Owls' hoot put on mute

Photo: Contributed

An American university has put the kibosh on the flying owl logo used by Kelowna Secondary School.

KSS is in the process of removing all remnants of the logo after learning they were in violation of trademark laws.

The logo of an owl with its wing spread open is nearly identical to the one trademarked by Temple University in Philadelphia, PA.

"Certainly the resemblance is very similar and we've been contacted by Temple University asking us to stop using the logo," says School District 23 Secretary/Treasurer, Larry Paul.

"Based on the fact they have the trademark for that logo, the school will change its logo to something else."

Paul says the school district received notification of the trademark infringement a week ago.

"Kelowna Secondary has has the logo since 2002. Unfortunately with the Internet of the day," says Paul.,

"They Googled an owl image and did not consider the possible trademark rules."

School officials at KSS referred all questions to the school district.

This is not the first time the authenticity of a Kelowna logo has been questioned.

The Kelowna Rockets came under fire when some claimed the Ogopogo type logo used by the club was taken from the now defunct San Antonio Dragons who played in the International Hockey League back in the late 1990's.

The City of Kelowna was also taken to task in 2009 by many who believed its new corporate logo was not an original design but instead was taken from a logo created for a company called Sunhaven two years earlier.

The designer of the Kelowna logo, Phred Martin, steadfastly denied taking the idea from the older image.

No trademark infringement charges were brought against the Rockets or the city.

Photo: Contributed City of Kelowna logo and Sunhaven logo (bottom left)

Photo: Contributed