<p>A federal appeals court has upheld a decision by the federal Trademark Trial and Appeals Board that the University of South Carolina may not register a logo featuring the initials “SC” because the University of Southern California has already registered a mark using those letters. “We agree that ‘SC’ may refer to the State of South Carolina. But as the evidence offered by Southern California demonstrates, ‘SC’ refers to many entities aside from the state,” concluded a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.</p>
<p>I knew back when I was at Carnegie Mellon we weren’t allowed to use CMU on any official documentation, nor will you find it on any merchandise sold in the store. Apparently Central Michigan University got the claim before us.</p>
<p>I think it is ludicrous for the government and courts to ban the use of to letters forming a valid abbreviation. Now if the letters are used in a logo, there should of course be design differences based on color, letter style, placement, background, etc. Logos should and must be protected.</p>
<p>What about the three national OSU’s? Are any rushing to copyright them?? I hope not. I love the cowboys and beavers.</p>
<p>I don’t know what the Univ. of Southern California is called in other regions of the country (and I’m not referring to pejorative names.) Here in the Southland, they are definitely more commonly referred to as SC.</p>
<p>Okay, really dumb ruling. I’d be outraged if I was from SC (you know, the one state whose initials actually *are *that.) Somehow, all the U of M’s and MSU’s seem to be able to play nice together. What’s Southern Cal’s problem?!</p>
<p>I think I read somewhere that Trojan football made around $80 million or so last year for the university. So yeah, they are going to “protect the brand” if you will.</p>
<p>We here in Wisconsin are very protective of the motion W logo and went after Washburn University and several high schools that had something much too close to it. Big bucks are involved. We are also very protective of Bucky Badger for the same reason. Years ago when no was paying an attention to these things until a former Vice Chancellor for Legal Affairs got involved, it was necessary to rescue Bucky from a porn film maker.</p>
<p>Interesting how some of the logos bear a strong resemblance. The scripted W on Wegmans caps looks not unlike the Washington Nationals which looks a little like the U of Wisconsin W. And I’ve had people ask me if the block U of Arizona A on my cap is for the California Angels…</p>
<p>Dave - too funny ! I didn’t even think of that until your post, but you’re right. I guess I’m owning up to being puerile :)</p>
<p>My D attends SC, and someone in our extended family attends USC in Columbia. It’s pretty easy to tell them apart: one wears pearls to football games, and one . . . doesn’t.</p>
<p>This thread title wins the “title of the day” award in my book. USC (the one in SC) has some hilarious “cheers” that are not able to be published here. When DD went there for a post acceptance visit…my husband and I were sort of shocked at what was hanging in the student union before the Clemson game.</p>
<p>Totally agree with post# 13. The thread title had be roaring before I opened it to see what it was all about!
Several years ago, Coke came out with a high energy product caled “Surge” (anyone remember it?) It was meant as a tribute to Sergio Zeman, who was “credited” with the disastrous “New Coke”, but which ultimately became a marketing boon (he left Coke and later returned). Anyway, some company in Cananda sued Coke over the trademark name, because they had a cow milking machine called “surge”. Like anyone is gonna confuse these two products?!?!?!</p>
<p>Well the trademark wasn’t for the letters “SC”, it was for the interlocking pattern…</p>
<p>One reason why USC (in California) is very protective about what they’re called - the university strongly prefers “Southern California” or “USC” over the possible confusing ambiguous “SC” or “Southern Cal” and has considerable chagrin when people use those…</p>
<p>As someone with relatives in South Carolina, but whom grew up on the west coast, I was wondering when the “USC” name would become a legal brouhaha. Now you know why national sports commentators never use the name “USC” during broadcasts of S. Carolina games.</p>
<p>The next big fight will be who owns the rights to the name “Carolina.” An old timer from Charleston once told me that notwithstanding Greensboro, Durham, Charlotte etc., “…there’s only ONE Carolina; South Carolina and DEEP South Carolina.”</p>