FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
The Trademark Program’s mission, as established by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, is to protect and license Harvard’s trademarks throughout the world.
In addition, the Trademark Program assists the Harvard community with the various policies and guidelines governing the appropriate use of the Harvard name and insignias.
The family of “Harvard” trademarks, many of which are registered throughout the world for a variety of goods and services, are comprised of word-marks, design-marks, and letter-marks.
Word-marks include names for the University itself such as “Harvard” and “Harvard University;" names for the various schools of the University as in “Harvard College,” “Harvard Business School,” “Harvard Medical School,” and “Harvard Law School;” names for Harvard departments, units, initiatives, activities, and affiliates such as “Harvard University Press,” “Harvard Faculty Club,” “Harvard University Health Services,” “Harvard Stem Cell Institute,” “The Harvard Club,” “The Harvard Student-Led Walking Tour,” and “Harvard Global” and other representative names such as “Harvard Soccer,” “The Harvard Shop,” “Hahvahd” and “Crimson.”
The letter “H” is the primary letter-mark for the University, and the design-marks include the VE-RI-TAS shield, with and without wreath and banner, the shields of the various schools, and the University house shields. A "®" designation must accompany all registered trademarks of the University and a “TM” designation must accompany marks not yet registered.
Harvard’s trademarks are protected by a wide variety of means. One way is through the many legitimate trademark registrations owned by Harvard throughout the world. Another way is through monitoring services which notify the Trademark Program whenever an attempt is made by an unaffiliated party to obtain a “Harvard” trademark registration anywhere in the world for any goods or services.
The Trademark Program also uses a service to monitor the Internet for the registration of “Harvard” formative domain names and takes appropriate action whenever these domains lead to websites that infringe on Harvard’s trademark rights. Additionally, the Trademark Program has legal counsel, licensing agents, and licensees throughout the world who bring to its attention anyone attempting to use Harvard’s trademarks without the University's permission; and, as a protective measure, all of Harvard’s licensees are required to identify their products as being officially licensed by Harvard.
Finally, Harvard faculty, students, staff, and alumni, as well as other concerned individuals, constitute an excellent network for identifying the unauthorized use of Harvard’s trademarks for goods or services around the world.
To report the suspected unauthorized use of Harvard’s trademarks, please click here.
Through its domestic and international licensing programs, the Trademark Program grants licenses to qualified manufacturers to produce a variety of Harvard insignia items for sale to the public.
In return for their licensing rights, licensees pay royalties on the merchandise they sell. While both the domestic and international licensing programs are administered by the Trademark Program, due to the complexities of international business practices and law, the international licensing program is typically managed with the assistance of professional licensing agents.
The Trademark Program also grants licenses to vendors on a reduced royalty rate basis who receive orders from Harvard schools, departments, units, or officially recognized Harvard student organizations interested in producing Harvard insignia items for non-commercial purposes.
For more information about Harvard’s licensing programs, please click here.
Harvard does license its trademarks internationally and currently has licensees in various countries around the world. Generally, the Trademark Program utilizes the services of professional licensing agents in specific territories to help identify licensees and bring them to the Trademark Program’s attention for possible licensing, to monitor the market for infringement and counterfeit products, and to serve as regional licensing coordinators. Other than the fact that they typically grant exclusive rights for a specific category of products in a given territory, international licenses are comparable to their domestic counterparts: licensees are required to produce items in accordance with Harvard’s licensing standards; to represent the University’s trademarks appropriately and accurately; to submit product samples for quality assurance and trademark-use reviews; to maintain commercial general liability insurance and membership in the Fair Labor Association; to submit artwork for review and approval prior to production; to pay advance royalties; and to submit royalty reports and, if applicable, royalty payments. For more detailed information regarding Harvard’s international licensing program, please click here.
Any person or company wishing to produce any type of goods bearing Harvard's trademarks must either be licensed or receive special written permission from the Trademark Program to produce such goods.
Harvard does not typically license its trademarks for any services.
Typically the University licenses apparel, novelty items, and stationery products.
Apparel includes items such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, dress shirts, jackets, sweaters, shorts, caps, and ties.
Novelty items encompass such items as key chains, watches, clocks, jewelry, mugs, glassware, leather goods, bags, and backpacks.
Stationery products comprise goods such as note-cards, pens and pen sets, and notebooks. Typically, Harvard does not license its trademarks for any services.
The basic terms of a trademark license require the payment of royalties for Harvard items sold either on a wholesale or retail basis, the payment of an advance royalty and an annual administration fee, the submission of artwork for review and approval prior to production, the submission of product samples, and the maintenance of commercial general liability insurance and membership in the Fair Labor Association.
The license also identifies the trademarks that may be used on the licensed products and stipulates the manner in which they may be used.
