Drake University’s Lawsuit Against DMACC Could Cost One School Up to $250,000

A lawsuit involving two Iowa educational institutions is heating up as neither is backing down. The claim is that a community college's rebranded logo bears too much similarity to one that's been used by another Iowa university for more than 100 years.

If you're not familiar with the backstory, here's a quick little rundown. This summer, Des Moines' Drake University sued Des Moines Area Community College (locally referred to as "DMACC") in federal court over the community college's new rebranding effort, per Iowa Capital Dispatch. DMACC's new logo features a single-character logo of the letter "D," and its block-style font looks very similar to the one used by Drake for the last 122 years.

Developments on the lawsuit have been pretty quiet until recently, when DMACC claimed a court-ordered temporary rebrand will cost more than ten times the original estimate. Per KCCI, in November, a judge called the branding "nearly identical" and barred DMACC from using their new "D" logo until a final ruling was made.

The judge's decision also set a deadline to remove all usage of the new logo before December 13th under the stipulation that Drake University would pay DMACC $25,000 as reimbursement for removing the logo if the community college won the lawsuit.

DMACC VP Of Student Affairs Erica Spiller told KCCI last week that while the school is working hard to remove the logo from all uses as swiftly as possible, the judge's swift decision doesn't take into account the time and effort required to rebrand. On that note, DMACC wants Drake to pay more than $25,000. More like $250,000:

DMACC has 13 locations across central Iowa. We have over 35,000 students. We have over 60 buildings, 500 classrooms and public spaces. So it's a pretty significant effort to get all of those changed out. We now know that the cost is much more than that to comply with that preliminary injunction, so we're asking for $250,000 rather than the $25,000 - DMACC VP Of Student Affairs Erica Spiller, per KCCI

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Maybe we should get Duke University, whose own "D" logo is iconic and synonymous with academic and athletic excellence, to be the arbitrator on the case...

In my humble opinion, without a legal leg to stand on, I retain my original opinion in that I think it'll be difficult for DMACC to win this case on the basis that Drake University has held ownership over theirs for over 100 years.

Read more about the ongoing lawsuit between Drake University and DMACC on KCCI's website.