Hamlet, in one of his more decisive moods, proposed to go to war “even for an eggshell . . . when honor’s at stake.”

poaching would occur, “Samuels acknowledged at her deposition that “there” meant NEC, and that she was asking Macari to spread the word about Drew’s new program,” concluded Judge LaPlante. Other evidence indicated Macari contacted NEC students and some, along with faculty, relocated to Drew. NEC’s claims against Drew include

breach of fiduciary duty, breach of con- tract, and intentional interference with var- ious contractual and other relationships. As this article goes to press the court’s only decisions concern Drew’s twice-denied motion to move the litigation from the Granite to the Garden State. Meanwhile, Drew’s website continues to advertise …

The Drew University Master of Fine

Arts in Poetry Program is a two-year, low-residency program for poets and poet translators. … The program offers some of America’s most talented poets as fac- ulty mentors who work one-on-one with our students. The program is divided into short,

intense residencies and mentorship semes- ters. During residencies, students and faculty come together on Drew’s beautiful campus in Madison, New Jersey. Resi- dencies consist of ten days of public read- ings, lectures, workshops, as well as close work and planning between students and mentors for the mentorship semester.

Alphabet soup wars

Does fighting over a poetry program seem a bit farfetched in an IP arena tra- ditionally dominated by NIH, NSF, energy and defense grants? How about a battle over the letters “S” and “C”? To

32 Today’sCampus

those uninitiated in legal property issues, nothing might seem to be more squarely in the public domain than the English alphabet. True enough. But extract two of the 26 letters, and sew them on a sweatshirt, and the grounds for a lawsuit may be laid. In this case, the University of South

Carolina filed an application to trademark a new logo for its baseball apparel: The University of Southern California opposed South Carolina’s registration

ister the South Carolina logo. The Game- cocks appealed, retorting that “SC” is uniquely identified with the Palmetto State. Au contraire, replied the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Jan- uary. While we “agree that ‘SC’ may refer to the State of South Carolina… the evi- dence offered by Southern California demonstrates ‘SC’ refers to many entities aside from the State. Indeed, South Car- olina, in the context of another issue, sub- mitted evidence showing that at least sixteen other universities and colleges rep- resent themselves as ‘SC.’” The SC bottom line? “Because the

Board did not commit reversible error, we affirm its decision to refuse registration of South Carolina’s mark and its grant of summary judgment against South Car- olina on its cancellation counterclaim.”

application, arguing that the proposed emblem was confusingly similar to its own registered trademark: The U.S. Trademark Trials and Appeals Board concurred, refusing to reg-

Conclusions?

Hamlet, in one of his more decisive- moods, proposed to go to war “even for an eggshell . . . when honor’s at stake.” Apparently today’s campuses will launch litigation assaults, even over a poetry pro- gram or a teaspoon of alphabet soup, when dollars are at stake. Other current cases confirming this

™

conclusion include: • O’Bannon v. National Collegiate Athletic Association: On February 12th, the federal court for Northern California refused to dismiss a class action suit brought by former col- lege athletes, who contend that the NCAA’s licensing of their images to third parties, while refusing to let the former players do the same, violates U.S. antitrust statutes.

• Authors’ Guild v. Google, Inc. and

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