Students hoping to give the SKYY Party a shot are out of luck.
That’s because the group has changed its name to the SKY Party, shedding the extra Y and its logo’s similarities to that of SKYY Vodka’s. Some students criticized the party’s original name, saying a Student Government Association campaign shouldn’t appear to affiliate with a vodka brand.
SGA Vice President of Finance Andrew Steinberg, who is running for SGA president on the SKY Party ticket, said he decided to drop the second ‘Y’ from the name in response to the negative attention it received. He said the election should be about issues, not party names.
“This was a marketing technique meant to bring attention to our party and our candidates for office by playing on a popular brand name,” he wrote in a statement.
Steinberg declined to comment on whetherlegal action by SKYY Spirits prompted the name change.
He said the change was official and would appear with the revised spelling on the election ballot, despite missing the April 12 deadline for submitting changes.
SGA Elections Board members would not comment on why they allowed the party to bypass the deadline or if the candidates would be fined.
The board has already fined the STARE candidates $500 for missing an April 1 deadline to hand in a form. The board refused to recognize STARE as a party and fined STARE presidential candidate Natalia Cuadra-Saez an additional $120 for referring to it as such in a Diamondback article last week.
Speculation of copyright infringement began when the SKYY Party emblem appeared on campus last week, plastered on campus buildings, across T-shirts and in Facebook group titles.
The party used the same silver font and type size of the well-known vodka logo, a registered trademark. The original logo “violates the trademark rights of SKYY Vodka,” University of Maryland Law School professor James Astrachan said last week.
Now, the name appears as SKY throughout the party’s official website, but shirts and other campaign materials still bear the ‘YY.’
SGA election rules state that candidates must comply with university policies as well as all local and federal laws. Steinberg could face a copyright infringement lawsuit if SKYY Spirits chose to take action.
“In SGA elections, we often see turnout isn’t that strong,” he said. “Depending on how you market it, that could draw more students.”
But some students said the original logo “did more damage than good.”
“I think they had to do it because people started saying bad things,” said sophomore microbiology major Felicia Davenport. “With elections being tomorrow, it’s not gonna change people’s opinions.”
gulin@umdbk.com
