Cat fight

Penn State was right to protect its Nittany Lion logo--even against an elementary school

Date published: 10/2/2007

ALL TOGETHER NOW: Penn State is not a Big Meanie. The allega- tion erupted last week on our letters page when news that, on behalf of Penn State, the Collegiate Licensing Co. had asked Stafford County's Conway Elementary School's to quit using its logo--a cougar that looked a lot like PSU's Nittany Lion. (It must have been a littermate.)

"Leave the little guys alone!" was the basic sentiment expressed in letters. After all, why would Penn State, a university two states away with 42,000 undergraduates at its State College campus alone, care about little old Conway Elementary?

The reason is simple: A trademark is intellectual property, and, just like your home, carries with it rights of ownership. Penn State's Nittany Lion logo is a design to which the school has exclusive rights. Failure to defend its trademark could encourage infringement in the future.

Penn State's request of Conway Elementary seems reasonable and just: Please stop using the logo when you run out of your current stock. Is Penn State a Big Meanie? No, just an institution justifiably protecting its property. Anyway, Conway's new logo--a cartoonish cougar sporting a railroad engineer's hat--sounds a lot cuter.

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Date published: 10/2/2007