Political campaigns don’t respect ‘Hokies’
By Christian Trejbal
Above the ramps leading to the stands of Virginia Tech’s Lane Stadium, the school has painted an inspirational motto, “Hokies respect the moment, the opponent, the game, themselves and the competition.”
It might want to add “intellectual property” to the list of things that deserve respect. Every few years, Virginia’s political parties and candidates violate Tech’s and other public schools’ trademarks, and Republicans are up to it again this year.
Trejbal is a Roanoke Times editorial writer. He is based in the New River Valley.
Christian Trejbal, The Roanoke Times
September 16, 2012 - 7:34 AM
Right or wrong, where were those bumper stickers printed? Did the Republicans use a local Virginia small business (even *gasp* a union shop)? Or were they printed out of state, or even in China? Same goes for the other campaign materials, such as flyers and signs.
This also applies to the Democrats, too.
A friend in the business says that when any candidate comes to town, the local companies are ignored when it comes to providing the sound equipment, instead some out-of-state operations come on their turf with speakers and amps. As my friend said, “we don’t send our trucks to Columbus.” So much for the strong support of small businesses, whether “they didn’t build it” (can’t believe that still has traction) or not.
When Virginia Tech want’s to be a business and have trademarks, service marks, patents and copyrights, it claims it’s a business.
When it’s wants to be state institution with powers of imminent domain, or to make excuses about why it does not have to consider the consequences of it’s defacto unelected absentee government (the Board of Visitors and Charles Stegar)on our local community; it claims the legal shelters provided to state employees.
Would the VA legislature ever consider trademarking “Sic semper tyrannis” or the seal of the State? No! – They belong to the people. But will Virginia Tech pick and choose the best defense for it’s personalized concoction of this corporate/State multi personality disorder – You bet ya.
@2 I cannot speak to whether the state seal is trademarked, but Virginia would not get far trying to register “sic semper tyrannis” because that phrase has been in common use for a long time by plenty of people other than Virginians.
As to the broader question, would the state try to register its other logos and mottoes? Yes, it would, at least in one case that comes immediately to mind. “Virginia is for lovers” is a registered mark.
This is both appropriate and desirable so that the mark is not misused. Businesses are not alone in filing for trademarks, copyrights, patents, etc. Individuals and governments may do so also. Tech is not claiming to be a business. It is claiming to be the owner of a registered mark that the Republican Party continues to violate.
How ’bout them Dems and their violation of Sesame Street and the AARP’s wishes Christian?
@4 If they are violating registered marks, Democrats absolutely should stop. Thanks for providing that link. I see the AP picked up on the GOP violation of the Virginia Tech trademark, too. You’d think with all of the public shaming, Virginia Republicans would obey the law.
Yes, and you’d think Obama’s attack dogs would have a little shame, playing on children and the elderly for the sake of politics. The Hokie thing is a little more understandable because as has been argued before, there are many alumni who consider themselves and their families to be Hokies. They are also for Romney, so they see no problem proclaiming that they are Hokies for Ryan. It’s also a fairly regional thing.
On the other hand, the AARP and Sesame Street are widely recognized throughout the nation and were used in TV commercials which reach far more people than do bumper stickers. I can’t help but wonder why it is worthy of an entire column from you when conservatives produce a bumper sticker, but when dems commit the same violation on a far larger scale, it isn’t worth your time.
@6 Chuck, you might have noticed that my columns primarily focus on the New River Valley and secondarily on Virginia, straying very rarely into national topics. This column dealt with both the primary (Virginia Tech is in the NRV) and secondary (the Virginia GOP). Writing a followup that would say essentially the same thing but about national political actors would be both redundant and not a good use of limited column inches. As I said, if there is a genuine violations in this (I haven’t investigated it adequately to know), then the Democrats and Republicans, both of whom are mentioned for national concerns, should cease.
In this column, I did point out past violations by Democrats that were unacceptable, and I have also blogged about them on the RT. It just happens that the local, flagrant violation this year is by Virginia Republicans.