from the r-you-kidding-me? dept
Over the years, we’ve seen plenty of aggression from universities when it comes to trademark enforcement. The impetus for much of this was rulings nearly a decade ago that essentially gave universities far broader and more exclusive rights to their school logos. The fallout of those rulings became schools going after all kinds of uses and near-uses of those logos, including a strange war on pastries, and colleges going after high schools for using similar iconography.
The latter continues to the present. The latest version of this is Rutgers, in New Jersey, forcing a Louisiana high school to change its logo because it was essentially the same as Rutgers’ famed “R” logo.
New Jersey’s flagship university has asked a high school in Louisiana to change its logo because it’s identical to the block “R” that Rutgers has trademarked.
Lincoln Parish Schools official Ricky Durrett tells the Courier News of Bridgewater the company that manages Rutgers’ brand requested Ruston High School stop using it.
Rutgers says the high school has 10 years to replace the logo on gear, social media platforms and on the school’s website.
The logos, to be fair, are somewhat similar, although it seems that’s more a function of them being a single letter than anything else. (Rutgers’ is on the bottom.)
On the one hand, look, Rutgers’ demand timelines aren’t wholly oppressive. Ten years is a nice stretch of time within which Lincoln Parish can work. On the other hand, allowing for such a timeline only seems to solidify the impression that none of this is really necessary to begin with. Is Rutgers really suggesting that someone is going to be confused between the NJ school and LA high school? Is there some odd concern that parents of high school students will think they’re supporting Rutgers by buying the high school’s apparel? Is anyone, anyone at all, really going to be confused about any of this?
The answer sure feels like “no.” Rutgers likely would state that it must take these actions or risk losing its trademark. Except that’s only the case if there is the actual potential for confusion and if a court bought that it was operating in the same marketplace as a high school many states away. Both seem unlikely to me.
But, of course, the high school is changing its logo rather than fighting against the much larger Rutgers.
Filed Under: college, high schools, r, ruston high school, trademark
Companies: rutgers