OT - Lawsuit: S. Miss can't use its Eagle - too similar to Iowa Hawkeye
http://hawkcentral.com/2011/08/02/patent-office-tells-southern-miss-its…
So, what's next... USC sues Sparty over a similar Greek-ish profile?
Can we sue Deleware? Or can Princeton sue us?
Is a Hawkeye actually just a regular ol' golden eagle?
Stupid things usually happen when lawyers start messing with sports
It's awesome when professional sports team try to make little birdies look like a viscious maneaters by giving them evil eyebrows
Or when Louisvillw gives a bird teeth.
But this is perfectly acceptable.
This falls into the only category of mascot that is acceptable: the kind that basically mocks the entire concept of mascots. Stanford's tree does likewise.
Throwing a face on a fruit, a tree, or a poisonous nut is a level of silly that I can't buy into.
No, that's just total win.
boogity boogity
...the Orangeman is also stretching. Ever so slightly to the left.
Getting blue balls.
.....that any job - even the Syracuse mascot - has an advantage. In their case, unprecedented access to.....that.
This is our secondary mascot.
Does anyone have the pic of Mangino W/ the Cuse mascot?
No, but I think this is far more disturbing.
This is the stuff nightmares are made of.
August 4th, 2011 at 11:25 PM ^
See how much nicer he looks without the eyebrow?
Double post fail.
USM's logo looks NOTHING like Fred Flintstone...
Does the article even say anything about suing? All I saw was that their trademark application was rejected, unless I missed something.
Oh, and I would think that the colors plus the profile of a raptor is enough to count them as too similar for the trademark.
"In 2004, Iowa officials argued that the two images were confusingly similar.
Last week, Iowa got two out of three judges to concur."
A lawsuit, technically no; but in patent world (and in layman's terms), pretty much.
I guess in my mind the trademark application is like asking permission and Iowa just said no, whereas a lawsuit would imply that they didn't ask permission and Iowa was calling them out on it.
Iowa should have to change their logo...
perhaps;
Iowa.... maybe you spend spend money on things that are a little more imprtant.... such as figuring ways to not to over work your student athletes.
Seriously.... If this holds up in court, there will be a waterfall of copyright encroachment claims....
Then again, if you squint your eyes and stand 50 feet from the monitor, I guess they look similar. :/
.
Maybe its just me, but this is crazy. This is crazy right? I don't see it, other than they're both birds, and a golden shade of yellow.
As I said above, they are basically the same colors and they are both profiles of raptors with a very similar design. I mean, if you saw USM's design without knowing it belonged to them, you'd think that Iowa had updated their logo. That's what the trademark system is meant to prevent.
I would not confuse this with the Iowa logo.
If the school colors were different, you wouldn't give it a second glance.
But the school colors aren't different and that's part of the issue. Did you know that "Tony the Tiger Orange" is a trademarked color? If try to trademark a tiger that looks very little like Tony, but use that color, you will get rejected. It's the same basic principle. Just because you can tell the difference between them doesn't mean there isn't a strong resemblence between them.
You're right about the colors being the same. I think the courts should also force S. Miss to change their colors. Nobody is using pink and gold, that combo is free.
Maybe some PETA lawyers should sue Iowa on behalf of all eagles.
and I have been doing trademark work for more than 20 years.
No, you're totally right, those two logos are REALLY different and not at all confusing. I can't believe this was an issue, nobody would mix those up.
I could maybe, possibly, probably not though having a case if they were in the same market (I know its not relevant in a lawsuit) but the hawkeye is 2d and has little detail, whereas the southern miss is way more detailed and doesn't look like a kid used a elementary stencil and traced it.
The Iowa Hawkeye looks more like an angry parrot.
August 4th, 2011 at 11:20 PM ^
another side-by-side view of the logos that I found in a different article on this story.
I guess I can see how one could think that the left logo is just an updated version of the Hawkeye logo.
EDIT: Geez, the more I look at this the more the Iowa logo looks terrible. I mean, if you take the stencils and put them together, it looks like some guys junk got torn to shreds. Shredded junk is no way to run an institution of higher learning.
I think the Iowa logo is supposed to contain a lowercase "i". At least, that's how I've always viewed it.
...their second logo design was rejected as being too close to Minnesota State's design:
Hayden Fox, Dauber Dybinski, and Luther Van Damm were all unavailable for comment
I hear Fox is in negotiation to head to the pro ranks.
This is the best comment I've read on here in months.
Non-Conference game, nuetral site, that will settle it.
If we have a case against anybody, it'd have to be Missouri. We must have reached some sort of agreement with them over use of the block M, I imagine.
I believe that is the case. I seem to remember reading something about that years ago.
Michigan's away jerseys were mistakenly shipped to Ann Arbor instead of Mogantown.
Summer's Eve sues Sparty nation next.
These kinds of cases/disputes may sound silly, but there are millions of dollars arguably at issue in them. All of these designs are trademarked and the trademarks are extremely valuable. Valuable trademarks are protected and strictly enforced. For example, Apple most definitely prosecutes companys that use the logo on knock-off computers. There really is no difference in the legalities/arguments in a case like that (an obvious one) and in the Iowa case. The difference is that some people do not think the Hawkeye trademark is as valuable as Iowa believes it to be.
...aren't eagles and hawks kind of supposed to look similar?
I am looking forward to when Southern Miss replaces their logo with an image of golden eagle devouring an ear of corn.
I can assure you, Iowa copied off of Pittsburgh. It was with Pittsburgh's consent though, IIRC.
Chris Wormley's HS (Whitmer) was sued by PITT for using the Panther logo on their new field turf.
The following schools should be contacting their lawyers right about now...
This Iowa thing is dumb. I spent about 5 minutes scanning over university logos and I think all of these are closer matches than Iowa and USM.