U. may pull plug on T-shirt corp.

From Andrew Carnegie to Bill Gates, it's a story that has played out many times in the business world: The little guy gets squashed by the big guy. And now, according to two Penn alumni, the University is wielding its big business power against their small Internet-based Penn apparel company. Joe Anderson and Jeff Belanoff, both physicians, started Ultimate Industries in January 1997 as a part-time venture. According to its two owners, Ultimate Industries has only sold about 100 shirts over the last three years and donates more than it sells. "Our motive wasn't to make gobs of money," Anderson said. But despite the company's stated purpose of broadening the selection of available Penn merchandise -- rather than just making a profit -- Anderson and Belanoff may soon be forced to shut down their company. Penn informed the owners in a letter dated February 15 that their license would not be renewed, retroactive to January 1. Although last month the company received a license extension to June 30 and a notice that Penn would reconsider if Ultimate Industries would resubmit its license application, the owners could be without a license in three months. "[Penn's] just taking a little company making barely nothing -- a couple of alumni nonetheless -- and squishing them for no apparent reason," Belanoff said. According to Associate Vice President for Business Development Lisa Prasad, Ultimate Industries' use of non-registered Penn insignias is the reason the company was originally denied renewal of its license. Anderson and Belanoff have been using the same logos since they were first granted a license by the University -- the standard split red and blue "P" along with several of their original designs. However, Prasad said Penn has "used a lot more scrutiny" this year in granting licenses, as University licenses are now granted by a committee in Business Services, whereas in the past they were controlled by the Center for Technology Transfer. Currently, 77 companies have Penn merchandising licenses. "[The CTT] didn't always look at the product samples for appropriateness," Prasad said. Prasad said several of Ultimate Industries' logos -- including a Quaker jumping through the "Q" in "Quakers" and a Ben Franklin look-alike in a football uniform leaning on a red and blue "P" -- do not fit University standards. She also said Ultimate Industries violated license regulations by including a registered trademark symbol next to these non-trademarked logos. According to Anderson, who graduated from the Engineering School in 1984, Penn's letter declining Ultimate Industries' license request did not give a reason for declining to renew the apparel company's license. "We asked, 'Why?' They didn't give us a reason," Anderson said. "I finally got a verbal answer a month later that they don't like what we're selling." Anderson and Belanoff, a 1983 College graduate, both expressed disdain for the way in which the University has treated them over this issue. They point to "legal gobblygook" in the February 15 letter and "hoops" they must now "jump through just to get reconsidered." "If the University renews us in good faith, I think that's a reasonable thing," Anderson said. "But, if not, I think it represents the fact that the University's basically now a corporation." Prasad said Penn hadn't had prior problems with Ultimate Industries.

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