University Of Miami Demanding ESPN Documentary About University Of Miami Football Remove Its Logo
from the trademark-law-gone-mad dept
We've talked a lot recently about how universities greatly abuse trademark law to prevent anyone else from doing things with their logo -- which, in the past, had been considered perfectly legal. The latest such case comes to us from Copycense, who points us to the news that, according to Billy Corben, the director of The U, a documentary about the rise of the University of Miami football team that aired on ESPN, the University is demanding that its logo be removed from the DVD case. It sounds like Corben is complying with the demand, but it's difficult to see how the University has a legitimate complaint here. The move is, literally, about the University of Miami. This seems like a perfect case of trademark "fair use," but fighting that battle is probably too expensive to make it worthwhile. And that's too bad, as it seems like another case of abusing trademark law for reasons that have nothing to do with the law's purpose.
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Filed Under: documentary, espn, trademark, university of miami
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Bah
http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/0,1770,25250-1;25245-3,00.html
Below is a typical fee schedule involved in becoming a licensee through CLC, and it seems this fee schedule is applied on a per-item basis.
- Application Fee ($50 - $250 range)
- Annual Administrative Fees ($0-$250)
- Advance Royalty Fees ($0 - $1,000)
- Obtain $1,000,000 in Product Liability Insurance ($100's-$1,000)
- Marketing Costs (trade shows, catalogs, web sites, etc.)
- Product Development Costs (design, development, obtaining digital artwork ($50 - $500)
- Sample Production & Approval Costs (the cost of producing samples and obtaining approvals occurs online, so you must have an Internet connection).
This level of protectionism may only serve to send a clear signal that University of Miami and (more likely) it's designated licensing agent, CLC, may have lofty fee schedule expectations, slow approvals process, and/or be difficult to get creative approvals, even for respected and well established licensors. Too bad.
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Re: Bah
So the easy solution is to strap the DVD to a hat and say the DVD is a free extra, that way it falls in the "other head-wear" category.
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Re: Re: Bah
Sean, don't forget to copyright the "DVD Hat" so you can make your money on them ;)
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Go HOKIES!
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Fact is, the University probably doesn't want to be associated with the DVD and the fact is that they probably didn't obtain the rights to use the logo or ask for approval to use the logo. You just cannot use someone's else's copyrighted logo without permission and this what they did.
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Re: every right?
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Re: kimchi
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Re:
Always start your comment out with a personal insult. That makes you much more credible.
The University of Miami had every right to demand that their logo be removed from the DVD case because it would be like a "seal of approval" by the university over the release of the DVD.
If the DVD is about the university, using the logo is clearly trademark fair use, and it seems unlikely that anyone would interpret it to be endorsed by the university.
Fact is, the University probably doesn't want to be associated with the DVD and the fact is that they probably didn't obtain the rights to use the logo or ask for approval to use the logo. You just cannot use someone's else's copyrighted logo without permission and this what they did.
Fact is, you seem confused about the difference between copyright and trademark, what fair use is, and how trademark law works.
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Trademark
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Re: Trademark
Just wanted to say that you may be giving these people to much credit by calling them "highly educated". This is the University of Miami were talking about.
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Re: Re: Trademark
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Just cut your own throat why don't you?
So then - just yank the whole show and consider it a loss, lol
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Honestly
And, for the record, this is not shooting itself in the foot. They did that a long time ago, which is why they haven't been relevant in college football in nearly ten years.
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Re: Honestly
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Re:
It would seem simple enough rather than remove the "U" from the helmet, to just add text to the front and back cover and the on DVD stating, "This DVD is not endorsed by, nor affiliated with the University of Miami".
Since were dealing with the real world and he doesn't have the money for a court battle, he'll have to do what they say, or pay-pay-pay.
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who cares about a slime school like that
They are nothing but recruiting and rules violations factories from cheating, low graduation rates, and more.
There is a damn good reason the color scheme in the movie "The Program" matched one of these schools! IT WAS ABOUT THEIR CHEATING WAYS!
If they want they can play each other each week for 12 weeks.
This is just more reason that this whole mess of "IP", trademark, copyright, patents just needs to be abolished its doing no good for society in 2010!
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Re: who cares about a slime school like that
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Re: who cares about a slime school like that
The only arrest for a football player under Randy Shannon's coaching came from a player who is not even there anymore because he transferred (Robert Marve look it up). They paid for their sanctions in the past, and are moving on, you should too.
Society in 2010? Isn't The Program like 20 years old now? Get past the 80's and 90's pal. Part of the reason the school is going this far to remove the logo is to further illustrate their position of maintaining a focus on academics above all else.
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Re: who cares about a slime school like that
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Public Universities and Trademarks
My confusion comes from the "public domain" aspect of government documents like NASA images. Granted, there are limits even there:
http://www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelines.html
...as noted by the earlier story today about the astronaut suing Dido over the album cover using a NASA image he was in. (I think his argument the he is recognizable and his likeness is therefore protected and he should be paid, is a big stretch, btw.)
How does trademark law allow publicly funded institutions to create, register and license for profit, trademarks that were created using state/federal monies?
I get the need to be able to prevent fraud and such, but wouldn't fraud laws cover that? How are trademarks registered by state and federal funded entities nto a special case?
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Re: Public Universities and Trademarks
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Ah..I didn't know this
http://stason.org/TULARC/business/copyright/3-6-Can-the-government-copyright-its-works.html
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What's your point? Did you read comment #1? It's trademarks are still governed by CLC. When University of Miami moved licensing outside of itself, it added a typical "4 to 6 weeks" to get approval.
Considering that "The U" premiered with 2.3 million viewers, the most ever for a documentary on a sports cable network it's quite possible that going through the normal channels, it would be stuck in a state of perpetual revision.
You sir, don't understand television or licensing rights at all.
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