Rutgers did the right thing in sending that letter. I spent a third of my corporate career at TRW. We were a global, Fortune 500 company with 95,000 employees. We learned of a Manhattan towing service that was calling itself TRW. We wrote a cease and desist letter.

Why? Because trademark law tells us that we need to demonstrate "zealous protection" of trademarks for them to remain enforceable in any litigation.

What's interesting in all of these logo struggles with high schools/other amateur groups and college/pro teams is I know of at least one school that allows for the legal use of their logo or at least did at one time.

I worked as an administrator at a school that is the Cougars. They use the Kansas State power cat as their primary athletic mark.

At the time, K-State actually has an application process for schools to request permission for use. They have since revamped their website so I am not sure where the application/information is located and/or if it's still in place.

Gosh I bet 75% of the teams in Ohio use some variation of a college or pro logo.

My high school was in a conference that had versions of the Louisville Cardinals, Florida Gators (F), Dallas Cowboys, Wisconsin Flying W, Minnesota Vikings, Michigan State.

The school my kids go to uses the LA Ram helmet, logo and word markings on all their logos/uniforms/spirit wear.

Not saying any of this is right, but it consumes a lot of resources I am sure to keep track and shut them down.

The worst instance I have ever heard was when Susan G. Komen came after a little girl in Minnesota who did a Kites for the Cure or something to raise money for breast cancer research. It was a grassroots effort that probably would have yielded a few hundred dollars.

What bothers me is if,as I posted,the news reports are correct that this high school was using the logo long before Rutgers trademarked it.

If someone begins selling thousands of Red and Grey shirts with the word State on it, why shouldn’t they get a cut. Same for us if it’s Green and White with OHIO

I can name a number of schools that can sell grey t-shirt’s and sweatshirts with a red (even scarlett) “State” on them and no one else is getting a cut. And there is nothing OSU can do about.

Btw, used to be that schools' royalty on sales of licensed merchandise was about 7.5 percent of retail price. I don't know if that has changed.

I you and everyone else knows what the focus of those State shirts would be. It’s the intent. Same thing with “THE”, the application is not a blanket trademark on a word, but rather specific in focus. To appeal that depicts OSU.

I'm not a lawyer, so I might be wrong about this, but if said High School started using the block R logo before Rutgers, AND if they can provide evidence of this, doesn't that give them a pretty strong case to tell Rutgers to get bent, in legal-speak?

(Not that that would prevent Rutgers...or a lawyer...from throwing a cease and desist order around as a monkey at the zoo might throw its poop)

In an administrative court proceeding, for said High School to prevail over Rutgers it likely would have to show that it had registered the R as a trademark and subsequently had zealously protected it. (We could hope that common sense would prevail, but that can be in short supply in a court.)

Yes, but that would mean exercising common sense - with a dash of compassion.

Hey, I am not making t shirts in my basement!

Yes, am aware. Cost to register is modest. Back when the OSU/OU spat surfaced, I shared thinking with OU's law dept. They sent me a copy of the registration for the arched OHIO. I suggested an additional trademark: Ohio - First & Finest. Don't know if it was registered.

Not necessarily, especially if the client approaches design strategically. During my corporate career I led the creation of Corporate Identity and Branding systems for two global Fortune 500 comps. In meeting with the chosen designer, I would provide two "hints." First, I would articulate the objectives of the design. Then I would provide what I termed operative words. One such example: After articulating the objectives, I related these operative words: Bold. Simple. Elegant.

Then as the designer - a man in one case, a woman in the other - developed a first iteration, he/she would keep asking self: Is it Bold? Is it Simple? Is it Elegant? Does it meet the stated objective?

This process kept iterations to a minimum and avoided costly re-works.

BTW, With regard to my books, I employed the same approach when discussing dust jacket designs with the publisher's design teams. They usually "nailed it" with the first iteration.