Archives
Questions &Answers
Ruth Fink is director of the Office of Trademarks and Licensing.
What is the mission of the Office of Trademarks and Licensing?
Our mission is to serve external and internal campus constituencies by providing high-quality, customer-service-focused trademark services for the 5-SUNY Campus Trademark Licensing Consortium. Consortium members are UB (headquarters) and Brockport, Buffalo, Fredonia and Geneseo state colleges. As part of UB 2020, we are focused on enhancing and expanding opportunities for promoting and protecting UB's many brands, while continuing in a leadership role in partnership with the consortium campuses.
Why is it important to protect the UB trademark?
Many people don't realize that UB trademarks encompass a wide range of marks, words and graphic imagery. The interlocking UB logo and the new athletic marks are just a few university trademarks. UB's intellectual property portfolio includes its various unit names, marks, logos and graphic images—its trademarks or brands—and needs to be valued and used properly by all university constituencies, both internally and externally. In licensing collegiate trademarks, the focus is on granting to external entities, such as manufacturers, ad specialties, silk screeners and commercial companies, the rights to reproduce trademarks and trade names on a wide range of media for a variety of venues, including office use, retail sales and commercial promotions. Licensed products and premiums often have more visibility and longevity than publications and are used or displayed by many consumers, among them alumni, students, staff, visitors and fans of athletic teams. UB generates revenue through the sale or commercial promotion of its marks; however, campus trademark-licensing requirements also apply for non-resale purchases. Our Web site,http://www.business.buffalo.edu/services/trademarks, provides details on how the process is being streamlined. The bottom line: Considerable time and resources often are extended by a corporation or university in dispelling inaccuracies or repairing a damaged reputation. UB values its image and the names that represent the institution. It's critical that our trademarks are used properly and are reproduced by companies that respect UB's trademarks rights.
UB recently changed its athletics logo, the UB Bull. Did your office oversee that project? How difficult is it to change a brand?
Brand development by campus units currently is initiated on a decentralized basis. The Division of Athletics coordinated the development of its series of new Bulls logos independently and notified me in June that the new marks would be available for use by our licensed vendors for retail sales after Aug. 1. Although ordering deadlines by major suppliers to the bookstore and local retailers for early fall deliveries had passed, Athletics capitalized on internal sales of licensed products through its Web store sales and Campus Tees, its concessions vendor. A university typically takes more than a year to develop, plan and coordinate a cohesive implementation of a new brand. Changing a brand image is one component of the process. Establishing brand value and loyalty also takes time. However, I think Athletics is off to a good start.
What is the 5-SUNY Campus Trademark Licensing Consortium? What are the advantages of SUNY schools joining forces?
We marked the 11th anniversary of the initiation of the consortium this fall. Under the coordination of my office, all five campuses—UB and the colleges at Brockport, Buffalo State, Fredonia and Geneseo—have improved efficiencies in the centralized administration of our collegiate trademark-licensing programs. Our goals are to continue working together on brand marketing to increase revenue and foster cooperation among and within the campuses related to major trademark issues, such as dealing with emerging technologies, product liability, infringement and sweatshop concerns.
What question do you wish I had asked, and how would you have answered it?
What background and experience helped you initiate and administer the first collegiate trademark-licensing program, and subsequently the five campus trademark consortium in the SUNY system, at UB? I have a great deal invested in UB—professionally and educationally—which has enabled me to successfully build both programs. Prior to my current position, I served as associate executive director of university publications for seven years and as associate director of alumni relations for four years. So I have and continue to work with a wide range of university stakeholders—alumni, students, faculty, staff, administrators and community leaders—on a varied slate of university programs. In addition, I received my master's in humanities from UB, which allowed me to pursue an interdisciplinary approach to studies in a variety of disciplines, including computer programming, communication, information and library studies, systems analysis, grant writing, marketing, statistics and visual studies. Coupled with my work in the private sector, including my experience as publications director at Daemen College, where I developed and implemented the institutional graphic identity program for their name change some years back, my broad background has prepared me to effectively initiate and coordinate the UB and 5-SUNY Campus Trademark Licensing programs. I am a firm believer in the value of an expansive and integrated approach to life.