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Posted
on 07-Nov-00 08:58 AM
Official is ever-vigilant in the name of Harvard
By Patrick Healy, Globe Staff, 11/7/2000
AMBRIDGE - When it comes to ripping off the Harvard empire, no scheme is too tiny or
far-flung to keep Rick Calixto from ruthlessly crushing it.
Take South Korea's Harvard English Academy. The language school draped ''Harvard'' banners
on and off campus to catch the eye of potential students, at least some of whom surely wondered
whether that famous overseas university had opened a branch there.
Some of Harvard University's spies took note, too. They dropped a dime to Calixto, who, from
his Harvard Square office, combats misuse of the university's trademarks. He zapped an e-mail
to colleagues, plotting how to retake the Harvard name. The academy was soon threatened with a
lawsuit, then received a cease-and-desist letter, and, poof, all references to Harvard vanished.
''I don't care if someone's filing to become `Harvard Plants' - I want to know about it,'' Calixto
said, his hands waving in the air, his zeal coming alive. ''Courts could stop us from opening a
program in Korea because they could say, `Sorry Harvard, when people in Korea think of
Harvard, they think of the English academy.'''
Harvard is one of a handful of US universities that are widely known and respected abroad.
More than most, Harvard officials are almost pathologically protective about how the name is
used.
Calixto is leading a project to register the Harvard trademark in every country, with about 30 left
to go.
He is taking nothing for granted on the home front, either. Several weeks ago, he filed to register
the name Harvard College - which dates back to 1638 - with the US Patent and Trademark
Office, just in case anyone were to challenge the university's right to it. He is also seeking
trademarks for the first time for Harvard Law School, the medical school, and other graduate
programs.
''With the Internet and the fact that intellectual property has become hot, there's greater
awareness that people have and need to protect brands and trademarks,'' Calixto said. ''We're
not going to wait until someone in Brazil does something against us. We'll already have a
registration in place there.''
Calixto's ''Harvard versus the world'' mindset reflects both professional and personal concerns.
The Harvard reputation can only be hurt and watered down by entrepreneurs who make the name
their own, he believes. What's more, Calixto feels his own deep debt to the university.
The Calixtos were wealthy landowners in Cuba when Fidel Castro took power in 1959. The
family, vilified as profit-hungry bourgeois by partisans of the revolution, fled to Costa Rica
when Calixto was 5, with only $1,000 that his mother smuggled out.
After a few months, the family moved to Barranquilla, Colombia, and took a stab at food
merchandising, selling crackers and ice cream. According to Calixto, Castro supporters attempted
to kidnap him, as well as to plant a bomb in the business offices.
Then came America: They landed in California, his parents without money, without a college
education, and then settled in the Cuban exile community of Miami, where his father became a
factory worker.
Calixto said he never found a calm haven until he came to Harvard and earned a master's degree
in ancient history and another degree in religion. He said Harvard changed his own life and those
of his family members, watching with pride from Florida, feeling that the Harvard name had
boosted their lives.
''It's like a family member,'' he said. ''I can see some of Harvard's problems, but I really love
it.''
His trademark office is now a key part of the Harvard administration, partly because higher
education has become such an industry. The insignia-product market for colleges is worth
billions, from sweatshirts and shot glasses to educational services and online courses.
''It's worth a fortune if someone damages or misuses your name,'' said Sheldon E. Steinbach,
general counsel for the American Council on Education, an umbrella lobbying group for 1,800
US colleges. ''People for the first time are really starting to poach. There's an increasing number
of people registering names as dot-coms, dot-orgs, dot-God-knows-what.''
Harvard has a relatively conservative and uneven licensing program overseas. It earns about
$700,000 in royalties a year, officials say, compared to the $5 or $10 million netted by schools
with powerhouse sports teams. Sales of Harvard insignia products in Europe have floundered in
the past. A new marketing strategy, targeting an elite audience, is now in the works.
But even if Harvard isn't selling a product or program in a given country, it still needs to
establish a trademark to ward off even the chance of an infringement or a scam, Calixto said.
''Some presence is better than no presence,'' he said.
Lawyers, alumni, and contacts in many countries notify Calixto when the Harvard name
surfaces, and the university pays a service to monitor trademark registries worldwide.
The university spends thousands, sometimes millions of dollars on trademark issues. Some have
been high-profile, such as a case involving Harvard Pilgrim Health Care. The university has
gone to court to try to bar the HMO from selling the right to use the Harvard name for an HMO,
although a school official has said that Harvard-Pilgrim could continue to use it.
Many other disputes crop up abroad, Calixto said, noting that foreign executives see Harvard as a
valuable aid in marketing.
For instance, Calixto's office received phone calls asking whether Quebec's Harvard
Negotiations International, which specializes in mediation, had ties to Harvard. There were none,
although Harvard Law School had its own Negotiations Project.
After legal wrangling in Canada, the company became Biomed 411. Its spokesman, Dominic
Roy, said the Harvard name was first used because the company used ''the win-win method of
the Harvard schools.'' Asked whether the company had sought an advantage by using the
Harvard name, he ended the interview.
Other cases are smaller-scale. Harvard went after Lowell-brewed Harvard beer, a six-pack of
which sits on a shelf in Calixto's office. The university worried about being linked with alcohol,
especially since it was sold in Harvard Square.
The university's most recent legal fight centered on the chief issue that spurs most such cases:
control of the Harvard educational product here and abroad.
The case involved an Internet start-up, notHarvard.com, that created online academic courses.
Harvard was preparing to sue the company when notHarvard.com made a preemptive strike in
July, taking the university to court over the name. Harvard countersued, and the company
eventually dropped its case and renamed itself Powered.com.
Lisa Byrne, a spokeswoman for Powered, said the company had been searching for ''a name that
could go the distance in branding and marketing strategy.''
But Calixto said notHarvard had crossed a line. ''Once you open that Pandora's box, others start
arguing, `Let us in, let us in,''' Calixto said.
This story ran on page A01 of the Boston Globe on 11/7/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
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