"Owning Orange"

From Athletic Management

Review by Jordan Fields in KIN 332 (Section 1)

Syracuse University has been known for both their athletic and academic standards. Though lately their athletics have been less productive then what the school has been use to in the past, Syracuse University is still making headlines. Like every college in the nation with a sports program, SU has trademarked many different aspects of their proud school. SU has trademarked everything from their famous mascot Otto the Orange to the nicknames of their players the “Orangemen” and “Orangewomen”, they even trademarked their stadium names. Now SU is going through a legal debate on whether or not they can trademark the word “Orange” as it deals with clothing and other merchandise. The issue here is that the word orange is so vastly used in other major and minor collegiate programs. For instance a few schools that were discussed in the journal I found were programs such as, Boise State University, University of Florida, and the University of Tennessee. These programs were discussed in the article due to how intertwined they are with the color orange. These teams were worried and I believe rightfully so, if SU was to be successful in acquiring the desired trademark then it could drastically affect the marketing of these teams. These teams use the word orange a lot in retail and in promotions. The answer to this problem was a co-existence agreement. Though the details of the agreement are uncertain, they are currently being worked out. The idea of a trademark is to insure that there is no confusion on the origin of an idea or object. Syracuse’s main reason for the trademarking of the word “Orange” is solely to prevent the sale of unlicensed or unofficial products using the schools nickname. This trademark, however, would not stop other schools from being able to use it in accordance with their own programs. This was one of the terms agreed upon due to how unlikely it would be that customers would mistake Syracuse for their school. George McGuire, who is the attorney handling legal issues with the school’s case, states that this agreement only re-affirms each school’s rights to use the word “Orange” as it had before and that colleges which are not part of the agreement will also be able to continue to use the word as it relates to their programs. This agreement will also apply to high school programs, as long as no connection to Syracuse is made through the word “Orange”. I think it should be passed in favor for SU, the only people being harmed by this are people selling the unlicensed products. It has no real affect on any other schools and it will help generate more revenue for Syracuse. They are only looking to stop the unlicensed sale of items with the school’s nickname. Being that it is their nickname, I feel as though they should have the right to protect it.