A student looking to launch his own line of Ball State University products said he is working with the school to solve licensing problems that arose this week.
Ball State has contacted its licensing agent, Licensing Resource Group, to deal with unauthorized use of one of the school's trademarked logos by sophomore Max Miller. He was advertising his products on a Facebook page.
Miller's company, I'd Ball U Clothing, started out as a joke, he said. The company was originally going to operate through Facebook and Twitter, with shopping carts to which students could purchase the products.
His idea was to sell not only T-shirts with the Ball U logo — a large "U" with the word "Ball" across it — but other Ball State "inside jokes," he said.
Miller was contacted by the Muncie Star Press with quotes from Director of University Communications Kevin Burke. He said he resolved to call LRG to clarify what copyright issues he was having. Miller said he will talk with the university to come up with an agreement.
LRG spokesman Jack Landrigan said Ball State requested the company deal with the issue — the use of a product which usually requires a licensing fee to use. He said LRG looked at the Facebook page, checked the list of licensed manufacturers and vendors and determined the products were indeed unlicensed.
For cases in which a person or company attempts to sell unlicensed products through a Web site, such as Facebook or eBay, LRG contacts that Web site. It presents the evidence it has to support the unauthorized use of trademarked material and the Web site determines whether to remove the post.
As of Thursday evening, the Facebook page was still up.
He said similar issues are common and, if Ball State and LRG didn't act on them, the university could potentially be relinquishing its rights to the trademark. He said LRG doesn't single anyone out — it responds whether the unlicensed use comes from a person, school, company or other entity.
"We're working clearly within our rights," Landrigan said, "and if we don't take action on this issue and similar issues, the university is forfeiting their trademarks."
The Facebook and Twitter pages Miller created to sell his products have not been taken down, because no product has been sold yet. However, Miller has removed pictures of his products until he reaches an agreement with the university.
Burke said in an e-mail Miller had no contact with Ball State and hadn't applied for use of any university trademarks, specifically the Ball U logo. He said the university's only involvement was to notify LRG.
Miller is not sure whether he will continue making designs if he does not reach an agreement with Ball State. He said that for now he will wait for what the university has to say.
"I have no idea. It's up in the air," he said. "We care about what the university has to say and we won't start making [any products] unless we make a deal with them."
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