Legal Question in Education Law in California

California Education Code 89005.5

We are tutoring company focusing on college tutoring that has recently expanded nationally. In order to organize and SEO (search engine optimize) our website we have created subdomains for each school listing all tutors we have available for that university. The last week an attorney from a cal state university has been contacting us saying that we are violating copyright laws. We found no copyrights for the name of the university at http://tess2.uspto.gov/ . The attorneys then sent us California Education Code 89005.5

(2) No person shall, without the permission of the Trustees of the California State University, use this name, or any abbreviation of it or any name of which these words are a part, in any of the following ways:

(A) To designate any business, social, political, religious, or other organization, including, but not limited to, any corporation, firm, partnership, association, group, activity, or enterprise.

I dont see how we are breaking any laws. We are not designating our business. Are we? If we are have can a student find any tutoring company for their university without the name of the university being used?

We even put a disclaimer saying we are an independent group not affiliated with the college.


Asked on 3/28/06, 3:43 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
MARK GEYER LAW OFFICES OF MARK MITCHELL GEYER

Re: California Education Code 89005.5

The State University system is correct. You are in effect using a given University as a springboard for your company. The mere disclaimer of Not being afiliated" is not sufficient. You need to reword your "ads" to state Tutoring for students of all California Universities, etc."

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Answered on 3/30/06, 7:53 pm


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