There is only one Sun Devil, and it's here at ASU, a University official says.
ASU may be taking legal action against Salem High School in Virginia Beach, Va., for calling themselves "SunDevils," said Fernando Morales, ASU trademark licensing manager.
University officials sent a cease and desist letter to the high school for copyright infringement.
In order to uphold their exclusive rights to the Sun Devil logo that was trademarked in 1946, ASU has asked Salem High School to discontinue the use of their mascot, Sunny, in accordance to federal law, Morales said.
"Sparky is not Sunny," he said. "He looks more like the Tasmanian Devil in the witness protection program."
But in all actuality, ASU has the responsibility to uphold their trademark so it doesn't end up being used in an obscene or derogatory fashion, Morales said.
"ASU has a national and international reputation and this deals with the idea that someone can't take your label and destroy it, and we're not saying that's what [Salem] is doing," he said. "We're not looking at telling them to dump everything. We need to work out something here so we don't lose our rights."
Morales said he is getting more resistance from Salem than he did in August from Culpepper High School, also in Virginia, with their use of a blue rendition of Sparky.
Culpepper agreed to change their logo and ASU allowed them to liquidate and sell the remainder of the "Blue Devil" merchandise before adopting a new logo, he added. ASU is also asking four other high schools from across the country and a youth football program to change their logos or mascots.
But Sunny of the Salem "SunDevils" isn't going anywhere, said Kathleen O'Hare, assistant superintendent for media and communication at Virginia Beach City Public Schools.
"The [Salem] SunDevils' name has been in effect for 18 years and there's a lot of culture built around this logo," she said. "These aren't just students, they're SunDevils."
There are distinct differences between the two schools' use of the word, O'Hare said.
Salem uses one word, representative of SunDevil Street where the school was built on, while ASU uses two words, alluding to a weather phenomenon, she said.
"We're 2,400 miles away from ASU, and we don't think we're infringing any laws," O'Hare said. "ASU is casting a broad net here that we got caught in it along with a bunch of other unfortunate schools."
Salem acknowledges and appreciates ASU's concern, but will not throw away its prided mascot, she added.
Morales said an acknowledgement of the situation is not sufficient, and ASU would take legal action if necessary.
"We try to educate them and warn them in a nice way to take care of this before we take legal action," he said. "I wish everyone could be a Sun Devil, but we have to uphold our trademark by federal laws."
ASU often calls upon Jack Landrigan, a client and legal services consultant, to deal with their trademark issues.
Landrigan wrote a letter to Salem High School Principal Don Robertson asking him to cease and desist, or discontinue the use of the Sun Devil trademark in all school-affiliated settings.
In response to the letter, Kamala Lannetti, Virginia Beach deputy city attorney, agreed to have any reference to ASU's Sun Devil removed from the school's Web site, but does not acknowledge any similarities in the school's symbols.
"It appears highly unlikely that the SunDevils symbol used by Salem High School in Virginia Beach (2400 miles from Arizona State University) would in any manner confuse someone with the Arizona State University trademarks," she wrote in a letter responding to Robertson's requests.
Reach the reporter at daniel.oconnor@asu.edu
