Student tried to highjack Blue Knights logo

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A student at a school in Michigan was flying high last week as the logo he designed was chosen for his school district. The problem, the student’s logo closely resembled the logo for Dakota County Technical College’s Blue Knights, and his submission was an infringement on the school’s copyright.

DCTC communication director Renee Johnson sent a letter to the Essexville-Hampton Public School informing them of the infringement and requested the logo be taken down off their website and all other materials.

According to the Bay City News, Adam Gunther, a sophomore in the district, submitted the logo as part of an eighth grade class project. He told the paper he found the logo using Google images and made some modification. The design was chosen to be the new logo for the district after a student art contest.

Johnson said last week the school district called to inform them the logo closely resembled the DCTC Blue Knights logo.

“We appreciate that they brought it to our attention,” said Johnson

Since the logo looked almost exactly like DCTC’s, Johnson sent a letter asking the school district to stop using it and the district complied a few days later.

Essexville-Hampton superintendent John Mertz told the Bay City News the district discussed modifying the logo to keep using it but DCTC officials wouldn’t agree with the plan.

Mertz also told the paper he did not believe there was any ill-intent on the part of Gunther.

“It was simply a case of looking for ideas,” he told the paper.

Johnson said now that the logo has been taken down, no other action will be taken.

Tags: news, rosemount, dctc, education