"U.S. Civil Air Patrol" too big?

[RiverAux]

There is a fairly active CG Aux board at military.com (its slowed down a bit lately) and it rarely has any uniform topics.  Every now and again something will come up, primarily when the uniform changes, but it is far, far, far less a topic of concern in the Aux -- primarily because I think most are actually happy with the uniforms and there are only a few options for uniforms in the first place. 

[Mustang]

Uh, except for the part of the name tapes that say "Civil Air Patrol" on it...CAP still has all the rights to it, just none to "U.S."

The Civil Air Patrol, does not, and cannot own the rights to common terms such as "civil", "air", and "patrol".

Bob, you're simply wrong. (Yet again.) That's like saying IBM cannot hold its trademark because "international", "business" and "machines" are common everyday terms.  Moreover, in CAP's case, the organization is granted exclusive use rights by federal law when those terms are strung together into the phrase "Civil Air Patrol".  Do your homework before posting authoritatively, please.

[RogueLeader]

I do believe that is why he separated the words, quoted them and notice that none were capitalized.  He did not say that CAP doesn't own the Rights to "Civil Air Patrol"  He just said to that CAP does not own  air, civil, and/or patrol,

[SARMedTech]

Uh, except for the part of the name tapes that say "Civil Air Patrol" on it...CAP still has all the rights to it, just none to "U.S."

The Civil Air Patrol, does not, and cannot own the rights to common terms such as "civil", "air", and "patrol".

Bob, you're simply wrong. (Yet again.) That's like saying IBM cannot hold its trademark because "international", "business" and "machines" are common everyday terms.  Moreover, in CAP's case, the organization is granted exclusive use rights by federal law when those terms are strung together into the phrase "Civil Air Patrol".  Do your homework before posting authoritatively, please.

Actually, sir, youre wrong. If you had paid attention and done YOUR homework, you would have seen that the poster in question was saying that the words themselves cannot be trademarked and trademark use and/or infringement only applies when the words are strung together to form the name Civil Air Patrol. You, sir, are the one that missed the point of the post. The poster was saying that the individual words cannot be held under copyright or trademark law. Common useage words like civil, air and patrol cannot be trademarked. Only when they are put together to indicate a certain organization or product can the COMBINATION of the words IN THAT ORDER be trademarked. Now, if CAP decided to call itself FLARPNERF it could trademark that word since it is not common useage and prevent other from using it under penalty of law.  Semper Vi!

[PhotogPilot]

I do believe that is why he separated the words, quoted them and notice that none were capitalized.  He did not say that CAP doesn't own the Rights to "Civil Air Patrol"  He just said to that CAP does not own  air, civil, and/or patrol,

And no one is trying to sell blue tapes with "Air Civil Patrol" Embroidered on them. When you string those three words together in a particular permutation; "Civil Air Patrol", then you have brand name issues. To argue that the CAP does not own the rights to the words "Civil" "Air" and "Patrol" is a pointless statement of the painfully obvious, and meaningless to this discussion.

(edited to correct spelling)

[ddelaney103]

Ok, reality check here.

Can you legally sell tapes that say "US Civil Air Patrol?" Probably, especially if it's a request from a place that will sew anything on blue tapes for you.

Can they advertise the service? Hard to say - a much grayer area than above.

What I do know is CAP _can_ send forth its flying monkeys corporate legal council at the behest of Vanguard (as probably required by their contract) to cover the perceived offenders with "cease and desist" letters.

I also know that companies often decide to back down not because they're in the wrong, but because being proved right is an expensive and by no means certain proposition.

And that's, as Tony Beretta used to say, the name of that tune...

[RiverAux]

So adding a couple of letters totally invalidates the law?  Hmm, how about I open up a restaurant called "US McDonalds"....

[PhotogPilot]

And that's, as Tony Beretta used to say, the name of that tune...

Or more appropriately. "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime"

[mikeylikey]

So adding a couple of letters totally invalidates the law?  Hmm, how about I open up a restaurant called "US McDonalds"....

You can!

[mdickinson]

The poster was saying that the individual words cannot be held under copyright or trademark law. Common useage words like civil, air and patrol cannot be trademarked.

I used to think that too - then I had a look at the packaging on my Space^(R) blanket... and found that the word "space" is a registered trademark!

see http://tinyurl.com/y62hcz

[Hawk200]

So adding a couple of letters totally invalidates the law?  Hmm, how about I open up a restaurant called "US McDonalds"....

Reminds me of a story of a guy that opened a restaurant named "McDonalds". He didn't use golden arches or anything, and it was a rather fancy dining establishment. McDonald's sued him. After less than thirty minutes of deliberation, the judge decided against the McDonald's corporation (the one that sells hamburgers).

Why? The mans name was "McDonald".

[ColonelJack]

Reminds me of a story of a guy that opened a restaurant named "McDonalds". He didn't use golden arches or anything, and it was a rather fancy dining establishment. McDonald's sued him. After less than thirty minutes of deliberation, the judge decided against the McDonald's corporation (the one that sells hamburgers).
Why? The mans name was "McDonald".

Now this goes off on a tangent, but I hope you will accomodate me ... a while back, the McDonald's restaurants in the UK (specifically Scotland) thought it would be a neat promotion to put their employees in tartan.  But, with typical American corporate mentality, they went and got the first tartan they could find cheaply, which I believe was a knockoff of the Lindsey clan.  In Scotland, tartan is taken very seriously, so Lord Geoffrey MacDonald, head of the MacDonald clan, wrote a polite letter to the burger chain's corporate headquarters advising them of their faux pas and asking them to correct it.

Lord MacDonald was ignored.

So he wrote another, less polite letter ... same response.

After two or three more of those, Lord MacDonald consulted his attorneys, then sent a final letter to the McDonald's corporation.  He advised them that, under UK law, the name MacDonald was his personal property (all clan members, etc., use the name with his permission), and if the chain wanted to continue calling its restaurants in the UK by that name, they will listen to what he has to say and fix the tartan problem now.

McDonald's also consulted with their lawyers.  And within a week -- and at great expense -- Scottish restaurants were outfitted in MacDonald tartan for the rest of the promotion.

This story may be apocraphyl or I may have some details wrong ... but it's basically the way I heard it.  And if it isn't true ... it ought to be.

We now return you to your original thread.

Jack

[jimmydeanno]

This reminds me of the movie Coming to America

"They're McDonald's, we're McDowell's"

"They have the Golden Arches, we have the Golden Arcs"

"They have the Big Mac, we have the Big Mic"

[SARMedTech]

I prefer a Royale with cheese and I will only patronize McDonalds fast food joints in Canada because you can get bottled beer to go with your food. Talk about a happy meal.  Ok...off track...

Since we are speaking of name tapes...would I be within regs if I put an aquamarine tape on my pack(s) with my last name on it and also on the assault pack that I use for BLS supplies could I stitch on a red cross (actually a green cross is the international symbol for first aide) or a tape that says "medical" or a star of life patch on the assault pack? I cant remember who it was that told me they carried the CFP-90 pack but it works out perfectly for how i want to carry my gear...but with its price tag, I would like to have my name firmly on it somewhere. Not that anyone in CAP would steal someone else's gear.