A new high school and a new football stadium are giving the Woodland Beavers a chance to show off some updated sports branding.
Two Northwest universities — plus a drone — have played different roles in making over the Beaver mascot and Woodland’s logo.
For a $1 licensing fee, Woodland can use Oregon State University’s trademarked Beaver mascot for the high school’s athletic teams.
Woodland also has introduced a new capital “W” logo. The letter is prominently displayed in the middle of the artificial turf in the school’s new football stadium. And that’s where the University of Washington enters the story.
Woodland’s traditional W closely resembled the University of Washington’s block W logo, which is trademarked.
“We didn’t have the rights to it,” said Paul Huddleston, Woodland High athletic director.
As the district was designing its new facilities a couple of years ago, the school’s traditional block “W” was “going on our turf and scoreboards,” Huddleston said. “The scoreboard company said we couldn’t use it. It resembled Washington’s too much.”
Huddleston said he talked with a UW administrator about it, but Washington’s trademark policy is very clear: “Use of University trademarks by high schools, middle schools and elementary schools is not permitted,” it reads.
“I’m not going to lie: It was really frustrating,” Huddleston said — particularly when OSU was willing to work with Woodland.
Designing a ‘W’
Woodland got some help from the scoreboard company Daktronics, which made scoreboards for NFL stadiums used by the New England Patriots and Denver Broncos.
“Daktronics has an art department,” Huddleston said. “Together, we designed a ‘W’ unique to Woodland. It’s like it’s in motion. All our schools are using it. It’s ours.”
Woodland’s new “W” was designed just in time to become part of the artificial turf before it was installed in the new stadium.
And that’s when the drone contributed.
Typically, when installing new turf on a football field, you can climb up in the grandstands and see how things are lining up, Woodland Superintendent Michael Green said. “We were putting in the turf before grandstands were there, so we couldn’t get that view.”
But as athletic director Huddleston tried to evaluate how the “W” in the middle of the field was lining up, “it looked off center,” Green said. The fact that the new-wave “W” is designed with a forward lean made it even tougher to gauge.
“Paul called me and asked, ‘Is there a way we can look at this?’ We brought out a drone and took pictures,” Green said. “We saw that we had to move it over 18 inches.”
The Beaver mascot licensed by OSU has actually been part of Woodland teams for a few years, Green said. The superintendent doesn’t know when various interpretations of the bucktoothed mascot have come and gone. But he sure remembers when then university contacted the district.
‘My heart stopped’
“We got a letter from Oregon State. My heart stopped when I saw: ‘It’s been brought to our attention that you are using our logo. …’ ”
Green was able to resume breathing when he read the next sentence, which was along the lines of: “If you want to use it, send us $1.”
Woodland and OSU signed the licensing agreement in 2009. And Woodland isn’t the only school district to sign up.
“We have a special program for high schools,” said Carson Dunlap, licensing manager at Oregon State.
“Universities handle it differently. Some are very possessive of their intellectual properties. We see it as a way to build our brand,” Dunlap said — and not just in the Northwest. “We have agreements across the country, including a school in Wisconsin and a few on the East Coast.”
The University of Washington licensing and marketing offices were asked to comment but did not respond before The Columbian’s deadline.
The issue of logos and branding have become a big deal in the world of corporate and sports marketing, Green noted. Off the top of his head, the Woodland superintendent cited three big-time trademark holders — Walgreens, the Washington Nationals baseball team and the University of Wisconsin — that have been involved in logo disputes to defend their versions of the letter “W.”
Meanwhile, the Huskies are letting the district make a gradual transition in terms of gear and uniforms.
“They told us not to purchase new equipment and uniforms with their ‘W,’ ” Huddleston said, “but we could take time to phase out the ‘W’s we already have.”
