RICHMOND, Va. -- "We are going to wreak havoc on our opponent's psyche and their plan of attack." That’s what Shaka Smart said when he was introduced as VCU’s head coach in the spring of 2009 -- and HAVOC was born.
Fast forward to Wednesday when new VCU Coach Will Wade said, “HAVOC still lives here.”
You see it everywhere on the VCU campus and in the crowd at every VCU game. The university embraced the phrase so much that they registered it with the Virginia State Corporation Commission through 2017.
On and off the court, HAVOC and VCU basketball have been synonymous for the past six years and the new head coach has no intentions of that changing.
Not so fast though…If the University of Texas has its way, VCU won’t be the only ones wreaking HAVOC in 2015.
On April 3, UT fired the first shot in the HAVOC war by filing two trademarks, “HORNS HAVOC” and “HOUSE OF HAVOC,” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to use for apparel.
On Friday, VCU fans took an online swipe at Texas by registering a site called "hornhavoc.com."
It says "You may have bought a coach, but you didn't buy Havoc." It goes on the note, "in case you haven't heard, Havoc lives here. But feel free to enjoy the only horns Havoc will ever love."
The website then directs visitors to the "Peppas" official site. They're the VCU student pep group. The horns, naturally, would be those of the Rams mascot and the horn section of the band.
When asked about the matter, VCU emailed CBS 6 with the following statement from Vice President for University Relations Pamela DiSalvo Lepley:
"It is my understanding that trademark rights come through use, not registration, which means that VCU owns the rights that have developed in its use of HAVOC in connection with our athletics program."
So that leads us to ask -- is there enough HAVOC to go around? After all, the Rams play in a conference with two other schools, Fordham University and the University of Rhode Island, that have Rams as a mascot.
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