What started out as an innocent reflection of school pride has now become a legal matter for the owner of Jolly Trolley in Greenville.
Patrick Brown says after having an ECU Pirates sticker on his trolley for two years, ECU told him he had two weeks to take it off.
Brown is a proud graduate of ECU and says he put the sticker on his company trolley thinking it would help the university's image.
But the collegiate licensing company at ECU says because Brown did not go through the legal steps to have the logo on his company product. You can see in the picture on this story from the Jolly Trolley website that Brown has covered up the sticker.
Brown says, "I understand trademark and branding. I was just trying to show a little bit of pride and didn't think anything would happen. I'm not trying to associate myself with ECU other than promote the college that I love.
ECU says this is a common misunderstanding in the community.
Lee Workman says ECU has nearly 4,000 requests every year from companies across the country who want to display the school's logo, and at least 90 percent of those formal requests are approved. He says If you are a business owner who would like to show off your Pirate pride you must first contact the ECU collegiate licensing company and get approval.
Brown decided to scrape off the sticker Tuesday.
