Tabberone's Hall of Shame - Colleges and Universities

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Colleges and Universities
Whacked-out Ar~tiste
Hall Of Shame Members
Added June 27, 2008

American colleges and universities have gloomed onto the money machine called "licensing" and are circling their wagons to defend their treasured logos and mascots. We don't have a problem with this in general. It's when these institutions of higher learning don't take the time to learn the law and place themselves higher than the rights of individuals. We inaugurate this page with the twin yo-yo universities in the great state of Oklahoma: Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University.

Oklahoma University
and
Oklahoma State University
With a particluar nod to Suzanne Staley, OU's director of brand development, and Judy Barnard, OSU's director of trademarks and licensing

The weekend of October 26 - 28, 2008, after donning their vigilanté costumes, Suzanne Staley, and sidekick Judy Barnard, desended upon the Affair of the Heart craft show in Oklahoma City and began breaking the law by confiscating what they felt were infringing craft items for sale. You see, they felt empowered by Oklahoma Law which says articles bearing counterfeit trademarks may be seized, and possibly the subject of forfeiture at a later date.
"Connie Harris, one of the craft show's founders, said many vendors are upset by the situation and had to close down their booths. 'My husband was mentioning a lot of the things were merchandise that they bought that was licensed and altered -- like Hancock's carries OU and OSU licensed fabric. They just bought that and made a pillow. That's legal, and they confiscated stuff like that,' Harris said. "
However, the flopsy twins didn't bother to read the important part of the statute, which begins with: "The investigating law enforcement officer may seize any item that bears a counterfeit mark..." (emphasis added). They made themselves the investigators, the seizing authority, judge and jury. It appears they "knew" what they were doing was illegal because vendors were given á voluntary surrender of property form and many were "coerced" into signing it. One vendor who refused to sigh the form had it filled in and her name signed by the vigilantés. Is this what they teach at Oklahoma Colleges?
Two weeks after the Roundup At Affair of the Heart, Oklahoma City prosecutors were debating whenther or not to file larceny charges against Suzanne Staley, and sidekick Judy Barnard.
"Vendors lost anywhere from $150 to $7,000 worth of merchandise, and many said they were "repeatedly threatened," if they did not hand it over, according to police reports."
As of February 2008, the dispute has been resolved but the papers don't give much information. It's likely, dispite their press releases, that the Universities backed off to get the charges dropped. The Universities publicly keep pushing their "licensing" programs but as noted, many of the vendors who were mugged by Suzanne Staley, and sidekick Judy Barnard, even though they weren't selling infringing crafts. Oklahoma University and Oklahoma State University, along with their over-reaching and fellow Hall Of Shame buddies, the Collegiate Licensing Company, are illegally interferring with legitimate sales of non-infringing merchandise. We call their tactics "extortion".
The Daily Oklahoman, printed a puff piece on November 17, 2007, that sounded like it was dictated by the universities. The piece also failed to state that the Louisiana District decision they quote is still pending in the Court of Appeals for the Fifth District. Convenient omission. The piece also claims the CLC seizes merchandise, a claim we have not found credible.
The Tulsa World did a follow-up piece February 8, 2008.

University of Texas at Austin

On these pages because they seem to think they own all references to the word "Longhorns" and to any graphic representation of a longhorn's head.

Rebuttals
In an effort to provide a balanced view, we make the following offer to anyone who feels they have been wrongly accused on this web site.
If you, or your company, have been referenced on these pages, and you would like the chance to post a rebuttal, we will post your rebuttal (provided it is in good taste) so others can read it. The rebuttal must be submitted in a format that can easily be converted into HTML. We reserve the right to alter the rebuttal to make it more readable. However, we will not alter the content (unless there is offensive material to be removed). We also reserve the right to comment on any rebuttal received. Emails protesting the content of this web site may be treated as rebuttals by us at our discretion.
We made this offer a very long time ago and as of July 2007, only AnimieHot.com, in our Hall Of Shame, has chosen to submit a formal rebuttal.