A University of Nebraska themed website is in hot water after school officials discovered it was using licensed logos to promote the Cornhuskers football team.
HotHuskers.com, a website that has been in existence for three years, was using Cornhusker logos, a player video that appeared on YouTube but was produced by the university, and pictures of former athletes.
Turan Odabasi, a university intellectual property rights attorney, said HotHuskers.com never sought – and still doesn’t have – permission to use the university’s logos.
The real issue, however, is how the University of Nebraska logos were being used in conjunction with other content found on the site. HotHuskers.com features blogs, message boards and galleries of “hotties” that have no affiliation with the school. The hotties – photos of women in various states of undress – was the reason school officials took umbrage.
“Obviously, we don’t want to be associated with sites like this or endorse or approve of that, but our main concern is use of (trademarks),” said Michael Stephens, the Cornhuskers’ assistant athletic director for marketing.
He said the athletic department and Collegiate Licensing Company typically discover eight to 12 instances a month where someone is improperly using protected material. Collegiate Licensing handles trademarks for the NCAA and about 200 colleges and universities.
“Sometimes I call the folks (website owners) and they may not understand licensing and the fact you need approval,” Stephens said. “I get on the phone, explain the process, explain the legalities and then we get it resolved.”
University officials don’t want to be associated with sites like this because of the image it projects, particularly the use of photos involving women.
But if HotHuskers.com didn’t post photos of women and its only intent was to promote Cornhusker football, would the university have reacted because of the site’s use of Nebraska logos?
Probably not.
The logos, pictures and video were removed from the site by late Friday, and featured a disclaimer that it wasn’t affiliated with the university.
I have been a member of HotHuskers.com for over 2 years. It is an awesome Husker Fan site with a sexy twist. As far as I have seen there was only ONE brief instance of a Husker Logo displayed and it was not in conjunction with their Hotties or items for sale. Other HuskerFan sites like HuskerBoard.com HuskerSpot.com HuskersEtc.com HuskerFanClub.com and many other show logos and pictures of players with tacit approval. This is just a case of a blue hair generation gap rearing its aging head.
As I noted in the piece, I suspect the only reason school officials got up in arms was because of the chicks. I personally don’t see what the problem is because the site looks like it promotes Cornhusker football. Whether the university wants to admit it or not, that’s free advertising for them.
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