Despite reports that “Fan Cans” would be pulled from the market, crimson and cream colored Bud Light beer cans from Anheuser-Busch will still be sold in local supermarkets.

The Oklahoman wrote an article in August saying that Anheuser-Busch would drop this promotion because of concerns about underage drinking and trademark laws.

“We place great value in the relationships we’ve built with college administrators …” said Carol Clark, vice-president of corporate social responsibility at Anheuser-Busch. “Certain cans are not being made available in communities where organizations had asked us not to offer them.”

However, OU did not use its right to object but only reminded Anheuser-Busch it could not use any OU trademarks or logos on the cans, said Kenneth Mossman, OU athletic department communications director.

“Anheuser-Busch can use any colors they want for their cans,” Mossman said.

Some think that just having the colors crimson and cream associated with the beverage company is the same as having a logo or trademark.

“Colleges own the rights to their colors,” said Jenna Rader, a lawyer at McAfee and Taft and adjunct professor at the OU law school. “They fall under the realm of intellectual property, which is anything that is intangible, anything like ideas.”

The university has also taken this standpoint and sued companies in the past for using colors in unsupported advertising.

According to an article in April’s edition of AthleticBusiness, OU was one of four universities involved in a lawsuit against an apparel company, Smack, that printed offensive T-shirts in university colors. In this case, OU and the other institutions successfully argued that their school colors did in fact belong to them because they were identifiable with the university.

Mossman said that the case with Anheuser-Busch was different because beer cans could not be construed as being licensed by OU, while apparel, which OU does make, could be.

Since the cans have been sold, students have responded positively.

“It would be fun to drink from a crimson and cream beer can while watching OU play,” senior Liz Stevens said. “We have a good football team, and a lot of people drink beer at football games. It wouldn’t look like it was promoting OU or underage drinking because Anheuser-Busch is independent of the school.”

The Fan Can program was designed to appear at the same time as football and baseball playoffs, Clark said. However, the company encourages responsible drinking for those over 21 years of age and does want anyone under 21 to break the law by consuming alcoholic beverages.