Do a web search for the word “terps,” and the results might yield both a game schedule for the University of Maryland’s football team and a business page for a cannabis shop.
It’s a problem the university likely didn’t foresee when it first used the term as shorthand for “terrapins,” its mascot, in the early 1930s.
The school is now threatening legal action against a Colorado company that sells terpene products, which enhance the aroma and flavor of marijuana. The business’s name is Terps USA, and its logo looks strikingly similar to the one that appears on the university’s merchandise, sporting equipment and promotional material.
“The word ‘terps’ is very common in the cannabis industry,” said the company’s owner Ken Fry. “So we looked at what’s a good name for a company that has terpene-based products? What’s the name of a company that believes in the American Dream and wants to fulfill that? And we came up with Terps USA.”
In the years since cannabis brands began building product lines and marketing their presences around the word “terp,” the university has not publicly pushed back. But this summer, the College Park-based school sent a cease-and-desist letter to Fry, arguing that his use of the logo would lead consumers to believe the university has licensed, sponsored, endorsed or is otherwise affiliated with cannabis-related products or services.
“Such an association would materially impair the goodwill embodied in the University’s famous TERPS marks,” wrote Janet Benson Forville, the school’s associate general counsel, in the letter to Fry.
In the July 24 letter, U-Md. demanded that Fry abandon his company’s name and logo, and that he voluntarily surrender its registered trademark within 30 days or risk further litigation.
Fry said he created the logo when he opened his business in 2019. His inspiration came from Coca-Cola, whose distinct red coloring “you know is a can of Coke from a mile away,” he said. Because of what he called a “trust problem” in the industry, he wanted something that looked “old school.” He was unfamiliar at the time with U-Md.’s similar design, he said.
“In hindsight, sure, we probably should have researched better,” he said. “But to us, when people in Maryland hear ‘terps,’ they automatically think of terrapins. We’re in Colorado. We’re the first state to legalize marijuana. When you say terps out here, people aren’t thinking about turtles.”
The Washington Post reviewed an email Fry said he received last December from Greg Schaub, an alumnus of U-Md. who founded a scholarship for students from Texas and served on the Alumni Association Board of Governor’s finance committee. Schaub also served on the board of his Sigma Chi fraternity’s charitable foundation, according to an article by the school’s alumni association.
“Your company has stolen the name and trademarked image from the University of Maryland,” he wrote to Fry. “Legal action to follow.”
Schaub did not respond to repeated requests for comment. A university spokesperson said that neither the University of Maryland’s Trademarks and Licensing office nor Forville, the school’s attorney, were contacted by Schaub about the Terps USA name or logo.
In a response letter to U-Md., Terps USA’s attorney, Milo Schwab, said that the 2024 trademark the university cited does not establish what the university claimed. The U.S. patent office canceled two registrations in 2023 because the university missed renewal filings, leaving it without stand-alone registration for the word “terps” for about three years, Schwab claimed. U-Md. filed a new trademark registration in June. Its status is still pending.
Schwab argued that “terps” is a standard cannabis industry shorthand for terpenes and that Terps USA has repeatedly treated it as such since 2019. He also pointed out that Fry had rebranded his website and products in June, before he received the cease-and-desist letter from the university. His new official colors are gold and green.
“We’re dealing with the marijuana business,” Fry said. “Green is much more the right color for us. And when they make the resins, when they make the concentrates — they’re called wax, shatter, distillates — they usually have a yellowish or gold type color. Well, gold complements green great.”
Terps USA operates online but is based in Pueblo, Colorado, south of Denver. It does not sell cannabis or cannabis products; its terpene products are meant to be sprayed directly onto marijuana to enhance the taste and smell, especially when the plant might be old enough to have lost its distinctive flavor. It also sells liquids in flavors including strawberry, gelato and fruity cereal to be added, along with marijuana concentrate, to vape pens.
“You’re going to get stoned,” its website reads. “The only question is whether it’s going to be great.”
Fry has not received further correspondence from the university, he said. He refuses to change his company’s name, and asked, via Schwab’s letter, to specify which elements of his logo it would like him to alter. He also thinks much of this could have been resolved in a conversation.
“When you read our response letter, it states on there that we welcome a conversation, not a legal filing,” he said. “A multi-billion-dollar university versus a small company, this drags out for years and what’s happened? I think one of us probably has a little bigger budget for a long, drawn-own trademark litigation than the other one.”
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