Notre Dame Demands That Kansas High School Destroyed By Tornado Change Logo
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You stay classy, Notre Dame.
Chapman High School, whose athletics teams have been known as the Fighting Irish since 1967, has been formally asked by the University of Notre Dame to change its leprechaun logo due to the college’s trademark on the image.
Notre Dame saw the leprechaun logo on the school’s website and promptly fired off a letter to the high school last summer demanding that the high school change its logo, although in their infinite charity, Notre Dame said it would allow Chapman to continue using the Fighting Irish moniker. Oh, and lest I forget to mention it, in 2008, the schools in Chapman were destroyed by a tornado, and through sheer will and determination by the town’s residents, that Chapman High School only reopened last January?
Said Chapman High School principal Kevin Suther, from a KWCH-TV report (via USA Today):
“Well when you get a letter from Notre Dame it gets your attention.
“For anything like stationary and school uniforms as long as its Chapman Fighting Irish, we are still the Fighting Irish”, says Suther.
Added superintendent Lacee Sell:
“They are no longer allowing us to use the fighting leprechaun mascot.”
Video report follows.
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Of course, Notre Dame is well within their legal rights to impose its considerable institutional power upon the high school and demand that Chapman High School cease using its trademarked logo, but one would think that the university might be a lot more sympathetic, especially when it relates to a school whose student body has been devastated by the tremendous damage strong winds and storms can inflict upon a school’s collective psyche. Just saying.
But in the end, the students will soldier on and come up with a new logo. They have made it through a tornado, for crying out loud, they can most surely get past the overreaching and pompous actions of an arrogant university in Indiana.
Notre Dame comes down on Chapman for leprechaun logo [KWCH-TV (via USA Today)]
One more reason to root against ND.
Not a ND fan, but I don’t have any problem with them or any University protecting its copyrighted materials and logos.
“One more reason to root against ND.”
Not that another one was needed.
Stuff like this makes me proud to be a USC Trojan! FIGHT ON and BEAT THE IRISH!
ND isn’t doing anything differently than what any other college or company (which is essentially what most colleges / conferences are when it comes to merchandising) would do to protect their trademarks. You feel badly for the high school and hopefully ND will work with them and not be too heavy handed. While this may be more of a commentary on societies’ values in general, ND isn’t doing anything all that unusual in this situation.
Impartial,
This is not true. There is a high school in our area that has the same logo as a major college team. The school is charged a yearly licensing fee of $1.
FND.
I wonder if the author of this article bothered to find out what happens if ND decides not to protect its trademark. The answer is, it loses it. This exact scenario has happened before and it always gets spun into a big-guy-picking-on-little-guy story by those who are jealous that their favorite college football teams do not have national television contracts or logos that high schools wish to copy. In a previous case, what was commonly left out of the story was that UND actually paid for the high school in question to put new logos on its basketball court, etc. Classy, but of course that part went unreported.
ND can make an exception to their trademark protection. Why now and not 1967? Did they lose their trademark by not responding to trademark infringement SINCE 1967!!??
Notre Dame did not know of of this trademark infringement in 1967. Someone happened to pick it up on the internet.
I really don’t get how a small town high school mascot threatens a large university like ND. It’s not like people are flocking to them to buy Fighting Irish apparel and causing them to lose out on their precious revenue. Greed, that’s all it is.
Penn State did the same thing to Prattville Christian Academy (Alabama) earlier this year. If they don’t protect their trademark they lose them. By the way, PCA changed the Penn State logo to make it their own, but PSU said it was too similar. How can a small private school fight a large state funded college?
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20110915/NEWS01/109150336/Penn-State-causes-Prattville-Christian-Academy-change-logo?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage
Staying classy. Getting headlines this way instead of winning ways, no?
The term or phrase fighting Irish was not invented by Nd. In fact, the phrase fighting Irish was first used during the civil war with the Irish Brigades that fought for the north and south during the civil war. Therefore, I think that Nd is out-bound’s in claiming this phase as a trademark. T these schools should be aloud to use the fight Irish as their school symbol.
