My husband has published for academic journals and law reviews and has also self-published a debate handbook for policy and public forum debate through his organization The Great Debate. With his experience in the self-publishing world I felt confident that I could follow suit. WRONG!
Any true children’s book about UVA must include the mascot, the logos, and the colors, of course. All of which are trademarked, copyrighted, or both! Having Cavalier Man, the sabers, and orange and blue were absolutely necessary, so I needed to work with the College Licensing Company (CLC) who held the rights.
The CLC has agreements with universities across the country so that a company can obtain a license and use the trademarks and copyrights of that university in exchange for royalties paid to the school. This all makes perfect sense, so I began to research how to obtain a local CLC license. The long and the short of it is that it is not particularly easy for a company to obtain a license, let alone an individual.
Since I had not incorporated, did not have a prior sales track record, did not have a liability insurance policy upwards of $1M, and did not have a sample work product of my book on hand to send the CLC, I considered alternative avenues. Instead of obtaining the license as an individual and self-publishing, I could publish through a company that already held a CLC license for UVA. I concluded that such a company would be my new path forward!
Any true children’s book about UVA must include the mascot, the logos, and the colors, of course. All of which are trademarked, copyrighted, or both! Having Cavalier Man, the sabers, and orange and blue were absolutely necessary, so I needed to work with the College Licensing Company (CLC) who held the rights.
The CLC has agreements with universities across the country so that a company can obtain a license and use the trademarks and copyrights of that university in exchange for royalties paid to the school. This all makes perfect sense, so I began to research how to obtain a local CLC license. The long and the short of it is that it is not particularly easy for a company to obtain a license, let alone an individual.
Since I had not incorporated, did not have a prior sales track record, did not have a liability insurance policy upwards of $1M, and did not have a sample work product of my book on hand to send the CLC, I considered alternative avenues. Instead of obtaining the license as an individual and self-publishing, I could publish through a company that already held a CLC license for UVA. I concluded that such a company would be my new path forward!
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