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Iowa and Southern Miss in Logo Dispute

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Armchair_QB, Aug 4, 2011.

  1. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    http://hawkcentral.com/2011/08/03/iowa-officials-mum-on-patent-courts-ruling-on-logo/

    Was not aware that Iowa had filed suit against Southern Miss for infringing on its trademark logo rights. U of I filed suit in 2004 and the patent court just ruled on it this week.

    Here's the Iowa logo. Been around since 1979:

    [​IMG]

    Southern Miss logo. Been around since 2003:

    [​IMG]

    Not seeing a ton of similarities but the patent court apparently did.
     
  2. Pancamo

    Pancamo Active Member

    Why would any school want to copy that piece of shit Iowa logo?
     
  3. Armchair_QB

    Armchair_QB Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]

    Don't know.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  4. Cubbiebum

    Cubbiebum Member

    Who was the first school to come up with a cardinal logo? That school should be suing the other 80 schools with a similar logo.

    I find this ridiculous. They are both yellow birds facing the way nearly all logos do. That is about it for similarities.
     
  5. 93Devil

    93Devil Well-Known Member

    I would be more concerned if the TE was standing while in their split from the tackle and not in the traditional three-point stance.
     
  6. Mystery Meat II

    Mystery Meat II Well-Known Member

    And Green Bay could sue the hell out of 90 percent of high schools that start with G for use of their logo.
     
  7. I Should Coco

    I Should Coco Well-Known Member

    Well played.

    The real question is: which school (Iowa or Southern Miss) has more fans attend the game wearing overalls?

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  8. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    Not sure about high schools, but I know the Packers gave permission to both Georgia and Grambling to use the "Oval G" helmet logo.
     
  9. Bob Cook

    Bob Cook Active Member

    But with Southern Mississippi's logo, you can't turn it on its side to make it look like Fred Flintstone.
     
  10. albert77

    albert77 Well-Known Member

    I don't know. I was there the day in '03 when Southern Miss unveiled the Eagle Head logo, and the very first words out of my mouth were, "damn, that looks just like Iowa's logo."

    And seriously, while the two logos don't look that much alike upon close inspection, at first glance and from a distance they do, and that's the crux of Iowa's argument.

    At any rate, I imagine Southern will do what it can to keep this logo, or something pretty close to it, without breaking the bank. It's been by far their most popular logo and they don't want to have to start all over.
     
  11. JakeandElwood

    JakeandElwood Well-Known Member

    The schools aren't enough of dicks to go after high schools. Although I did read a story a while back (have no idea where, so no link) that said schools would sometimes call the high schools and get them to pay a token amount - like $20 - for the rights to the logo. It helped them be on strong legal footing if they tried to sue a company that was using an unlicensed version of the logo. IIRC, getting something from the high schools allowed them to make the argument that they weren't just letting their logo be used in the marketplace making it fair game.
     
  12. Clerk Typist

    Clerk Typist Guest

    If they don't do that, they can lose the registration (trademark, service mark, whatever) rights for failure to protect the rights.
     
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