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Q. What is a Licensed Vendor?
Licensed Vendors are vendors who have permission to use
Alpha Phi's
trademarks. Licensed Vendors do not
approve any products that attempt to
glorify alcohol, hazing, racism, sexism,
or any other image or design that is
offensive or hurtful to others.
Q: What is licensing and why do we do it?
As an owner of various trademarks, which
include our Greek letters, name, and
other insignia Alpha Phi has a legal
obligation to control the use of our
marks. In order to claim exclusive
rights to these marks we must control
their use, not only when we are opposed
to the products and designs, but also
when the products and designs are of
high quality and truly reflective of our
values. This obligation is fulfilled
through our licensing program. Our
partner in this effort is a company
called Affinity Marketing Consultants
(AMC).
Q: What can I do to help protect Alpha
Phi's brand and image?
Understand the importance of
licensing and shop only from licensed
vendors. AMC is busy putting together a
growing network of socially responsible
vendor companies for you to choose from.
A complete list of those vendors is
available at
www.greeklicensing.com
Q. How do I know if a company is
licensed?
Simple! Just look for this logo
Q. What do we do when we want
to order from a company that isn't
licensed?
Contact Melissa
Jean-Baptiste at
mjb@greeklicensing.com. She can start the vendor on the licensing process or she can work with you to offer that vendor a
one-time licensing agreement, valid for approximately 30 days,
to complete specific projects.
Q: Has the diversity of products decreased as a result of
licensing?
No, members continue to select from a wide variety of products, ranging
from lamps and afghans to candles and baby clothes - and yes, of course
custom design t-shirts. |
Little Known Facts
- Trademarks are exclusive property of any organization and
should be reflected in all documents and communication.
- Many people believe that licensing will limit their members.
In fact, there are key NPC groups that currently have all the
"licensing" programs in place but do not enforce their rights or
the appropriateness of the products, which can be very harmful
to the rest of the Greek organizations. For example, there are
Greek group t-shirts out there with images reflecting or
alluding to alcohol/drug usage that may actually hurt us because
it can and usually does raise our insurance rates.
- Greek manufacturers have been and are attempting to take away
Greek trademark rights. These groups claim there is no consumer
confusion because Greek groups gave up our marks by abandonment
and for failure to control. Their claims have no legal basis as
their arguments rely heavily on one legal agreement made between
two private parties in 1969.
- In one civil suit filed by a Greek manufacturer against one
particular NIC organization, the Greek manufacturer argued that
individual chapter members can license or authorize the use on
behalf of the organization. Members DO NOT have the right to
authorize use of insignia on behalf of the organization.
- Chapters and members are licensees who are
granted permission by the IEB or its designee to use the
insignia pending they follow certain requirements to remain a
chapter or members in good standing. Individual chapters and
members have limited rights to use trademarks with the approval
of the IEB or its designees. Individual chapters and members do
not have the rights to allow non-licensed vendors to use Alpha
Phi’s trademarks on behalf of the entire organization without
the approval of the IEB or its designees.
- The selling of ritual manuals, in any way, shape or form, to
non-members is absolutely prohibited. Ritual manuals are
considered trade secrets. We can legally enforce removal of our
ritual manuals from sale or distribution on Web sites such as
EBay
®.
Should we identify these items to be sold online from other than
the Alpha Phi Executive Office, we need to contact AMC.
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