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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.'"
I don't know which "squad" is more f____g annoying.............
If he isn't selling anything or competing with them, do they have legal grounds to make him cease and desist? I thought imitation was the highest form of flattery. Do we now outlaw spoof, satire, and creative imitation?
No, it proves that geeks aren't running Geek Squad.
I know that legally companies have to enforce trademarks or risk losing them. However, for a case like this where there is no actual damage to their business and no real risk of confusion, the best solution from a PR perspective would be to offer a royalty-free license to the trademark and its variant to the person in question.
You know, instead of the traditional "cease-and-desist" letter, you could send a "we notice you borrowed from our logo - we are required to contact you by trademark law, and we will offer you a royalty-free license for this use, in a limited context, if you get in touch with us".
That would completely avoid the nasty press these companies for doing this, and keep the trademark lawyers happily occupied.
Why can't we live in the kind of more civil society where we look for positive solutions to problems in this way instead of simply defaulting to the negative?
Trademarks aren't enforced on a word-by-word basis. The issue would be the similarity of the logo as a whole.
The trademark claim may be invalid since the priest is not selling electronics or technical support, and presumably isn't using it in a commercial context at all. On the other hand, I'm not sure you could rule out a claim of dillution.
No, Best Buy isn't mad eup of Satanists. They appreciate what he's trying to do.
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.
That just gives me yet another reason to not shop at Best Buy. Never mind they annoying and idiotic employees, they appreciate evangelists!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
I believe there is also an exception to a different line of business. It would be quite a stretch to say this religious man is any way trying to claim to work on breaking computers. Just as Apple Records was unable to win out against Apple Computers because Apple Computers was not in the music business, Best Buy is in the overcharging and breaking computers business, and this guy is in the religious business. Unless Best Buy is looking at expanding into religion...God help us all...
APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
IANAL, but AFAIK parody requires the work to be a commentary on the original work. God Squad would have to be about Geek Squad in a substantial way. Also, they would have to use a minimal amount of protected material, and certain other thresholds.
Satire does not require a work to be a commentary on the original work. God Squad could be about anything, and be re-appropriating Geek Squad material for humorous effect. But Satire is not protected in this country in the same way that Parody is.
The ______ Agenda
The lawyers are just being overzealous in this case.
God and Geek are not easily confused.
Squad is generic.
Trademarks must be considered in their entirety. The fact that "squad" is generic is irrelevant, because the entire mark and the entire alleged infringing use must be compared. The "Geek Squad" trademark is most certainly not generic.
Furthermore, the fact that two words are different is not dispositive for confusion. Instead, the question is the likelihood of confusion of the source. Might a consumer think "God Squad" is a subsidiary of "Geek Squad" or otherwise related? Maybe "God Squad" is the team of senior associates while "Geek Squad" is the regular crew, like paramedics vs. EMTs. Or the Geeks are for homes and small businesses, while the Gods are for enterprise IT consulting. If a consumer may think any of those or others, then it's irrelevant that "God" and "Geek" are different - instead, there's a likelihood of confusion of the source.
That said, the priest was almost certainly a non-commercial user, so the Lanham Act wouldn't apply and a Federal court would lack jurisdiction. But there may still be state law claims.
And the story, is inappropriately tagged with copyright when this is a trademark issue.
That's true.
To be infringing a trademark, there has to be a chance that it would be confusing; that someone would confuse the priest's product with best buy's. They have to be in the same line of business.
To be diluting a trademark, the mark is famous, the holder has exclusive use, the counterparty's use has to detract from or devalue the mark, and it can't be a protected use. (For example: a Journalist is allowed to discuss indicate, criticize, or publish 'unwanted' material and refer to the relevant trademarks when doing so. Coca Cola's trademark of the name Coke cannot be used to prevent journalists from discussing a problem or health risk found with Coke, according to someone's study, or prevent people from identifying their product in literature, or even satire/parody.)
Best Buy doesn't have exclusive use of the name "Squad", or of the colors black and Orange with the use of the word Squad. So there's no exclusive use that's being taken away.
Unless Best Buy also plans to send cease and decist letters to Oregon State next, over their Orange and Black "Cheerleading squad"
And others.....
Yeah, but then they become affiliated with a particular religious organization and most businesses do not want to do that.
Yeah! Just like we hope that Santa or the Easter Bunny doesn't notice us.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Sure they are- its just that all the profit goes to the priests instead of to shareholders. Have you seen how fucking rich some of those evangelical preachers are? Or the Vatican for that matter?
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?