All vendors must have an official trademark license with the University at Buffalo. The license provides greater visibility for your company and access to broader promotional opportunities within the university. Your company information is provided directly to the university community as well as retailers when they’re looking to order promotional goods. Strict rules are in place that govern how our name, logos and trademarks are used and who can produce goods with these marks.
Any vendor that provides an item carrying UB’s trademarks, such as names, seals, symbols, insignia, logos, original artwork, word marks, signatures or taglines, uniforms, mascots, or other identifying visuals, as well as still and moving images or any other identifier that represents the University at Buffalo, must be a collegiate licensed vendor with UB and be registered with our current licensing agent. This applies to items that are for internal UB entities as well as those for outside retailers.
All items produced for retail sale, whether in part or whole, are subject to UB’s current royalty rate; no exceptions.
Items produced for internal use, including by student groups, may qualify for an exemption to be royalty-free. The following are circumstances in which the royalty fee is applied. Orders placed by any university entity, including student groups, that will be sold at cost or for a profit, including items purchased for personal use, such as apparel for student club members who must pay for the item, whether in part or in whole, will be considered royalty-bearing and therefore must be produced by a collegiate licensed vendor. This includes any fundraisers held for internal individuals/groups as well as outside causes. Items ordered by internal UB entities and carrying only the university’s master brand marks are also considered royalty-bearing. Items using the Little Victor brand assets are always royalty bearing.
Even though branded consumable products require use of a UB collegiate licensed vendor, there are instances when the product is so uncommon and/or infrequently purchased (for example, a customized engraved cutting board) that a collegiate licensed vendor is not available. In these rare cases, a single-order license will be issued.
If you are seeking an exception to our collegiate licensed vendor rule and requesting a single-order license, the item being ordered must be unique, proprietary in nature, unavailable from any other UB collegiate licensed vendor, and exempt from royalties. Furthermore, you must not have accepted an order from any UB entity within the same calendar year.
Please contact UBTrademarks@buffalo.edu for further information BEFORE proceeding with a single-order license. Failure to do so can result in a delay or stop in production, seizure of produced goods, and/or non-payment of invoices.
Currently, three non-consumable product categories are exempt from the UB collegiate license/single order license requirement: environmental graphics, displays/banners, and trophies. However, all three categories still require trademark approval prior to production and installation, if applicable.
If the product is ordered by an internal UB customer, please refer to our internal approval process. If you are an approved vendor, you must submit all product designs to the CLC/Learfield | IMG College
online approval site for retail items (BrandManager360). To access the site, you will need a username and password.
Questions about product liability insurance? Contact CLC/Learfield | IMG College.
In order to become an official licensed vendor with the university, you must contact UB’s licensing agent, CLC/Learfield | IMG College, and apply for a license.