“If you don’t bleed orange and blue take your b**** a** home.”
That’s what one unlicensed T-shirts in the Office of Trademark Management and Licensing reads.
And that’s just one side.
Flip the shirt over and it reads “Auburn f****** Alabama.”
There has also been a shirt made with the words “War f****** Eagle” written on the front.
These shirts are not officially licensed products by Auburn University and are confiscated when they’re seen, but some aren’t as obviously ripped off.
Jason Harbison and Jennifer Blackmon of the Office of Trademark Management and Licensing said there are other ways to tell when you’ve been sold an unlicensed product.
“If you’re trying to explain to people how to tell if something is licensed or not, there’s a couple of different things to do,” Blackmon said. “If it’s being sold out of a backpack, pretty much, it’s not going to be licensed.”
Not only is unlicensed gear illegal, but it’s also likely to be of a lesser quality than official gear.
“When you buy unlicensed gear, especially on game day, the quality is typically going to be very poor,” Blackmon said. “It’s not something we would ever approve in this office.”
Many fans would assume unlicensed gear may come at a cheaper price than on-campus stores, but Harbison said this isn’t the case.
“We found a guy outside the SEC Championship game selling (an unlicensed T-shirt) for $40 on the street in Atlanta,” Harbison said.
Harbison pointed out several errors in the printed shirt, including misspellings, incorrect color schemes and skewed graphics, which differ from what a shirt with official Auburn logos and trademarks would look.
Even though Harbison and Blackmon have confiscated plenty of unlicensed gear, they both said it isn’t a big issue on the Plains.
“We’ve not had a huge problem with people coming on campus selling out of backpacks,” Blackmon said. “We may get one or two of those a season, but not a lot. We’ve been very lucky in that sense.”
Blackmon said she thinks part of the reason backpack vendors are less of a problem at Auburn than at other schools is the strict approach the school takes towards licensing.
“I think we have a reputation for not putting up with that on our campus,” Blackmon said. “We’ll police campus on game days, so we really haven’t had a huge issue with that.”
Though there aren’t a lot of face-to-face vendors, Harbison said that doesn’t mean there still aren’t any issues with selling unlicensed gear.
“Our biggest issue with unlicensed product, especially T-shirts, is online right now,” Harbison said. “You see them on social media, the ads on the side, most of those are targeted because you like Auburn things. Hardly any of those are licensed.”
When those sites pop up, the trademark office is responsible for getting them down, which Blackmon said has been a frequent practice in the last year, with 293 takedowns.
Even though unlicensed on-campus vendors may be few-and-far-between, there are still consequences for those caught peddling counterfeit gear.
“Typically, if they are on campus, the position that the University takes is, they are cited for trespassing and they can voluntarily turn over their product to us,” Blackmon said. “They usually leave campus after that.”
If a person is caught selling unlicensed products a second time, Harbison said the siutation is then handled on a case-by-case basis.
“There’s no concrete answer of what the next steps would be,” Harbison said.
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