Protecting ASU’s properties
September 18th, 2007, 11:29 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Zeiger
The former logo at Culpeper (Va.) High.
Fernando Morales travels the country, helping provide Arizona State University with protection of the school’s most valuable commodities — its name and image. And he can do that important job without leaving his desk.
As coordinator of ASU’s trademark and licensing office, Morales is always on the lookout for unauthorized use of the Sun Devils name and Sparky logo, which are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
“I do a lot of searches for ‘Sun Devils’ on the Internet,” Morales said.
The school’s reputation can ride on Morales’ searches; the ASU and Sun Devil names and Sparky logo have been featured on pornographic Web sites, he said. But much of his hunting centers on high schools and small colleges around the nation.
ASU has a legal interest in cracking down on such unauthorized use of its properties. Should a high school distribute a product with a Sun Devils name or Sparky logo on it that has, say, lead paint, sharp edges or is flammable, the Tempe university could be subject to a lawsuit.
“When we find them, we have to do something about them,” Morales said. “If we don’t, we lose the ability to protect our name. If those schools or whoever made a product that hurts someone, the courts have said that if your name or logo is on it, you can be held responsible.”
A recent discovery was at Culpeper (Va.) High, which had been utilizing Sparky as its Blue Devil mascot. The school agreed to make a logo change; it is uncertain if the nickname as drawn the interest of Duke University.
Morales said that he has dealt with unauthorized name/logo use at about 20 schools. This week, he found two more with a Sun Devils nickname; Salem High in Virginia Beach, Va., and Sandia Prep High in Albuquerque, N.M., will be hearing from him soon.
Morales said that ASU’s protection of its properties is firm, but fair.
“You don’t want to turn people off to ASU by being too heavy-handed,” Morales said. “If a school has invested a lot of money in a basketball floor with Sparky on it, we’re not going to make them rip it up right away. We will be flexible. You can look like an ogre if you do it wrong.”
A few years ago, Tucson Sunnyside High (Blue Devils) had a Sparky logo on its football helmets — which ASU officials conveniently discovered when the team played in a state championship game at Sun Devil Stadium. ASU offered to pay for the the design of a new logo for Sunnyside.
ASU afforded a small college in Mississippi four years to phase out its logo.
If a school wants to keep the Sun Devil name or Sparky logo, ASU can work out a licensing agreement. That would require assurances from the school that any name/logo products it distributes will be safe.
“We could license the logo for, say, a penny a year,” Morales said. “People forget that trademarks were not created to make money off of. They were created to protect consumers. If we have assurances that will happen, that’s acceptable to us.”
Forget about bidding on that game-worn 1975 replica helmet or jersey during the silent auction at the 2008 ASU football awards banquet.
The team wearing vintage uniforms next season — the 50th anniversary of the opening of Sun Devil Stadium — is a nice idea but will likely not happen. A school spokesman said on Tuesday that the equipment operations office estimates that such an endeavor would cost a minimum of $40,000, money that the football program feels it can spend better elsewhere.
