University Trademarks

Trademarks and Liberty University

According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a trademark identifies goods and services through words, wordmarks, phrases, symbols or designs, logos—or a combination of these. Liberty polices its registered trademarks very seriously. Any unauthorized use of its marks, either identically or by similarity, in a confusing manner such that the source of the good or service is misperceived by the user or that an association with the university is falsely suggested will draw an adverse reaction from Liberty.

The Liberty University Marketing Department maintains, manages, licenses, and protects the university’s trademarks. The university’s creative director and licensing & branding manager handle all aspects of the program internally. The General Counsel provides support and assistance as needed, as does the university’s outside Intellectual Property counsel.

Questions? Contact: branding@liberty.edu

Liberty Trademarks

Liberty owns more than 50 registrations representing a wide range of marks in multiple categories (Education, Entertainment, Clothing, Communication, Printed Matter, etc.) that have been registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

Since 2011, Liberty has held the uncontestable USPTO registration for “LU,” which has been expanded into additional uses of the acronym with LU Flames, LU Online, and multiple artistic versions of LU.

Products using Liberty trademarks

Only those who have been approved through the university and CLC licensing process are permitted to produce products using Liberty’s trademarks.

• Learn how to become a licensee on the Registered Liberty Licensees page.

LU Trademark regulations

Alterations of any Liberty marks are strictly prohibited. Users of the LU marks must pay close attention to the use of colors in the approved applications. The correct mark to use varies when choosing which background color to use or if you plan to use single-color marks or multiple colors.

• Get all the details in the Branding Identity Guide.

Trademark License

A trademark license is a written legal agreement between the owner of the trademark (licensor) and a manufacturer or vendor (licensee). The licensor grants permission to the licensee to use the licensor’s trademark(s) on a product(s). This license must be requested and approved before the licensee may use the marks.

Trademark Protection

A trademark does not need to be registered for the owner to prevent others from using a trademark or from using a confusingly similar mark. Federal registration provides certain legal advantages to the owner when pursuing infringers. One advantage is that it provides notice to the public, which prevents anyone from claiming that they did not know the mark existed. Federal law preempts state law so any state registration performed in addition to federal is for purposes of notice only. A trademark can be federally registered if it is used in interstate commerce. The trademark is registered in the class of goods or services for which it is used. It is possible to have multiple owners for similar trademarks as long as:

• the goods and services are not related
• there is no consumer confusion as to the source of the goods and services
• there is no dilution of a strong mark