Permission To Use College Logos

Decorating By seedrv Updated 20 Mar 2011 , 11:00pm by stsapph

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seedrv Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 4:49pm
post #1 of 9

I emailed the marketing depts. of two universities in my state (major universities) stating I was a home based baker and I had a request for a graduation cake with a copy of the school logo on it. What is your policy on reproducing your logo in an edible form? I expected immediate cease and desist but instead after a month of waiting I've received deafening silence from both.

Interestingly enough a famous, been on TV, charges thousands for cakes, cake maker made a cake with the logo of one of the universities I contacted. I asked them how they got permission and was told We expect our client to be responsible for obtaining permission. Hmmm

So basically I have 2 college graduation cakes requested with logos, and the schools are completely ignoring me. I could use the business. If I turn them away, I know of two other bakers in town who will make the cakes. Or do I just use the famous cake maker's line and tell the client to be responsible for getting permission to use the logo?

8 replies
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stsapph Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 5:17pm
post #2 of 9

When I had a logo put on my husband's groom's cake, we were responsible for obtaining the rights and providing the proof before our baker would do it. We had some back up plans in case we didn't get the rights.

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seedrv Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 5:28pm
post #3 of 9

So it's not up to me to get permission? I thought since I was the person actually doing the "copying" I had to get the actual permission. That takes all of the pressure off me for "not delivering" what the customer wants if they can't get the right permission.

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stsapph Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 5:34pm
post #4 of 9

I think the it's up to the baker as too who obtains the permits. However, it seems that the majority of the bakers I have talked to require that the client gets them.

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seedrv Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 5:36pm
post #5 of 9

I really appreciate the advice, stsapph! On the other hand it will be interesting to see if either of these colleges ever answer me....

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stsapph Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 6:15pm
post #6 of 9

This is true! Have you tried to contact the colleges since? Maybe the email got lost somewhere?

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seedrv Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 6:22pm
post #7 of 9

The first emails went to the colleges copyright depts listed on the websites. But this was just for students wanting to photocopy book material and both said to contact the marketing depts on the website. That's what I did and havent heard back. I'm going to go back to the people asking for cake (who actually have students still on campus) to tell them what I've learned to see if they can find someone else either they or I can talk to.

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seedrv Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 6:24pm
post #8 of 9

I also had a request for a local high school graduation cake with logo but had no trouble getting premission from the superintendent of schools for that. He got back to me with 24 hours.

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stsapph Posted 20 Mar 2011 , 11:00pm
post #9 of 9

Yeah, it's probably just who ever is in charge of the department. Hopefully the clients can get further in the system since they still have students there. Glad that you had better luck with the high school. We had the same kind of quick response for our groom's cake logo. That and they wanted photos for their web site! icon_smile.gif

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