(http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/premium_415_wide_scale/Promo_ClayHighSchool_0.jpg)
Clay High School
(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/77/USC_vs_ASU_2011.jpg)
QuotePAC-12 powerhouse Arizona State University Sun Devils are taking on the Clay High School Blue Devils.
Not on the mat or playing field, but in the legal arena.
According to a post on the Green Cove Springs high school's wrestling team Facebook page, the university — some 2,050 miles away — is claiming that the blue pitchfork logo the team uses on headgear, Tshirts and elsewhere, is too similar to the one the university uses in its athletics programs.
Here's the text of the post on the Clay High School Blue Devils wrestling team's page:
"Arizona State University's General Counsel has sent an official certified letter to little ole CLAY High School telling us to no longer use their pitchfork designs as our logo. Apparently it is really important to them that the Blue Devils do not use it.
Full article: http://jacksonville.com/breaking-news/2015-07-18/story/arizona-state-university-pitches-fit-over-clay-high-wrestling-teams
High schools have used variations of college and professional logos for years.
Looks like it makes it easier for Nike to make their uniforms and such. Just change the colors....
Really, ASU? I would like to see Clay High stand up and have them fight it.
I don't know the full story here, but these things always make the trademark holder look like jerks when it's often not even in their hands. The fact of the matter is you have to defend your trademarks, and you can lose them if you don't. Clearly they want to hold onto their logos more than they want to spare a highschool.
If ASU spent 200k to have a custom logo designed and trademarked, then I see the beef.
But if the logo was done by a student in a campus contest and never registered, that is something else.
I see a lot of high schools all over the country using logos of college and NFL teams on their football uniforms. Do they all pay the trademark holder? Quite frankly I just thought it was one of those things where it was accepted that high schools sometimes used the logos.
FSU did the same thing a few years ago.
http://www.bradenton.com/2010/08/26/2530397/fsu-to-southeast-nix-the-seminole.html