Imitating Chrysler Is Not The Sincerest Form Of Flattery

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

The Orlando Sentinel reports that “a couple of years ago,” Seminole County’s Lake Mary High School made the curious decision to ditch its previous mascot (now known as “the old goat”), and adopt the Dodge Ram logo as its own. Chrysler only just found out, thanks to a local tipster, despite the logo’s presence on gym floors, t-shirts and athletic uniforms. Needless to say, a cease-and-desist showed up, and Lake Mary will be having to live with “the old goat” from now on. As Chrysler’s lawyer puts it [via Overlawyered]:

As I am sure you can appreciate from your years of work with the board, control of use of a mark by enthusiastic students and parents is quite simply not practical, and I know the school and board would not want to be in the position of censoring student expression associated with the design,

Plus, it’s a great opportunity to teach the kids that stealing registered trademarks isn’t smart. But the real interesting angle is what this says about the Ram logo. The design was clearly compelling enough to be worth copying, but the fact that nobody recognized it as the logo of a vehicle brand (for “a couple of years” anyway) is… bizarre.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Chitbox dodge Chitbox dodge on Feb 12, 2010

    It is funny in a way though. The original dodge brothers company started using the image/marketing plan of saying their vehicles were as tough as an old goat. It didn't evolve into a ram's head until much later, way later. There was even Super Stocker running an image of a goat on the side of his car. It was also way beore anybody even new what a GTO was. I can guess chrysler was pretty peeved. They have slapped the words Ram or Hemi or Mopar on just about anything that could sell. They don't need anybody horning in on that action.

    • Shaker Shaker on Feb 12, 2010

      Watch out San Diego - you're next! Or the makers of the movie "300" :-0

  • IDANECK IDANECK on Feb 12, 2010

    Just hope they don't start using my employer's ram logo: http://www.cdhd.idaho.gov/images/culinary/power_engineers.jpg

  • Gsnfan Gsnfan on Feb 12, 2010

    There's a dry-cleaner shop I've seen called Camaro Cleaners. It has no Camaro logo, but you can tell it was named after the car. I don't think GM has asked them to stop.

  • ThetaII ThetaII on Feb 12, 2010

    I know there are some people on the Internets who believe that intellectual property wants to be free, but the fact is that Lake Mary knew what it was doing, and in fact had done it before. They deserved the C&D. Maybe this time they'll learn. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_education_edblog/2010/02/did-goat-napping-lake-mary-high-steal-before.html

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