Copyright Charleston Post and Courier
SPARTANBURG — Chaser the border collie — Spartanburg’s most famous canine, known widely as "the smartest dog in the world” — is now the subject of a trademark dispute. Chaser's legacy of learning through play is what Spartanburg Community College was counting on — and, ultimately, seeking to profit from — when the school approached the family of her long-time trainer in 2020 about adopting the dog as its mascot, according to a lawsuit filed Oct. 16 in federal court. Chaser died in 2019 at the age of 15, having acquired a vocabulary of more than 1,000 words and reaching international acclaim through the research papers and books of John Pilley, a retired Wofford psychology professor and canine behaviorist. Pilley — Chaser’s closest friend — had died a year earlier. The city of Spartanburg commemorated the beloved pair with a bronze statue at the center of town in 2021, and Spartanburg Community College, led by a Wofford alum who knew Pilley, entered a partnership with the professor’s family that year to make Chaser their mascot. Pilley’s daughters, Deborah Pilley Bianchi and Robin Pilley, now are suing the community college and its president, Michael Mikota, for copyright infringement and reputational damage. They contend they hold the rights to Chaser's imagery and that the school’s cartoonish representations of the dog do not accurately reflect the clever, curious dog they knew nor the legacy of their father, a scientist and naturalist who loved animals. Bianchi said she initially knew something was going wrong a little over a year ago when she saw Chaser’s image on a bottle of barbecue sauce. “Some of the illustrations have been really slipshod, and particularly when they dress Chaser up in a bow and pink collar,” Bianchi said. “It was originally intended that they had to stay true to the integrity of who Chaser was and my father’s legacy, and that that story was part of their story. Otherwise, we would not have moved forward with them as a mascot. They really veered off-path with that.” The school has declined to respond to questions from The Post and Courier, citing the pending litigation. When Pilley published his first research paper about Chaser in 2011 — “Border collie comprehends object names as verbal referents” — it came after three years of vetting by an initially skeptical scientific community, Bianchi said. When his methods checked out and his study was released, it went viral, with his results appearing worldwide in 72 languages within two days, Bianchi said. Chaser and Pilley were featured in a 2014 "60 Minutes" segment about canine intelligence, and the pair also made appearances on “The Today Show” and “Nova Science Now” on PBS. Since becoming the official mascot of Spartanburg Community College on Nov. 2, 2021, the border collie’s name, paw and visage have popped up everywhere on campus. She’s perched on a pumpkin for a recent festival ad. Her six-foot-tall costumed version poses regularly with new students, and she offers student support — “Ask Chaser” — on the college’s website. She’s referenced in “Call Me Chaser” orientation events and “Tail Waggin’” campus updates, and she’s for sale on $15.95 tumblers and $25 T-shirts at Chaser’s Bark Shop. When the college entered a partnership with the Spartanburgers minor-league baseball team in 2024 — which included leftfield group seating dubbed “Chaser’s Corner” next to “Chaser’s Berm,” a grassy general admission area — the six-foot border collie mascot was on hand. The Pilley daughters initially were enthusiastic about the mascot idea and entered a verbal licensing agreement with the college, court documents show. This included providing classes on canine first aid at the school through Bianchi’s “Chaser Initiative” educational nonprofit, providing the school with photos of Chaser and her "pawtograph" and giving input on mascot images and logos. That relationship fell apart in 2025. It started when the college approached the Pilley daughters with a formal licensing agreement in October 2024 — this one in writing — that would have granted the school an "irrevocable exclusive" license for Chaser's imagery, including the rights to sell merchandise, according to the lawsuit. That contract was a non-starter, Bianchi said. “I’m in the music industry,” Bianchi said. “I know contracts.” Bianchi responded with a modified written agreement in spring 2025 that included licensing fees to benefit The Chaser Initiative and further canine research. Bianchi said she expected the college to counteroffer but never heard anything. “When it became clear that SCC had no intention of honoring the initial (verbal) license agreement or negotiating a modification to the license agreement that would be mutually acceptable to all parties involved, Bianchi and R. Pilley terminated the license agreement,” the lawsuit said. The college cancelled The Chaser Initiative’s canine first aid classes in May 2025 and removed photographs of Chaser and Pilley from their administrative building that same month, Bianchi said. Soon thereafter, according to the lawsuit, Spartanburg Community College submitted multiple applications to the U.S. Trademark Office to take ownership of a range of Chaser images that were based on materials provided by Bianchi as well as a related logo — "Dream It. Chase It. Live It.” The process takes many months, and it is unclear if the college has finalized those trademarks. In June, Bianchi — who has run “The Chaser Initiative” since 2021 — secured a copyright on her Chaser images, including the main Chaser headshot used by the college, according to court documents. The image is cropped from a photo of Chaser posing with broadcast journalist Anderson Cooper. Among the lawsuit’s demands is a request that the U.S. Trademark Office deny or repeal the college’s trademark applications.