For more detailed information regarding Harvard’s trademark license requirements, please click here.
Orders for Harvard insignia products (SWAG) by University schools, departments, units, and Harvard student organizations are only charged a nominal royalty rate of 4% of net instead of the normal 10% of net as long as the items are limited in number, for internal use, for specific events, to be provided as gifts, or if produced for sale to the public (which is only allowed on a limited basis), the proceeds are used to benefit the Harvard unit selling the items. In addition, sales of these types of goods may not be made through a retailer, the Internet, or any other commercial venue. For more information regarding how to order Harvard insignia items (SWAG), please click here.
After covering operational expenses, income generated by the Trademark Program from its domestic and international licensing activities is used to help fund student-aid initiatives at Harvard.
Any member of the Harvard University Community, including officially recognized student organizations, wishing to produce items bearing the Harvard name and/or insignias must review the “Guidelines for Ordering SWAG” found here.
The following guidelines apply to officially recognized student groups that want to produce and sell, or give away, items bearing their student group name, logo, and/or any other Harvard trademarks.
- A student group may produce items, on a royalty-reduced basis, bearing the approved name of their group, their group’s logo, and, if appropriate, other Harvard trademarks under the following conditions:
- the item is in accordance with Harvard’s use-of-name policies, including those policies’ standard of accurate representation;
- the student group must use its officially approved name and, if desired, its logo as approved by the school with which the group is affiliated;
- the item is being produced for the group’s own internal use, or as a gift for group members, or to be sold on a limited and one-time only basis to members and non-members of the student group as a fund-raiser to benefit the officially recognized student group.
- Student groups may not sell products bearing any Harvard trademarks, including the name and logo of a group, directly to the public at large, via the Internet, or to retailers for resale to the public or via any other commercial channel other than as stipulated above.
- All prospective products and artwork (including the student group name and logo or any other Harvard trademark) must be reviewed by the Harvard Trademark Program prior to production.
If all documentation required by the SWAG Guidelines is submitted in a timely manner, is in good order, and there are no use-of-name, licensing, or trademark issues, the review process can usually be completed in approximately 7-10 business days.
Yes - and those guidelines may be found at Business Card Authorization Guidelines for Harvard Affiliates.
Depending on the item and its intended use, permission to use the Harvard name or insignia on a custom-made gift or product is occasionally given by the University. Typically, permission is granted for an item that cannot be obtained from a licensed retailer and is intended as a special gift for the private use of a member of the Harvard community (including alumni). At its discretion, the Trademark Program may approve the request and grant a manufacturer a one-time use, royalty-reduced license to produce the item. Requests are reviewed on a case-by-case basis and, among other factors, consideration is given to the appropriateness of the product itself, the trademark requested and its proposed use on the product, and the reason or reasons for the request.
Harvard does not have an office that specifically deals with copyright requests.
Reprint/reproduction permission for copyrighted documents is given by the individual Harvard school, department, or unit that created or oversees the work in question: this policy is a function of practicality as well as academic courtesy.
To request permission to reproduce, in whole or part, material copyrighted by Harvard University (President and Fellows of Harvard College), you must contact the school or department that produced the material. For example, for books published by Harvard University Press (HUP), you must contact HUP; for material published by the Harvard Business Review, contact the business office for the Harvard Business Review; for a paper produced by a professor of chemistry, contact the Department of Chemistry; and so forth.
Contact information for a University school or department can usually be found on a publication’s masthead; or you may obtain that information from the University information line at 617-495-1000.
The Office of Technology Development (OTD) administers patents, inventions, and technology transfers for the University and may be reached at otd@harvard.edu or 617-495-3067.
You can also access the OTD website at: http://www.otd.harvard.edu/.
All inquiries regarding videotaping, filming or photographing on Harvard property, along with questions from the media, are handled by Harvard Public Affairs & Communications.
You can visit their website at: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/hpac/.
These types of inquiries are handled by Harvard’s Procurement Management Department.
You can visit their website at http://vpf-web.harvard.edu/ofs/procurement/.
All inquiries regarding such matters should be submitted to the trademark_program@harvard.edu email address and usually receive an acknowledgement within twenty-four hours (inquiries made on a Friday will typically be acknowledged on Monday, unless Monday is a holiday and then it will be acknowledged on a Tuesday).
Most inquiries can be addressed within approximately 7-10 business days. However, those of a particularly complex nature may take longer to resolve.
The University’s policies and guidelines governing the use of the Harvard name and insignias by Harvard’s schools, units, faculty, staff and students; FAQ’s regarding those policies and guidelines; as well as information on how to apply for a “.harvard.edu” domain name or a “@harvard.edu” email alias, can be found in the “Policies and Forms” section of this website.
For inquiries about these policies and guidelines, please contact the Harvard Trademark Program at trademark_program@harvard.edu.