Washburn University agreed to modify its athletic logo Friday after UW-Madison filed an unprecedented federal trademark-infringement lawsuit against the school last year.
The UW System Board of Regents accused the Topeka, Kan., school of trademark infringement in December 2007 for using a W"" symbol similar to UW-Madison's ""Motion W.""
According to Dena Anson, director of relations at Washburn University, the universities settled the dispute outside the courtroom.
Anson said Washburn started using its version of the ""W"" in the 1990s to represent the athletic department. She said the school is currently working on designs for a new logo but a final decision has not been reached.
""We can still use the 'W' that was in question, but we will have to modify it so that our university name, mascot name or mascot symbol is transposed on it,"" Anson said.
According to Casey Nagy, special assistant to Chancellor Biddy Martin, UW-Madison strongly believes in protecting the ""Motion W"" as an iconic symbol of the school.
""What we were looking for was retention of our 'Motion W' as a stand-alone icon,"" Nagy said. ""If someone else was using something similar, there [should] be other features associated with it that would not confuse the public.""
Nagy did not comment on specific details of the agreement but said the negotiation settled on preserving the iconic symbol of Wisconsin.
""We went through this correspondence to protect the integrity of the 'Motion W' because people expect us to do that, and when they see the 'Motion W,' they expect it to reflect Wisconsin,"" Nagy said. ""We certainly did not want to end up in litigation, but sometimes that happens.""
Anson said Washburn expects to have an updated logo soon.
""We get to keep the basic representation of the 'W,' but we will be modifying and personalizing it for our own use,"" Anson said.
The compromise allows Washburn to keep its 'W' as long as the trademark does not infringe on the ""Motion W.
