Exclusive | UCLA finally has control over its logo, ending decades of madness

UCLA has reclaimed the licensing rights to its own logo, ending a bizarre agreement stretching back more than 60 years and potentially fortifying its athletics department finances, the California Post has learned.The change comes six months after a scathing audit of a student-run organization that previously controlled those rights and clears the way for the school to take full control of optimizing branded products.The shift could be worth millions of dollars annually to an athletics department that no longer has to pay to use its own logo on merchandise.In a letter laying out the move earlier this month, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk mandated that control of commercial products that use the campus name, unofficial seal, trademarks and logos would be transferred from Associated Students UCLA to Beau Jimmerson, associate vice chancellor for business and finance solutions.In an email sent to ASUCLA on the same day, university officials said they were making the change because of various factors, including ASUCLA’s accrued debt of more than $40 million to the campus in payroll and related charges, unpaid bills and expenses.The arrangement in which ASUCLA controlled the logo rights for UCLA T-shirts, sweatshirts and other merchandise stemmed from a 1960 agreement between the student-run organization and the university.In exchange for ceding control of the athletics department, which was spun off into a separate entity that reported to the chancellor, ASUCLA received logo rights revenue.The agreement — described by university officials as “unusual, if not wholly unique among peer universities around the country” — has increasingly come under scrutiny as outdated in recent years.“The University is at a critical juncture when it needs to generate more income to support our students and serve our academic mission on their behalf,” UCLA officials wrote in their letter.

“To that end, improving the overall performance of our trademark licensing and its contribu...