by According to a lawsuit one university filed against the other, there isn’t enough space for two BUs.
According to court filings, Baylor University filed a lawsuit against the Trustees of Boston University in the U.S. District Court in Texas on Friday for using the interlocking BU emblem.
The university’s action alleges unfair competition, misleading designation of origin, and trademark infringement.
According to the lawsuit, Baylor, a private Christian university in Texas, claims that it is against Boston University’s use of the interlocking BU pattern because it is confusingly close to and/or practically identical to Baylor’s federally registered marks.
According to the school’s website and the majority of its goods, the intertwined emblem, which Baylor has utilized since 1912, is one of the most iconic and enduring symbols of the university.
According to the complaint, Baylor has built up a significant amount of goodwill, public familiarity, and strong rights in those marks as a result of its lengthy and widespread use of the Interlocking BU.
The emblem is used on a smaller scale by Boston University and appears on various items and in connection with club sports.
A request for comment from Boston University was not immediately answered. Referring to the complaint, Baylor refrained from commenting.
According to court documents, Baylor is the owner of multiple trademarks of the interlaced BU logo, some of which date back to 1987.
According to the complaint, the two universities came into an agreement in 1988 about how they would use the BU initials, which stipulated that they had to use the initials for their respective universities in order to coexist.
According to Baylor, Texas University does not object to or violate the school’s agreement with Boston University, which usually employs a logo that places the letters B and U next to each other.
After Boston University launched its BU Campus Store Spirit Shop in 2018, which purportedly included the interlaced BU emblem in three hat sales, Baylor claimed to have learned about the problem.
The Texas university claimed that Boston University rejected its requests to stop using the interlaced logo in 2018 and 2021.
The complaint claims that Boston University refused to stop using the emblem and then increased its usage of it, despite Baylor’s efforts to settle the dispute before bringing legal action.
Baylor requested monetary damages from the court to cover the costs of the case, including prejudgment and postjudgment interest.
Boston institution was ordered by the Texas institution to destroy any items, packaging, signs, advertisements, online postings, and advertisements that use the interlaced BU emblem.
Ultimately, Baylor asked Boston University to provide a report on its compliance with the injunction within 30 days of the injunction.
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