Bud Light to end sale of IU Fan Cans

Red and white Bud Light Fan Cans will not be sold near IU’s campuses “sometime in the near future.”

In a cease and desist letter dated Aug. 21, IU officials asked Anheuser-Busch to stop selling the beer cans featuring IU’s colors near campus.

On Sept. 4, Anheuser-Busch said in a letter to IU that it will no longer sell the Fan Cans within the community, but they did not specify a date in which it will end or a specific domain.

“In order to avoid a dispute over the concerns raised in your letter, the Fan Cans program in such color combinations will be ended in your community in the near future,” wrote Scott D. Miller, associate general council for Anheuser-Busch, in a letter addressed to IU from Anheuser-Busch’s legal department.

The company said in the letter that it believes it still has legal rights to use IU’s color schemes on its products.

“Anheuser-Busch stands by its legal right to market its beer under its famous Bud Light trademark in cans bearing color combinations also used by IU,” Miller said.

IU’s Director of Licensing and Trademarks, Valerie Gill, requested in IU’s cease and desist letter that Anheuser-Busch stop the sale of the red and white Fan Cans because the University does not wish to be associated with alcohol.

“It is a University policy that we do not permit our name and marks to be associated with alcoholic beverages,” IU spokesman Larry MacIntyre said. “For that reason alone, we would object to beer cans labeled in our school colors.”

University officials affirm that the Fan Cans program clashes with IU’s ideals.

“Indiana University is concerned that such representation of their colors or trade dress would confuse individuals into thinking that this product is affiliated with our institution,” Gill said in a letter to Anheuser-Busch. “Indiana University believes that marketing the red and white Bud Light Team Pride Can in the general vicinity of our campuses could promote underage drinking and preys upon the goodwill of the University.”

IU joins other universities such as the University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin and Purdue University, which have succeeded in removing Anheuser-Busch Fan Cans from their respective campuses.

On Aug. 31, Purdue received a letter from Anheuser-Busch saying they would remove the black and gold beer cans from the West Lafayette area after the university sent a cease and desist letter, said Teri Thompson, vice president for marketing and media at Purdue.

“The Team Pride program infringes upon the Purdue mark, including its color schemes and falsely implies that Purdue University is associated with and/or endorses Anheuser-Busch’s product,” Thompson said, reading from a letter from Purdue to Anheuser-Busch.

Both IU and Purdue maintain that the Fan Cans program goes against Board of Supervisors for La. State Univ. v. Smack Apparel Co., which ruled that schools have protectable rights on their color schemes.

Any company that wants to use a school’s color schemes needs to ask permission, Thompson said.

“Just because someone asks permission doesn’t mean we grant it,” Thompson said. “We are looking for an association that is consistent with the branch image we want.”