Color me protected.A SCHOOL'S COLORS, LOGO, and insignia help make it and its students quickly and easily identifiable. A July ruling by the U.S. District Court in Louisiana now allows schools such as Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, generally known as Louisiana State University or LSU, is a public, coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the main campus of the Louisiana State University System. , The Ohio State University Ohio State University, main campus at Columbus; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1873 as Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, renamed 1878. There are also campuses at Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark. , the University of Oklahoma University of Oklahoma, abbreviated OU, is a coeducational public research university located in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Founded in 1890, it existed in Oklahoma Territory near Indian Territory 17 years before the two became the state of Oklahoma. , the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission , and The Collegiate Licensing Company The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC) is an American collegiate trademark licensing and marketing company. Founded in 1981 in Selma, Alabama, CLC is the largest and oldest collegiate licensing company in the United States and currently provides its services to more than 200 to protect their "recognizable and historic colors." The schools sued Smack Apparel Company for infringing on their rights in the collegiate licensing space. Under the decision, Smack Apparel can no longer use the schools' colors in apparel and must pay damages to the schools and CLC. Michael Drucker, VP and associate general counsel for CLC, explains that protection and control are paramount parts of most trademark plans. He acknowledges the revenue is important because it helps with funding. The ruling did not go as far as listing Pantone colors, but focused on the paired colors used to identify the schools. "Obviously other schools have similar colors," Drucker says, adding that he doesn't foresee colleges and universities in the suit using the decision against other schools. Instead, the ruling should "embolden other schools to took a tittle differently at protecting their rights," since there is now a legal precedent, he says. |
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