Changes to be made after ‘Mountaineer’ logo comes into question
By Rex Hodge
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HAYWOOD COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — The “Mountaineer” is a familiar logo in Western North Carolina, representing Tuscola High School in Haywood County and Appalachian State University. While the schools are very different, they’ve ended up using the same logo. Now, App State wants Tuscola to make some changes.
Tuscola High School officials say somewhere along the line, the version of the Mountaineer logo they ended up using was a carbon copy of Appalachian State’s.
“We got a call from Appalachian State’s general counsel. It was a friendly call,” says Associate Superintendent Trevor Putnam.
He says word had traveled to Boone.
“I just know that it came about as a function of social media,” he says. “They just called us and asked us to discontinue use.”
Just how Haywood County schools ended up using App State’s version still isn’t clear. The school system’s attorney says it was inadvertent. They are similar – App State’s outlined in white, Tuscola’s without that border.
To avoid copyright infringement, there needs to be three distinct differences. Haywood County school leaders will revert to their earlier version to distinguish it from App State’s
“Their profile is more sleek on the Mountaineer head,” Putnam says. “There are differences in the ear and nose and pipe, and also the beard. We hope that all these differences will allow us to re-utilize an older version of the Mountaineer head.”
Putnam says their older version is under review with App State’s legal team now.
“We have been working with Tuscola High School and appreciate their cooperation in accordance with our licensing policies,” Appalachian State University Media Relations Specialist Anna Oakes says. “Together, we are working to determine a timeframe for the high school to discontinue the use of the Yosef logo.”
Measures are under way locally to stop using it.
“As long as we’re making efforts to do so, there will be no action on their part,” Putnam says.
He says they’ll have some latitude in making the change, although at a price.
“Some applications of the logo will be harder to expunge than others,” Putnam explains. “For example, uniforms and permanent items that are currently in use and that are costly to replace.”
“We consider it a dead issue,” Haywood County Schools Attorney Pat Smathers says. “We’re certainly not wanting to use their copyrighted logo. And we just want to make sure that we are enough different that everybody’s happy.”
School leaders don’t expect any litigation from this issue.
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