EUGENE, Ore. -- (Aug. 29, 2013) – The University of Oregon will not make immediate changes to its current trademark licensing agreement, following a careful review of responses to its Request For Proposals (RFP) regarding its apparel and headwear licensing program.
“We appreciate the large number of applicants who submitted complete proposals to our request as we evaluated whether changes to our licensing program for headwear and apparel would provide a net benefit to the university,” said Matt Dyste, UO's director of marketing and brand management. “After extensive review and consideration of the responses relative to our licensing program’s objectives, we have decided not to make changes at this time. We will continue to explore options to maximize our licensing program’s revenue and marketing opportunities for the university.”
The university issued an RFP on June 21, 2013, for possible changes to the licensing program specifically for headwear and apparel. The RFP did not extend to other vendor agreements for novelty products such as decals, car flags, sunglasses and other non-apparel merchandise bearing university trademarks.
Under the RFP, a minimum threshold of $500,000 in royalties would have been established for those vendors who expressed interest in the entire apparel and headwear licensing program, although this was not a minimum for all submissions. The RFP also required respondents to clearly demonstrate how their proposals would involve and work with Oregon businesses, in keeping with the UO’s commitment to the state economy.
The UO trademark licensing program provides an important source of revenue to support students, faculty and campus activities, and operations.
“The university has a responsibility to continually evaluate the licensing program,” said Dyste. “If there are opportunities to make improvements we will consider them in relation to the long-term benefits to the university and objectives of the licensing program.”
The University of Oregon regulates and manages the use of the university’s identifying marks, including the university’s name and seal and its various trademarks and service marks. The university permits the use of its trademarks on products or services only after the university and producer or manufacturer have entered into a trademark licensing agreement.
For more information about the UO licensing policies, visit: http://uomarketing.com/licensing/howto/
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
MEDIA CONTACT: Julie Brown, UO media relations, 541-346-3185, julbrown@uoregon.edu
SOURCE: Matt Dyste, UO director of marketing and brand management, 541-346-6037, mdyste@uoregon.edu
Note: The University of Oregon is equipped with an on-campus television studio with a point-of-origin Vyvx connection, which provides broadcast-quality video to networks worldwide via fiber optic network. In addition, there is video access to satellite uplink, and audio access to an ISDN codec for broadcast-quality radio interviews.
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