UGA Should Back Off Marijuana Advocates

[Ganjarden]

If University of Georgia officials truly believe the campus chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is infringing on a university trademark, why aren't they pursuing the issue in the regular court system, rather than through the university's student judiciary organization?

While it's true the student judiciary can put the group on probation or suspension, or can disband it altogether, the student judiciary is not competent - or shouldn't be considered competent - to determine whether the NORML chapter, an officially recognized UGA student group, has misappropriated a UGA trademark.

There are precedents for zealous defenses of the university's trademarks. In December 2006, the University of Georgia Athletic Association, upon whose board sits UGA President Michael Adams, filed a lawsuit against Atlanta-based Bulldog Movers on the basis of the fact that the company used the word "bulldog," UGA's mascot, and the color red, one of the school's colors, as part of its logo.

In 2005, the University System Board of Regents, which oversees the state's 35 institutions of higher education, had to ask one of its own members to stop selling a wine labeled with a likeness of the University of Georgia Arch and the words "University of Georgia" and "UGA Alumni Association."

So why shouldn't NORML get the same sort of high-pressure treatment from university officials?

Could it be that the university is less interested in any alleged trademark infringement than in threatening, and possibly silencing, a relatively new student group - according to its Web site, Georgia NORML became active just last year - with a controversial message and mission?

According to the Web site, NORML "represent(s) the interests of ... Americans who smoke marijuana responsibly and believe the recreational and medicinal use of marijuana should no longer be a crime. ... NORML strongly supports the right of patients to use marijuana as a medicine when their physician recommends it to relieve pain and suffering."

The logo in question, which had been emblazoned on T-shirts and used on the Georgia NORML Web site, is best described as a crude drawing of a bulldog sitting in front of an arch - festooned with marijuana leaves and adorned with a banner reading "Legalize, Equalize, Normalize" - holding a joint and reading a book titled "Human Rights." The cartoon bulldog bears absolutely no resemblance to the well-known UGA bulldog logo. At a student judiciary hearing earlier this week, the person who drew the NORML logo said he'd "used a Looney Tunes version" of a bulldog as a model, according to The Red & Black, UGA's independent student newspaper.

In addition, the university initially appeared ambivalent about the logo. Last fall, when the logo first appeared, UGA administrators asked the group to take it off its Web site, and to turn over the T-shirts being sold as a fundraising project. Subsequently, however, the university reversed its position, according to chapter president Wojciech Kaczkowski, who further told this newspaper for a March 26 story that in February, the university once again reversed course and told the group it couldn't use the drawing.

Admittedly, it appears the NORML chapter didn't have what the university says is a required approval to use the school's trademarks. But, again, no one could confuse the NORML logo with any official UGA trademark. And unless the university is willing to engage in a vigorous legal effort to assert its claim that NORML has infringed on a UGA trademark, it is unfortunately easy to conclude the school is doing nothing more than harassing the group for the sake of harassing it.


News Hawk- Ganjarden http://www.420Magazine.com
Source: Athens Banner-Herald
Contact: Athens Banner-Herald
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Website: UGA Should Back Off Marijuana Advocates