The University of Texas Board of Regents is accusing a small Corpus Christi meat market of profiting off the school’s Longhorn logo, according to a federal trademark infringement lawsuit.
The board filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Texas last week against Staples Street Meat Market, a small Corpus Christi butcher shop. The university is accusing the business of copying the school’s Longhorn silhouette logo. The business has nearly 700 reviews on Google and 45,000 followers on facebook. The business’ owner, Michael Meehan, also is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Neither Staples Street Meat Market nor representatives of UT were available for comment Sunday.
UT is seeking to stop the meat market from using the longhorn logo. It is also demanding an “accounting be done” to determine how much the meat market allegedly profited from using the logo, and that the business compensates UT with that money.
The Longhorn logo has been used “extensively” for decades, UT said in its suit, and is “inherently distinctive and serves to identify and indicate the source of the University’s products and services to the consuming public.”
The university is arguing the Longhorn logo qualifies as a “famous” trademark under law. UT, which operates an “extensive trademark licensing program,” added that orange-and-white and black-and-white often color its Longhorn logo when its featured in merchandise.
UT sent a letter to Staples Street Meat Market “objecting” to use of the logo, but the school alleges the business ignored the letter.
UT argues in its suit that customers will mistakenly think the school and the meat market are affiliated, and that the meat market is “unjustly” profiting from use of the logo.
