Monday, February 19, 2007 10:14 PM CST
Ownership of Chief logo becoming costly, complicated
By MARK TUPPER, Staff Writer
mtupper@herald-review.com
CHAMPAIGN -- $1.8 million.
That’s the amount the University of Illinois received last year from sales of products that paid a licensing fee to use university-owned logos and symbols. T-shirts. Sweatshirts. Coffee mugs. Blankets.
The block-I? It’s licensed to the university.
The italic ILLINOIS that is used at center court of the Assembly Hall? It’s licensed too, especially when it is printed on your T-shirt or sweatshirt.
And, of course, the Chief Illiniwek logo. That’s university property, too.
On Friday, ownership of the Chief logo became a big, complicated deal once the university announced the Chief was being “retired” and the school would no longer be using Native American imagery in connection with University of Illinois athletics.
As of Monday, however, the university was still making money off the Chief. Printing of Chief Illiniwek T-shirts rolled on. Sales of Chief Illiniwek sweatshirts remained brisk. Outlets calling the university to inquire about the present and future of Chief-related merchandise were told, simply, that for now, everything is status-quo.
Marty Kaufmann, assistant athletics director directly involved in licensing, said Monday the status quo is likely to change at some point, but for now he’s been given no directive to make changes.
“This is just my opinion, but I would think at some point we’d be telling manufacturers to cease printing (of the logo) on a certain date,” Kaufmann said. “And it’s possible we’d be giving stores a specified lead time to sell the inventory and clear their shelves.”
For those wanting to get a Chief Illiniwek cap, for instance, there seems no need to stampede to the ath-letic apparel store. Given the fact that some companies, like Nike, operate on a nine-month order lead, Chief Illiniwek merchandise licensed by the university and carrying the Collegiate Licensing Company stamp of approval will be on shelves through Christmas, at least.
But at some point, the NCAA is sure to tell the university to begin shutting down production, that making money off the image of the Chief is not keeping in spirit with the agreement to part ways with the Chief. And at some point, the university has to make a very dicey decision: What do they do what their trademark rights on Chief Illiniwek?
Kaufmann admits he’s not a copyright or trademark attorney. But he’s pretty sure if a brand is not used for a period of a couple years, the owner risks losing rights to that brand.
Of that $1.8 million in sales, Kaufmann doesn’t know how much of it involved merchandise that included a Chief logo. “Less than half, I’m pretty sure,” he said. “But it’s still a significant amount.”
Not surprisingly, various groups have approached the university about wanting to obtain ownership rights of the Chief Illiniwek logo, and there are good reasons for the university to listen.
The main reason is a simple one: The Chief logo has great value.
The Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative, an anti-Chief group, demands that the Board of Trustees do not transfer the rights and trademarks of the logo to any organization, whether it be for profit or not-for-profit, because doing so, they claim, “will only continue to perpetuate this racist stereotype.”
Fine. But as I understand it, simply not transferring those rights doesn’t necessarily end the prospect of someone grabbing them and doing with the logo as they please.
A better solution might be to hand pick the group that gains control of the logo and the Council of Chiefs, a group of former students who portrayed Chief Illiniwek through the years, has a keen interest.
The university’s legal team will no doubt sort through all the ramifications in a complicated decision. What happens to the money the Council of Chiefs makes? Could any of it go toward endowing a scholarship for a Native American student or some other cause?
And if the university turns over logo rights to a group who markets merchandise bringing in $750,000 a year, isn’t the university both surrendering those rights and putting itself in direct competition with a brand it once owned?
There’s a reasonable solution in there somewhere, and the conversation doesn’t need to be restricted to the Council of Chiefs. Maybe there’s another caretaker of the Chief logo with whom the university feels comfortable striking a deal.
I think caretaker is the key word, however. Find some group that will respect the Chief Illiniwek logo, to market it on T-shirts and caps, for fans who wish to perpetuate the image, but not on toilet seats, underwear or beer labels.
I realize the anti-Chief contingent wants everything related to the Chief to dry up and blow away. That isn’t going to happen. The name, “Fighting Illini” will stay. The music associated with the Chief’s “Three-in-One” dance will remain. And for as long as we live, the Chief Illiniwek logo will be appearing on clothing worn at Illinois athletic events.
The unanswered questions are who will own that logo and how will the profits be used?
Mark Tupper can be reached at 421-7983.
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