Max, Impartial stated on 10/19/2011 that if you don’t protect your trademark you lose it.
I don’t really think the Irish Brigades really wanted to protect their logo during the civil war.
ND did what it’s Alumni and supporters would expect it to. They are protecting it’s image. Some of you havn’t even read what they are requesting. They are asking the HS stop using the logo not the name. It’s terrible what happened to the HS and the City but you can’t and shouldn’t expect to be exempt from following Laws. This gives the HS a chance to start new traditions with a new logo and attitude.
Well, here’s what you can do, ND. Go to Google, type in ‘Fighting Irish Mascot’ and see how many schools across the country use your precious, trademarked mascot. Some samples to get your legal team started with their terrorizing:
Louisiana: http://king.jppss.k12.la.us/king/
Tennessee: http://hchsguidance.com/default.aspx
Nebraska: http://www.sacredheart.esu6.org/athletics/football/football.htm
Yes, I can see why ND is concerned…you could confuse the high school team
for their football team.
LOL maybe the High sschool team is better and they will want to sneak them in the bus so they can finally have a winning season
I love how everyone is bashing ND. Almost any other school in the NCAA would do the same thing. The mascot is identical to ND’s. Any other school would do the same thing. If I recall FSU is charging a local high school yearly to use their logo…
but no one else is doing it ONLY THEM thats a kids school and pride and to change something from them is like changing their last name from Past students to present
No, Notre Dame is not the ONLY school protecting their trademark. Georgia Tech did the same thing a few years ago to Carter High School in Knoxville TN.
Not true. The University of Miami make Union high school in Tulsa change their logo. Others have been mentioned too. What’s not mentioned in all of these comments is the university can license the logo to the schools for a reasonable fee. This will still protect their logo rights.
I would expect more from Notre Dame.
Screw the GOLDEN DOME…..they only did this because the HS team is better than they are. The new logo should be a leprechaun that is Mooning the GOLDEN DOME……Unreal….ND is not worth the free press they get from this story.
They did that in El Paso also to Cathedral High for your greediness you will lose more games now and I dont care if you play a team thats no good I hope you lose so you can learn your lesson since 1967 come on YOU S_U_C_K
You have got to be kidding, aren’t you?
However nothing surprise’s me from ND, they can do and say about anything they want. If you don’t believe that check out the news that comes from the South Bend.
Well, this school made a horrendously awful decision to blatantly steal a copyrighted image for their logo. I really can’t be upset with them learning a valuable lesson in copyright law. How stupid do you have to be to just assume you can take a known brand’s logo and use it for yourself? And I should have sympathy because they’re a high school who faced a wholly unrelated tragedy?
I wrote about unauthorized use of college and pro logos and mascots last October in The Principal Difference.
In that post, I warned school leaders:
“School leaders would be wise to proactively look into the genesis of their school logo. Otherwise, it could turn out to be both embarrassing and expensive.”
Read the entire “Logo Larceny” article at http://bit.ly/bsp5j8
Florida State is doing the same thing to a few schools in Georgia and Florida, costing the schools tens of thousands to transfer the name change(which they are requiring). Creekside High School in Fairburn Ga is even the home of their starting saftey.
dont we got better things to do….than bash these small things!
Who was the author of this article. I wonder why he didn’t sign his name??
The domers and cathoholics in general are on a severe downturn that is affecting their psyche. If I were the students of the H.S., I’d change the fight name and and charactor to the fighting Leathernecks or something much better than that leprechaun crap. The domers and leprechauns are in the same boat: clueless. FIGHT ON!
I went to this school and my children go to this school. This is not just changing a school anyway it will be changing the whole community. It’s a town where we bleed green and white! I understand that ND has to protect their stuff but I just don’t understand why their can’t be some better way to do it without changing everything. We’ve had enough change. My children will never walk the same halls I did and the entire town is so different and it wasn’t because we wanted too. Like there would be anyway for us to fight ND. Why can’t we just pay for some copyrights on it? Why do we have to be torn down? It’s like being ripped apart and it’s not just a material thing now.