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Geek Squad Sends Cease-and-Desist Letter To God Squad
An anonymous reader writes "A Wisconsin priest has God on his car but Best Buy's lawyers on his back. Father Luke Strand at the Holy Family Parish in Fond Du Lac says he has received a cease-and-desist letter from the electronics retailer. From the article: 'At issue is Strand's black Volkswagen Beetle with door stickers bearing the name "God Squad" in a logo similar to that of Best Buy's Geek Squad, a group of electronics troubleshooters. Strand told the Fond du Lac Reporter that the car is a creative way to spur discussion and bring his faith to others. Best Buy Co. tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that it appreciates what Strand is trying to do, but it's bad precedent to let groups violate its trademarks.'"
From 1114. Remedies; infringement; innocent infringement by printers and publishers emphasis mine
(a) use in commerce any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation of a registered mark in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of any goods or services on or in connection with which such use is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive; or
(b) reproduce, counterfeit, copy, or colorably imitate a registered mark and apply such reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation to labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, receptacles or advertisements intended to be used in commerce upon or in connection with the sale, offering for sale, distribution, or advertising of goods or services on or in connection with which such use is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive,
Then again, IANAL
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
Nah, doesn't apply because it's not ironic, and it's not targeted at the Geek Squad.
If you did a car that looked like the geek squad car, with a logo that was the same except it said, "Week Squad" and ran around fixing peoples computers with a sledgehammer, and filming it...THAT would be parody.
Or in this case, if these people ran around praying over peoples computers and did it specifically to make fun of the Geek Squad, that would be legit.
Having the same logo on a legitimate enterprise isn't protected by parody/freedom of expression laws.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
The problem is that Best Buy needs to send him a Cease and Desist when they become aware of possible infringement or they waive their rights to assert the trademarks in other cases. It's not that they want to be dicks to that particular guy, it's that if they let him get away with it, they lose their right to assert trademark infringement in future cases. The Icons and VW Bug thing are close enough that no reasonable person would say it's not derivative of Geek Squad's logos, so if they let him get away with it they have to let everyone get away with it. There is significant legal precedent that non-asserted trademarks are not valid trademarks. It's much safer for them to just send this guy a C&D than to have a different, real trademark infringement case a year down the road where the defense claims that Geek Squad was aware of other trademark violations that they took no action to end those violations, therefore their trademark claim should be thrown out.