Finance committee approves $250 flat fee, form for city/America250 logo use

The Medina finance committee approved a logo request form and a $250 licensing fee for commercial merchandise use of the city and America250 logos, while exempting civic and nonprofit uses that are not commercial.

Kimberly (staff) told the committee the fee is intended to recoup legal and filing costs associated with trademark/copyright work and to create an approval process for anyone seeking to sell merchandise with the city or America250 marks: “If entities want to use our logo, they wanna sell merchandise, they're gonna make money off of it…so we thought of, you know, maybe a flat fee, and I just came up with $250 to try to be reasonable,” she said.

Under the approved approach, nonprofits that use the logos for non‑commercial programs will not pay the fee but will submit the request form. The mayor and the named staff reviewer will have authority to approve the final designs. Council approved the item with an emergency clause so the process can be in place quickly, and staff said they will accept application materials and collect the fee through the finance office (in‑person payment; staff said online payment is possible but not yet configured).