U. works to combat logo infringement on T-shirts

SALT LAKE CITY — It's OK to be hated by Max Hall. It's OK to wear T-shirts that say as much. What's not OK is wearing one of those T-shirts also imprinted with unsanctioned logos of the University of Utah.

U. officials have spent much of this football offseason making sure that "Max Hall Hates Me" T-shirts violating school licensing rights were difficult to come by. It's been good practice for dealing with the bootlegging onslaught already under way following the school's announced entry into the Pac-10 in 2011.

"We've shut down eight to 10 designs that we've found so far," said Brett Eden, Utah's director of licensing and marketing. He said the shirts, which play on the new conference theme, were being marketed online.

Eden said the U. has been working closely with its licensing partner, Collegiate Licensing Company, which is one of the leaders in licensing enforcement nationally, to stamp out these latest counterfeits. School officials also have been working with local law enforcement to establish plans for dealing with contraband merchandise expected to materialize during the football season. Eden said fans need to be educated that they should only buy officially licensed products.

The U. isn't trying to stymie anyone's entrepreneurial spirit, but bootlegging directly cuts into licensing revenue that goes for student athletic scholarships, he said. Smaller operators can easily and economically obtain permission to produce their designs and products from existing licensees of the U. Cost for these rights typically run at 10 percent of the wholesale price.

Eden said the U. spent three months shutting down more than 50 unlicensed shirt designs that sprang up after former BYU quarterback Hall's post-game rant about hating the U. last year.

The U. doesn't have problems with remaining marketers of Max Hall hater merchandise as long as it's not violating the school's licenses, Eden said. "We'll let Max handle enforcement of using his name."

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