The Collegiate Licensing Company Cooperating with Department of Justice to Explain the Procompetitive Benefits of
Current Licensing Practices in Helping Schools Promote, Protect and Grow their Brands
ATLANTA, GA (November 30, 2011) – The Collegiate Licensing Company (CLC), an affiliate of IMG College, notified its client institutions today that it had received a preliminary inquiry from the U. S. Department of Justice (DOJ) regarding how colleges and universities select which companies to license and how they determine effective royalty rates paid by licensees for using school logos.
Since its formation in 1981, CLC has been helping colleges and universities protect their brands, manage their licensing programs, and promote the production of quality licensed products, which benefits a university’s fans and consumers. Each college and university is unique, given the differences between and among institutions with regard to their schools, student bodies, athletic departments, fan bases, brand reputation and value, and philosophies regarding corporate responsibility, among other things. As such, each school maintains complete control at every instance over the decisions regarding its own licensing program, including, but not limited to, the decisions about which companies are granted licenses to make collegiate products, and what royalty rates a school will charge.
“We are cooperating fully, and we expect the inquiry to be resolved favorably for CLC, for each collegiate institution, and for each of their licensing programs,” stated Cory Moss, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of the CLC. “Each school has the right to and does choose its own licensees and set its own licensing rates and policies to protect and grow its individual brand, while providing consumers the best possible licensed products.”