“Universities Threaten Virtual Campus Tour Business Over Trademarks”

Hi Everyone, I came across this article about how colleges in the US have been sending cease and desist letters on the basis of trademark infringement to a business, LiveCampusTours, which is providing virtual campus tours by partnering with students who attend those colleges. Although this is a US context, I thought it was an interesting fact scenario to consider whether Canadian trademark infringement could actually be made out here.

The universities argue that using their trademarks could confuse people into thinking that these are official tours. I took a look at Live Campus Tours’ website and given that the tours cost $39 per tour, I wonder if people would actually confuse the source of the tours as I believe official campus tours are usually free.

The website states: “Nylie Inc, dba LiveCampusTours is not affiliated with the administration of any school or educational institution.” I’m not sure when this statement was added; anyhow, they’re now using it as a selling point as it lets their guides “share their genuine, unfiltered perspectives.”

The other argument that came to mind is that because LiveCampusTours may be able to give “unfiltered” perspectives, the colleges may worry about potential depreciation of goodwill attached to their trademarks. If a guide were to give a positive review, then ultimately this is better for a university’s ‘business’ and goodwill. In that case, bringing a claim would seem unproductive. However, if a guide were to give a negative review, then this may ground a valid claim. I question how, evidentiarily, a university may be able to bring such a claim as there may be challenges linking a potential decrease in number of applications received (or decrease in reputation) to what was said by a tour guide to a handful of high school students.

Here is the article I read: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20210305/09433146373/universities-threaten-virtual-campus-tour-business-over-trademarks.shtml. (I would note that the article emphasizes that “there’s no school branding, no crests, no imagery. Just the name of the school and then a list of the tour-providers available at that school” and therefore this does not amount to infringement. If the name of the school is valid trademark, then I don’t believe such a defence stands.)

LiveCampusTours’ website: https://livecampustours.com/