Jeb Bush Changes Campaign Tactic After SEC Asserts Similarity to Conference Logo

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush is ready to take the South. But the Southeastern Conference doesn’t want to appear like it is along for the ride. Within days after Bush rolled out branded merchandise in preparation for a road trip to states with SEC universities, the SEC negotiated with his campaign to change the trip’s associated logo because it said the logo closely resembled the conference’s own. Bush’s campaign put his first name in a circle with a font that looked similar to the SEC’s relatively simple logo, also consisting of three letters within a circle. Bush also tweeted a pic of a drink koozie with that logo on October 12, available on his campaign website for $5. But the SEC disapproved, and within 48 hours, the koozie was gone. Bush also utilized the logos of several SEC schools in a recent advertisement, though none of the schools appear to have taken action to make Bush remove their logos from the video.

“The Southeastern Conference does not endorse candidates for any political office,” SEC spokesman Herb Vincent said Wednesday in a statement to USA TODAY Sports. “The SEC has spoken to the Bush campaign to ensure that their activities are within the bounds of our trademark requirements.”

Bush’s campaign spokesman said that though the campaign negotiated with the SEC, the logo’s use was “well within the fair use” principles. Of course, a fair use exception to trademark infringement may not apply when use of a mark may suggest endorsement, and whether that was the case here or not, Vincent appeared to want to avoid that appearance.

Sources: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2015/10/14/sec-jeb-bush-logo-presidential-campaign/73942100/ http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/jeb-bush-campaign-forced-to-change-design-resembling-sec-logo-123014857.html http://www.inta.org/TrademarkBasics/FactSheets/Pages/FairUse.aspx

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