

 

[hooklahoma]

Kind of weird that Bellmont would go after the KS school since the logo is different than ours (sharper, straighter horns). There are at least a dozen schools that use our exact logo that apparently get a pass.

The van halen logo is pretty funny. That took balls

 

[Longhorn Mike]

I went to Dallas WT White. Mascot is the Longhorns and the colors are burnt orange and white. Since the school opened in the mid 60's, all uniforms mirrored UT, including the football helmet.

Here are some photos off of the school's website.

 

[blonthang]

Can't wait until Army, Navy, Boston College and Notre Dame file a class action suit against the Follett Panthers.

 

[the Saint]

I got one for you.

Last year I used the Cincinnati Bengals logo of the roaring tiger for my four-year old's soccer team. They were awesome unis, and I even had tiger striped socks (further, the silk screen shop didn't utter a peep). They looked great, and all I had to do was buy a Bengals hat and t-shirt. I was set.

Anyway, after one of the games we were doing the parent bridge thing where the kids walked through the parents tunnel when they join arms. So, I have this mom from the other team noticeably push her way into the space across from me and while the kids were running through the tunnel, stated "I want you to know that you stole that logo." To which I replied, "well, stole is a strong word." She then proceeded to tell me how she came up with that logo a few years ago for her son's team. So anyway, she followed me over to where our team was doing snacks and drinks, and was rather adamant in her assertions and persistent with her questions.

The other Dads were so quick on the draw that I didn't even get the pleasure of telling her. But, she did literally slunk away.