Harvard Takes Aggressive Stance on Campus Student Group Names

For more than a century and a half, the Harvard Lampoon, a semi-secret Sorrento Square social organization that used to occasionally publish a so-called humor magazine, has held meetings, entertained members and carried on its daily business - all under the name "The Harvard Lampoon."

And so, with what it felt was a legitimate claim, the organization recently moved to register its name officially as a trademark under both "The Lampoon" and "The Harvard Lampoon." But when they applied for trademark rights, Harvard University said no.

The problem lay with the use of the word "Harvard"--the University essentially said it had such a strong claim to the Harvard name that even the Lampoon could not register it without permission.

According to Tyler E. Chapman '90, a Boston attorney and trustee of the Lampoon, Harvard offered "a very reasonable" counter-proposal: the Lampoon would forever cede its rights to both "The Harvard Lampoon" and "The Lampoon" to the University, in exchange for a pledge from the school never to charge the organization for the use of the name.

"It was not really what we wanted to do," Chapman says. "We realized what we're really interested in is the name 'Lampoon.'"

The magazine staff took a rare step and opposed the University's push to extend its rights over the names of campus organizations and decided simply to register the name "The Lampoon," the application for which is still pending.

All large student organizations--Harvard Student Agencies, The Harvard Crimson, other publications with the Harvard name--will face the same decision over the next couple of years: either to license their name from the University or to face the risks of an unregistered name.

New Aggressiveness

The University is pushing aggressively to protect its 363-year old name, says Enrique J. Calixto, the University's U.S. trademarks administrator. Formal ownership of all Harvard's copyrighted material lies with the "President and Fellows of Harvard College."

"Our attorneys have recommended that in order to protect ourselves against unauthorized uses of the Harvard name...we try to register all trademarks that are not president and fellows as president and fellows," Calixto says.

Harvard registers its name and all academic programs that bear the name under the president and fellows of Harvard College in an attempt to make it easier to identify misuse of the trademark or name.

But should other organizations using the Harvard name--such as the Harvard Law Review or the Harvard Lampoon--start to register separately, problems could be created.

With all Harvard trademarks licensed to the University, all new applications for a trademark on the name "Harvard" would raise red flags.

Now, any time another group tries to register a name with "Harvard" in it, Harvard's trademarks office is notified.

And so, to centralize Harvard's trademark rights, the University plans to ask Harvard clubs and organizations to allow Harvard to register their names for them, and then let them use their own names forever, free of charge.

"It's so a third party can't drive a wedge between us," Calixto says.

In exchange, the University will use its legal muscle to fight all trademark battles for the groups.

"It helps them protect their trademarks," Calixto says. "They have to acknowledge that we own the name, and then we license it back."

He admits, however, that the arrangements would benefit the University more than the individual organizations.

Under the new arrangements the groups would have nominal responsibility to Harvard--according to Calixto, the University asks that they maintain a "high quality" so as not to devalue the name.

"You do give up a little bit of the autonomy," Calixto says.

But Calixto adds the University will not interfere with editorial content of publications registered under the president and fellows or decisions made by student organizations.

"We're trying to make it as benign as possible," he says.

Law Review Test Case

Calixto says that as far as he knows the Harvard Law Review is the only organization that has registered its name. Earlier this year the Law Review tried to register its name independent of the University.

When they encountered resistance from Harvard's trademarks office, they agreed to register under the president and fellows.

"There's nothing too exciting about it," says Michael E. Leiter, the president of the Law Review. "We were concerned about protecting the name."

Leiter says they were prompted by nothing more than "our acute legal awareness" and advice from their board of trustees.

The Law Review paid the registration fees, and Harvard put a trademark on their name. They now have the exclusive rights to their name.

"There is a simple contract that says that we can't print anything that shames the Harvard name," Leiter says. "The trademark office is basically concerned with helping us protect the Harvard name. They have no review."

Calixto says over the next year the University will approach Harvard alumni clubs around the world to register them through the trademarks office. Then, it will move on to organizations located in Cambridge.