USC and USC: South Carolina rebrands

In an announcement Wednesday, the University of South Carolina proved that it is far from finished competing with the University of Southern California for the “USC” acronym.

According to a press release, the Carolina college will retire its “UofSC” logo mark used since 2019 and “simplify its branding marks” in the latest installment of the two schools’ feud over brand rights. Beginning Jan. 4, 2023, California’s USC will officially share the “USC” abbreviation with Carolina.

The announcement followed concern from Carolina’s students, fans and alumni over the “UofSC” acronym. Carolina Board Chairman Thad Westbrook wrote in a press release that the school’s Board of Trustees “strongly supports” the decision.

“We have no concerns about the use of ‘USC’ for our university,” Carolina wrote in a statement to the Daily Trojan. “Our fans, students and alumni still know us as USC, so we don’t anticipate any confusion. In fact, the announcement yesterday was met with near universal approval.”

The two universities’ dispute over trademark rights began in 2002 when Carolina attempted to federally register a trademark for a logo depicting the interlocking letters “SC,” a design used by both schools. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board sided with Southern California, arguing that the West Coast school already had a nearly identical registered trademark. 

Carolina filed an unsuccessful appeal soon after and filed another — yet again, unsuccessfully — in 2009, willing the U.S. Court of Appeals to cancel Southern California’s registration. The Supreme Court declined to hear yet another appeal by Carolina on the matter in 2010. 

While Carolina’s rebranding does not include another attempt to incorporate the contested interlocking letters, it introduces a new block-letter spirit mark branded with the school’s year of founding, 1801. One of Southern California’s eight athletic spirit marks also features the iconic three-letter sequence in block letters. 

Carolina’s “USC” acronym will not be present on athletics logos and the school will retain its gates-and-trees logo in official academic branding. Signs will be replaced and other updates made in the lead-up to the official brand change next year. 

Baladitya Swaika, a graduate student studying computer science, said Carolina’s rebranding may prove confusing digitally. Swaika said that since both colleges will appear when searching for school-specific sites and resources online, international students and prospective students, especially, may be misled. 

“Maybe during researching, they look up USC and they may want to come to Southern California, but they reach the South Carolina page, and they don’t know what to do,” Swaika said.

Swaika said he’s been trying to understand the reasoning behind the change and has considered that the previous branding, “UofSC,” possibly impeded students from connecting with the university.  

“That could very well be a legit reason for you to change [the acronym] — which I get — but I think that there are grave repercussions to this,” Swaika said.

A Carolina alumna, who prefers to be identified by her Twitter handle @SassyCappy5, said in an interview with the Daily Trojan that she’s always thought of her alma mater as “USC” and wasn’t aware of the college’s 2019 renaming to “UofSC.” 

She said she doesn’t anticipate any confusion about the shared acronym because the schools’ official colors are different — Carolina’s colors are garnet and black, while Southern California’s are cardinal and gold — and the schools are geographically distant.

“I’m glad we went back to our roots and decided to go USC,” she said. “That’s what we know ourselves as.”