After more than a year of additional study, the university has begun a search for a partner to help manage its large and growing trademark licensing program.
The successful firm will act as the university’s agent, handling trademark licensing agreements for apparel and merchandise, monitoring and taking action in trademark infringement cases, handling billing and collections with licensees, helping with marketing and retail sales support and providing regular reports and analysis on royalties, products, distribution and other metrics. Importantly, the agent also will help the university expand the market for UO-branded products nationally and internationally.
A proposal review process will allow the university to consider a small pool of companies capable of meeting its needs and providing the required services. But the UO will pursue a contract only if the right candidate arises.
Matthew Dyste, the university’s director of marketing and brand management, said the UO is one of the few institutions of its size that handles its trademark licensing program in-house. He said having an agent to assist with those programs will allow the UO to expand its reach as well as increase its royalty income, which currently brings the university more than $4 million a year.
Just as important, the move will allow the university to build its presence both nationally and internationally by taking advantage of its growing name recognition. That’s in line with the UO’s goal of being a university that serves the people of Oregon, the nation and the world.
“We will still have campus folks – including myself – working hard on the program every day,” Dyste said. “But we’ll also have agents in the broader world helping us. We want a global reach. We want to be a globally marketed university. A successful licensing program supports the marketing of the institution, and we intend to continue growing.”
A large amount of the credit for the rising demand for UO-branded products goes to the athletics department. Revenue growth has closely paralleled the unprecedented success of Duck athletics over the past two decades.
The agent model is similar to that used by other universities, including Michigan and Texas, to manage license and trademark rights. Dyste said it will allow the university to follow best practices for the industry, including those from a comprehensive study 2½ years ago.
Trademark licensing at the university has grown dramatically over the last five years, to more than 400 licensees, new markets and distribution methods and a threefold increase in revenue. But that’s made it difficult for the university’s small in-house staff to take advantage of growing demand and continue to build the brand, Dyste said.
Moving to an agent model also will provide more resources to combat trademark infringement, a problem that also has grown with the brand’s popularity and that the university has increasingly used its own resources to address.
But Dyste stressed that the university will maintain its in-house brand management office and continue to work with licensees while also freeing up time to explore new opportunities and new ways to expand.
“Our students, faculty, staff, alumni, fans and friends are tremendous in supporting our program,” he said. “We want to reach more of them. This is really about us continuing to seek improvement in all the things we do.”
―By Greg Bolt, Public Affairs Communications