ASU‘s other logo, “Sparky,” is in the news. E.J. Montini of the Arizona Republic writes an interesting commentary this Sunday, looking at this as a David and Goliath story.

The story? Sparky’s likeness is being used by a Virginia, Salem high school.

• ASU’s student newspaper The State Press reported the story last week, quoting a school official as saying “We’re 2,400 miles away from ASU, and we don’t think we’re infringing any laws.”
• The Virginian Pilot also takes on the issue, calling it “a display of overprotective, greedy and heavy-handed behavior.”

I must admit to a bias here. Being an insider at ASU, I believe framing this as a David and Goliath story is a bit out of proportion here. The university doesn’t see someone misusing a logo or mark as the enemy. Organizations don’t defend a registered mark because they want to crush the little guy.

Last week Dan Ziegler at the Tribune reported on this story differently. He cited Fernando Morales of ASU’s trademark office saying:

“You don’t want to turn people off to ASU by being too heavy-handed,” Morales said. “If a school has invested a lot of money in a basketball floor with Sparky on it, we’re not going to make them rip it up right away. We will be flexible. You can look like an ogre if you do it wrong.”

Flexible? Definitely not a Goliath trait. But that’s not the narrative that grabs readers –or Google juice.

In time organizations realize that a settlement involves a win for both parties. If you recall, Cisco sued Apple over the word “iPhone,” one of Cisco’s registered marks. (They settled in just six weeks.) Likewise Apple settled with Apple Corp, the company that represents the Beatles after a long dispute over the name.

Should ASU stand up for it’s logo? Sure. Could it soften its stance? Certainly. I agree with Montini in one thing: A little savviness wouldn’t hurt.