2008 Woodie Awards
Vote Absentee
Illini Media
WPGU
buzz
Illio
TechnographUniversity retains Chief logo rights
Licensees must book last orders in April
By Jonathan Wroble
Posted: 4/2/07 Section: News
|
The announcement came less than one month after the Board of Trustees' March 13 meeting in which the retirement of the Chief mascot was ratified. The board, however, did not make the final choice regarding the logo at that meeting.
"The Board of Trustees turned the issue over to the chancellor in its last meeting," said Marty Kaufmann, assistant athletic director. "(He) ultimately made the decision of how the University should proceed."
Along with retaining the rights to the Chief logo, the University will discontinue the production and shipping of products containing the logo, the word "Chief," or the words "Chief Illiniwek."
The first step in this initiative was to send out a news release to more than 400 University licensees - manufacturers who are officially permitted to create products with the Chief logo. According to the release, these licensees have until April 16 to book orders for Chief products.
Kaufmann called this a "short period of time but a reasonable period of time." He said that it creates a "level playing field" between bigger licensees like Nike and smaller licensees like Gameday Sports.
"We wanted to give local business owners ... two weeks to really order some (merchandise)," Kaufmann said.
After the April 16 deadline, licensees have until June 15 to ship orders of Chief products. Any licensee with an order scheduled to ship after June 15 must get approval from College Licensing Company by submitting a letter detailing the number of products sold, the involved retailers and the shipping date.
"No reasonable request is going to be denied," Kaufmann said.
No order, however, is allowed to ship after Dec. 31.
Robin Kaler, University spokesperson, stressed the fact that these three deadlines refer to licensees, not retailers. The University cannot legally tell retailers when to stop selling merchandise, so a Chief product could theoretically sit on the shelves forever if no one buys it.
The Daily Illini encourages on-topic discussion through article commenting on its articles and blogs. It is our policy not to delete any comments based upon political or ideological point of view. However, we reserve the right to remove comments that are abusive, off-topic or use excessive foul language.
The posting of copyrighted material, including any and all content for which you are not the author, is illegal under Federal intellectual property laws. Such activity will not be tolerated. Comments containing copyrighted material will be removed, and continued violation of copyright law is grounds for being banned completely from commenting on DailyIllini.com.
If you feel any post meets these conditions or merits review, please e-mail our editors at meonline@dailyillini.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 8
John
posted 4/02/07 @ 3:21 AM CST
Just want to thank the administration for moving along with this process. This is an important move that is bound to have a lasting impact. This community is more than ready to move onward into a new era. (Continued…)
upbeatdad
RegularGuy
posted 4/02/07 @ 10:45 PM CST
It also points out the ultra-hypocrisy of the whole process. The Board says 'Off With The Chief', but adds, 'make sure we always get our cut of the merchandising rights. (Continued…)
Time For Change
posted 4/03/07 @ 8:18 AM CST
It it move on - look at the history of other colleges that have changed their symbol and or mascot from that of a Native American Image. It will happen just as it has happened to Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio and more. (Continued…)
Old Illini
posted 4/03/07 @ 11:42 AM CST
Syracuse University, eh? Gee, that's where former Chancellor Cantor scuttled off to after she "helped" the radicals and the political correctness crowd seize the Administration Building in their anti-Chief Illiniwek protest by refusing to call in the police and have the little Brownshirt wannabes arrested. (Continued…)
Old Illini
posted 4/05/07 @ 12:21 PM CST
Randall Norris says:
"Obviously the reader has never heard of non-violent protest and the constitutionally guaranteed right to assemble. They could have burned the building down. (Continued…)
Post a Comment