While it took some legal maneuvering, Wolf Tracks, the new “Chancellor’s Choice” ice cream, has cleared any hurdles that might stop its service on campus.

Carl Hollifield, business manager for the Department of Food, Bioprocessing & Nutrition Sciences,was heavily involved in the process.

According to Hollifield, he had to work with trademark holder Western Family Foods, Inc., the proprietary owner of the flavor that will be called “Chancellor’s Choice” ice cream on campus.

“The ice cream is based on ‘Moose Tracks.’ We will call it ‘Wolf Tracks,'” Hollifield said.

 ”The idea for this ice cream came from Dr. Randy Woodson.It’s his flavor choice and it’s his favorite flavor,” Hollifield said.

The University obtained the necessary legal permission to use the Moose Tracks recipe to make Wolf Tracks, Hollifield said.According to Hollifield, there is no patent associated with the ice cream.

“We do business with them and we got the necessary permissions to use it, but I would clarify here that it’s not a patent. There is a difference between patent and registered trademark,” Hollifield said.

According to Hollifield, the University’s legal office also played a big role in handling the legal issues. “The office’s help in this matter was critical to obtaining an agreement,” said Hollifield.

“Judy Curry from N.C State’s legal office was involved with the tradename contract,” Hollifield said.

 ”The contract that we entered into is a license agreement, which permits N.C.State to use the trademark,” said Curry, associate general counsel in the Office of General Counsel. “Trademark owners have exclusive rights to use the mark in commerce.”

Curry confirmed that Western Family Foods, Inc.is the owner of the trademark. The Office of General Counsel reviewed the agreement for legal sufficiency, she said.

“The agreement was sent to this office for review by the food science department and we negotiated minor changes in the agreement for compliance with North Carolina law,” Curry said.

Curry said that she feels the permissions required to legally make the ice cream on campus were minimal.

“It took about two weeks; the only permission needed was the non-exclusive right to use the trademark in the marketing of N.C.State ice cream,” Curry said.

Hollifield feels that since it was chancellor’s idea, it was a job that had to be done.

“It was our responsibility to make it happen and we got all the necessary permissions to make it happen,” Hollifield said.

The chancellor was not involved in obtaining any of the legal permissions, said Hollifield. The staff at dairy operations handled all the formalities, he said.

Hollifield said that the ice cream will be produced on campus.

“Milk will be from our farm on Lake Wheeler Road. All ice cream will be produced at N.C. State’s Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, located at Schaub Hall,” Hollifield said.

According to Hollifield, the chancellor had an idea to do something unique with ice cream.

“It was his favorite ice cream and he wanted to do something different than the current one,” Hollifield said.

“It was a collaborative effort between us [food, bioprocessing and nutrition sciences] and the chancellor’s office that made it possible,” Hollifield said.