Posted on 10/14/2005 5:30:22 AM PDT by foreverfree
**tztown, we've got a problem
You don't have to be a collegian to know you can't spell Kutztown University without K and U. Unfortunately, the letters are University of Kansas trademarks.
By Mike Urban Reading Eagle
Give us a “K.” Give us a “U.”
That may sound like a cheer at a Kutztown University football game, but these days it's an order the college hopes it doesn't receive.
Kutztown has used its initials on football helmets, letterheads and bookstore merchandise since it became a university in 1983.
But somehow that information hadn't made its way to the University of Kansas, which federally trademarked the letters in 1938.
Neither of the colleges 1,136 miles apart seemed to suffer from the alphabetical sharing.
Then the issue came to light a few weeks ago. Someone saw that the new Kansas symbol the letters KU side by side in a Trajan font was nearly the same as the Kutztown logo developed two years ago.
“What an amazing coincidence that out of several hundred fonts they picked Trajan like we had,” said Dr. Philip R. Breeze, Kutztown spokesman. “It was fairly amusing.”
But a funny accident could potentially be a sticky legal case for both sides, officials agree.
“There are definitely some serious issues here,” said Paul Carttar, executive vice chancellor for external affairs at Kansas.
Kansas, like other nationally recognized colleges, earns a lot from its trademarked merchandise, so it must protect its images, he said.
“We have the federal right to use those letters for higher-education purposes so we don't believe we'll have to change our logo, but maybe they won't have to change either,” he said. “We're working together and I believe there will be an amicable resolution.”
Though neither of the state-owned schools will be forced to pay damages, Kansas could ask that Kutztown be ordered to stop using the letters, said attorney Jeff Hawkins of Pennsylvania's State System of Higher Education, who is representing Kutztown.
“Heading to court would be very expensive for both sides,” he said.
Breeze said early talks between the colleges have been very friendly.
Since Kutztown must have at least 90 percent of its student body from Pennsylvania and sells little merchandise outside the state, the two KUs aren't really competing, he said.
“For 23 years they didn't seem to notice we were using the letters, so it doesn't seem like they were being harmed,” he said.
With about 3,000 colleges in America and only 26 letters in the alphabet, situations like this are inevitable, he said. The universities of Southern California and South Carolina both use the letters USC, he pointed out.
“There are only so many letter combinations,” he said.
FWIW I'm a Kutztown grad, but I never thought of Kutztown as "KU".
If this article has already been posted, or at least the topic, let us know.
ff
So 'The Fighting Hexmeisters' was never really in the running then?
Sometimes you just want to kill all the lawyers.
i went to UT...was it Tennessee or Texas though? i can't remember...also, I am going to throw caution to the wind and use the word "threepeat" in a sentence. Can you Pat Riley calling his attornies now?
The University of Denver considers itself "DU". Perhaps they should consider a lawsuit against a certain political pornography website.
I hope Slippery Rock never has a problem like this. I had my first funnel cake at the Kutztown Fair -- and who was that old Dallas running back from Kutztown State -- was it Robert Newhouse?
But somehow that information hadn't made its way to the University of Kansas, which federally trademarked the letters in 1938.
Someone saw that the new Kansas symbol the letters KU side by side in a Trajan font was nearly the same as the Kutztown logo developed two years ago.
“What an amazing coincidence that out of several hundred fonts they picked Trajan like we had,” said Dr. Philip R. Breeze, Kutztown spokesman.
Amazing coincidence! Right! But hey, Kansas only beat them to it by 45 years!
Yeah, no one would ever get into disputes, and gumdrops would rain from the sky.
You must have had a REALLY good time there!
There was another great football player who hailed from Kutztown -- know who?
Hint: The Monday Night Football announcers always called the school "Cuts-town" instead of pronouncing it the German way - Kütztown (the "u" has to be umlauted).
Andre Reed
Aha, I'd forgotten Andre Reed. A regular football factory.
Shouldn't the University of Kansas be UK instead of KU
I believe Kutztown U. is officially "Kutztown University of Pennsylvania" so the initials should be KUP.
UK is already taken for the University of Kentucky.
Someone should teach Kutztown's arch rival (whomever that may be) Stanford's anti-Cal song that begins "The Dirty Golden Bear, has lost all of his hair...."
We had to carry Harry to the Ferry,
The Ferry carried Harry to the Shore,
And the reason that we had
to carry Harry to the Ferry
Was that Harry couldn't carry any more!
California, California
We'll Drink! Do! or Die! For California.....
I wish it was Florida University instead of the University of Florida. That way if anyone asked me where I went to college, I would simply say, "FU"
"...Shouldn't the University of Kansas be UK instead of KU..."
Those are precisely my thoughts as well. Those two universities aren't in the same conferences, they never play each other, they have different areas of educational concentration, and they're over a thousand miles apart. What is the big deal?
~ Blue Jays ~
And there is a SCU in South Carolina, two in California and one in Georgia.
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