A federal appeals court has upheld a decision by the federal Trademark Trial and Appeals Board that the University of South Carolina may not register a logo featuring the initials “SC” because the University of Southern California has already registered a mark using those letters. “We agree that ‘SC’ may refer to the State of South Carolina. But as the evidence offered by Southern California demonstrates, ‘SC’ refers to many entities aside from the state,” concluded a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.
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10 Responses to Trojans Defeat Gamecocks in Trademark Battle
rmelton5 - January 20, 2010 at 3:41 pm
And they should stop calling themselves “Carolina,” too. Maybe “The Poorer USC” or “The Poorer Carolina”
cutty - January 20, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Congrats, rmelton5. And best of luck with your other battle of confusion: getting Americans to think of you rather than condoms every, single time they hear “Trojans.”
jegraves - January 20, 2010 at 7:57 pm
USC Trojans doesn’t refer to condoms?
jffoster - January 20, 2010 at 9:38 pm
Re 1, the Univedrsity of North Carolina also call themselves “Carolina’, as in the lyrocs of “A Tar Heel born…”
cwinton - January 21, 2010 at 8:36 am
How about USC of the East?
cwalcott - January 21, 2010 at 10:11 am
Why don’t they just register the trademark “‘Cocks”? Nobody would contest them for that one.
navydad - January 21, 2010 at 11:12 am
cwalcott: I think that one is taken by a video company in the San Fernando Valley, although theirs includes the word “Big” at the beginning, so maybe it doesn’t count. :)
tribblek - January 21, 2010 at 1:37 pm
As an alumn of the Univ. of South Carolina, I will concede to others referring to the Univ. of NORTH Carolina as “Carolina” — it was established 12 years before its southern sister. However, BOTH Carolinas were established as colleges before California was even loosely organized as a STATE. The Univ. of Southern California opened its doors nearly 80 years AFTER my beloved South Carolina. This one fact is many times overlooked in this popularity contest. I have often wondered how in the world the venerable Univ. of South Carolina was thought of as lesser-than those Trojans — who could not even claim to be the university of their state (only the southern part).
navydad - January 21, 2010 at 6:55 pm
If the U of South Carolina’s football program had been as successful as the U of Southern California’s has been since the 30s and if the Trojans had the record of the Gamecocks, we all would associate “SC” and “USC” with South Carolina.
waligowski - January 28, 2010 at 11:04 am
http://www.sc.edu = University of South Carolinawww.usc.edu – University of Southern CaliforniaWill there be a webdomain switch? Afterall, we are dealing in letters and initials and ‘brand’ awareness.