I’ve written about this very subject before and the message hasn’t changed. It would have been cheaper to use a designer.

This time, we have a case of a Florida high school that is now being sued by the Chrysler corporation for illegally using the well-known Dodge Ram mark for their school mascot. Lake Mary High is not only in legal hot water with the ailing car company, they are caught in a public firestorm from the local media about the whole situation. Neither party is looking any better than the other. Is Lake Mary being naive about trademark infringement or did they just get caught?

The original article written by the Orlando Sentinel stated that there had been an agreement reached between the two parties and that Lake Mary High School was making a concerted effort to comply with Chrysler’s legal demands.

In addition, the Seminole School Board made this statement:

“The alternative is to force Chrysler to defend its trademark through legal proceedings in either federal or state court, which is not in the best interest of the School Board or Lake Mary High,” School Board Attorney Ned Julian wrote in a memo to the School Board accompanying the proposed settlement agreement.

Judging from the rather blatant rip-off of the corporate mark, I think this was probably the best route for Lake Mary. Not only did they not bother to alter the logo in any way, shape or form, they didn’t even bother to change the color. It’s pretty obvious that no one took it upon themselves to even hire a decent art school student to help out with this one. It was probably an over-zealous parent or coach behind the mouse. Can you say right-click?

I’m sure that the parents and coaches of Lake Mary only wanted to have a nice looking mascot logo for their school, but what were they thinking? It’s pretty obvious that they weren’t. No one would think of using your competitor’s plumbing logo as your own in a local situation, so why is it any different when you decide to ‘borrow’ a major corporation’s logo for your own use? Is it a matter of scale? At what point does a company become too large to care about such things? I guess the general public gets to decide that you ‘don’t need the money–they got plenty of money’, and makes those decisions for you. But, I digress.

Now, as part of their agreement, Lake Mary H.S. has to change or destroy all of the apparel, print material, signage and even the logo painted on the gymnasium floor to avoid any more legal hassles with Chrysler. Ouch.

Just when I was starting to feel sorry for the parents and alumnus of Lake Mary, the plot thickens. One of the comments coming from the Sentinel blog article claims that this isn’t the first time that our beloved Lake Mary has picked a logo from the corporate grab bag. And, not only did Lake Mary alum, Justin make the comment, he provided a nicely arranged photo of the previous logo victim, T Rowe Price. The jury is not out on this one, yet. It seems that Lake Mary’s attorney was not aware of this previous alleged offense. Hmm.

So, now this whole story changes from simple innocence and naivete to downright stupidity and ignorance. This isn’t just a one-time deal, this is getting to be a habit–and a damned expensive one.

What they could have done.

Well, had Lake Mary High School hired a professional designer to design the school’s mascot, they would have saved a lot of money in the long run. Designing something new and original from a competent designer would have been more expensive on the front end, but it would have cost less than having your logo removed from the gym floor. And it doesn’t mean you have to have a Costco-sized bake sale to hire Michael Doret, either. Find a design student, a willing parent designer or a local studio to help out. I’m sure that would have worked out better.

What kind of message did this whole, nasty mess teach the kids at Lake Mary High School? Hopefully, don’t steal, it could cost you more than the state championship.