DiscussMormonism.com

Some of you may remember an incident from earlier this year in which a locally owned coffee ship, Just add Coffee, was selling T-shirts with an image of the angle Moroni getting coffee poured into his trumpet. The Church threatened them with legal action claiming the angle was a registered trademark of the Church and they were engaging in trademark infringement. The Church’s claim is that they have to enforce to avoid trademark dilution. The Deseret News article can be seen here:

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660205539,00.html

This came to my mind recently on a trip to the MAD boards located here:

http://www.mormonapologetics.org/



You will notice the banner at the top of the screen proudly displays an image of the angle Moroni and has, prominently, for several years. The parent site, http://www.fairlds.org/, also displays an image of the angle Moroni.

We can deduce one of two things:
1. The Church was really not interested in protecting its trademark, it was simply trying to bully this small business with a lawsuit.
2. FAIR and the MAD boards are a quasi-official Church organ and are thus entitled to use the image.
John

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I thought that was a soldier playing a bugle or something.

I bought my husband one of those Just Add Coffee t-shirts.

Probably didn't like the add because of the coffee association. Coffee and Mormons don't go together very well.

OUT OF MY MISERY wrote:Probably didn't like the add because of the coffee association. Coffee and Mormons don't go together very well.

Likely, but that is not how the represented themselves. Why would a Jesus loving Church file a SLAPP lawsuit?

John

John Larsen wrote:We can deduce one of two things:
1. The Church was really not interested in protecting its trademark, it was simply trying to bully this small business with a lawsuit.
2. FAIR and the MAD boards are a quasi-official Church organ and are thus entitled to use the image.
John

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A couple of thoughts. 1) Are we certain this is the exact same trademark? After all, the head on the MADboard Moroni has always seemed kind of bulbous to me. 2) Yes; there is no question that FAIR/MAD are "quasi-official" (this is more true of FAIR than of MAD---in fact, I would argue that FAIR divested itself of the MADboard for precisely this reason).

John Larsen wrote:

OUT OF MY MISERY wrote:Probably didn't like the add because of the coffee association. Coffee and Mormons don't go together very well.

Likely, but that is not how the represented themselves. Why would a Jesus loving Church file a SLAPP lawsuit?

John

Perhaps they are only concerned with those who wish to make money by making fun of the Church with it's own logo. Does the MAD site or the FAIR site make any money? Why would the Church go after allies? I can see the hypocracy argument, but it's pretty weak.

Paul had no problem using Roman law to protect himself from enemies.

I recall this year sometime, someone was sued for having the image of golden boy on their site.

For over two years I had a black image of the gold boy but with his trumpet pointing downwards. It was part of my original "The Mormon Curtain" welcome image. After the strong arm of the Cult - Intellectual Reserve - threatened several websites with "cease and desist" letters, I removed the image off the tail end completely.

Yes, the goldon boy is copyrighted.

If you are a pro-Mormon site towing the party line, you will be ignored. Otherwise, you will be asked to cease and desist.

I am not a patent lawyer, but my understanding was that you must enforce your patent to keep it in effect. If the Church systematically ignores use, wouldn't that nullify the copyright claim?

Anyway, I don't think the Church has a copyright on the angle Moroni (although I could be wrong) they are just pushing around small players with their armies of lawyers. Your tithing dollars at work.

John

Infymus wrote:If you are a pro-Mormon site towing the party line, you will be ignored. Otherwise, you will be asked to cease and desist.

Any organization has a right to respond how they want to their images. And as nasty as you and your website get, I can honestly understand.

There is a difference between a critic and you. A critic has an intellectual debate. You just stamp your feet and cry all the time "Mormon, Inc." The "Mormon Cult", the "F**K Gordon", and all the other crap you spew, I welcome any attempt they can make against people like you.

I think an intellectual and critical website can exist without all the childish sprinklings peppered throughout the rants...

JMS

Doesn't law allow one to make use of such images for the purpose of parody or criticism?

Maybe critical sites could try using a picture of a devil with a trumpet instead.