
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 16, 1994                   TAG: 9409160051
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HOTEL ROANOKE WARNS, `ASK AND YE MAY RECEIVE'

Think the Hotel Roanoke's Tudor Tower would look snazzy on a coffee mug? Before you shape the first cup, you better check with the Virginia Tech Real Estate Foundation.

The foundation owns the historic hotel, which means it also owns the right to use the property's distinctive architecture for promotional purposes.

Recently, the foundation has been reminding would-be entrepreneurs of this fact in a series of advertisements.

With the hotel and the new conference center adjoining it due to open April 3, interest in the property has been growing and so have the items being sold to honor the project.

For proof, look in the Roanoke office of Mode Johnson, assistant to the vice president at Virginia Tech and the foundation's liaison to the hotel project.

There's a stadium blanket draped over a chair, a three-piece ceramic rendering of the hotel standing on the desk and a T-shirt with the Hotel Roanoke scene hanging over the edge of a file cabinet.

"None of these got permission," Johnson said.

When Norfolk Southern Corp. gave the hotel property to the foundation, it also passed along the tower trademark.

Anyone interested in using the project for promotion needs to submit a sample of the product for approval. If Virginia Tech and the foundation like the idea, it will be approved, but there probably will be royalties to pay.

by CNB