Posted on 12/06/2007 1:02:22 PM PST by RKV
Early in November, On The Fence Films received a letter from an attorney representing Indiana University. The letter stated that university was claiming that a portion of the logo used for "Indoctrinate U" looked similar to the university's logo.
From a design and typographical standpoint, there were readily apparent differences between our graphics and the university's logo. There is also no likelihood of consumer confusion because our product is a film whereas theirs is four years in Bloomington. We're in totally different markets.
But in an act of good faith, we voluntarily took the Indoctrinate-U.com site offline while we reviewed our options and decided how to proceed.
Taking down the Web site of a film that we've been working on for four years was painful. We got lots of e-mails from people wondering what was happening, wondering whether some school was trying to shut us down because of the content of our film.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
http://indoctrinate-u.com/pages/welcome.html
Looks pretty similar to me.
I like how the opening shot is of the Rotunda and The Lawn here at U.Va.
Now I am slightly color blind, but red is different than green, isn’t it? That’s what they tell me.
Different font too.
One has a circle (actually several) around it. One does not.
Err...opening shot of the trailer.
Try changing the color on Microsoft or Apple’s logo and using it as you own and see how long before the trademark infringement claims start arriving.
Evan should tell IU FU.
I didn’t know that Indiana had the monopoly on the letters “I” and “U”.
Michael A. McRobbie President (812) 855-4613 iupres@indiana.edu Karen Adams Chief of Staff (812) 856-5596 kadams@indiana.edu Carol Isaacs Executive Assistant (812) 855-0454 cisaacs@indiana.edu Vicki Petermichel Scheduling Assistant (812) 856-0540 vpetermi@indiana.edu Gail Weaver Correspondence Assistant (812) 856-5916 gweaver@indiana.edu Debra Neff Office Manager and Executive Assistant to the Chief of Staff (812) 855-8339 deneff@indiana.edu Marcia Pickett Executive Secretary (812) 855-4613 mapicket@indiana.edu Jo Ann Bush Executive Secretary (Indianapolis Office) (317) 274-3571 jabush@iupui.edu Kelly Kish Research Specialist (812) 856-3275 kekish@indiana.edu Communications Staff Larry MacIntyre Assistant Vice President for University Communications (812) 856-1172 lmacinty@indiana.edu Ryan Piurek Assistant Director, University Communications (812) 855-5393 rpiurek@indiana.edu Susan Moke Senior Communications Assistant (812) 855-9516 smoke@indiana.edu Becky Wood Communications Assistant (812) 855-0253 rewood@indiana.edu Kim Denny Administrative Secretary (812) 856-1172 kdenny@indiana.edu Mailing Addresses Office of the President Indiana University Bryan Hall 200 107 S. Indiana Ave. Bloomington, IN 47405 (812) 855-4613 Fax: (812) 855-9586 Office of the President Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis University Place Conference Center 850 W. Michigan Street Suite 243 Indianapolis, IN 46202-5198 (317) 274-3571 Fax: (317) 274-5098
No no but their Duke like faculty claim that nobody had ever arranged them as a candelabra before...
I can just see it now:
"Sesame Street has been brought to you by the letters, 'I' and 'U' -"
"Excuse me, Big Bird, but I represent the offices of Bilkem, Milkem, and Runn, who are on retainer from Indiana University, and my clients own the rights to the letters 'I' and 'U', hereafter referred to as Exhibits A and B..."
"But, but, Mr. Attorney, we're not talking about 'A' and 'B' today, we're talking about 'I' and 'U'!"
"So am I, and so does this cease-and-desist order..."
Then our trademark laws are getting out of hand. While Apple may have a case with a different color apple, how can someone trademark the letters I & U?
But even that isn’t really the story here. Read the whole article. Indoctrinate-U.com received the letter and immediately took down the website, changed the logo, changed the videos, AND changed the movie to remove the old logo and replace it with the new logo. Indiana rewarded that quick action with a demand for money that would bankrupt the company.
It very simply has nothing to do with trademark infringement and everything to do with an attempt to silence political speech that Indiana University disagree’s with.
Because Indiana U is not even mentioned in the film, I would not be surprised if there was not a larger organization that is just using Indiana U as a means to shut down this film.
I do see similarities, but the block “M” of
Michigan Univ.
Missouri Univ.
Mississippi Univ.
are closer looking than the I-U’s shown.
The test isn’t whether it is identical, the test is whether it is confusingly similar. It looks like the University has a pretty good case.
It’s the same logo. Both sides win in this case. IU gets to protect their logo, and this film gets tons of free publicity. None of us would have ever heard of it were it not for this case.
If the filmmakers stick by their guns, they'll clean the university's clock.
The IU logo consists of two letters, superimposed, in a particular font (Collegiate Block).
The film-makers used a font that is unmistakably not even similar. Since you can't copyright letters of the alphabet, but only the manner of their presentation, Indiana doesn't have a leg to stand on.
University legal departments are generally composed of law degrees who were too lazy or too dumb to pass the bar.
looks like the symbol for giving the finger
Controversy = Attention
After reading the article, I can’t help but think that this is what happens when you roll over and play dead. We need to start fighting this stuff at the start.
IU is dead to me after they fired Bob Knight.
I doubt such a letter would have come from an in-house lawyer.
Agree. But it would’ve come at their direction, would it not?
There are other tests. It fails because they are not in the same line of business, i.e. Indiana University loses nothing from the (supposed) infringement.
They are both in the business of selling propaganda. They are both in the educational film business. http://www.astro.indiana.edu/animations/
Greek letters can. Check out Trademarks with serial numbers 74694305 and 74693290
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=mh8291.2.151
Or even closer, 72029820
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=mh8291.2.340
Woof. Talk about administrative bloat. What the heck do all those admin assistants do? A correspondence assistant? Are they kidding? What is she, the guardian of the signature wheel?
Probably, but I’m not so sure that Indiana didn’t have a decent case here. Since we’re dealing with a trademark, the questions is going to be whether the logos are deceptively similar and present a likelihood of confusion. There are differences between the two for sure, but I’m not so sure that there wouldn’t be some likelihood of confusion.
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