I was talking to my dad and he made an excellent point. Bureau of Land Management has for years used the initials BLM; however, their initials are being hijacked currently. Isn't this a trademark infringement? I'd assume the BLM movement website would also need to stop selling anything using the initials BLM correct? Is this something the government could request for the infringement to stop? On a completely other thought, wouldn't anyone going around representing as BLM be impersonating a federal officer? That's a crime right?
Bureau of Land Management website: https://www.blm.gov/
Their website also makes it clear that the BLM does not support political activities:
The BLM Seal and Logo are for the official use of the BLM and not for the use of the private sector on its materials. To the public, such use would send a message that the BLM favors or endorses an organization, its activities, its products, its services, and/or its personnel (either overtly or tacitly) which it does not and cannot do.
Whether the private sector grantee/vendor/contractor is non-profit or commercial is not a factor. >>>> https://www.blm.gov/info/notices/logo
I have a little knowledge of this since I’ve recently looked into trademarks for myself for my music and name as a musician. Trademarks are given for specific purposes. There is no general trademark, you would generally get one out of 45 classifications of goods or services- clothing/apparel, entertainment, wine and spirits, insurance/financial, advertising/business, (40 more). I’m not sure what the Bureau of Land Management has a trademark under. I didn’t see one that I thought would specifically overlap with Bureau of Land Management and Black Lives Matter. However, Bureau of Land Management is federal, and I don’t know what the ramifications are with that. I don’t know if there are any special protections for that reason. As I looked for my own purposes, I found that registering a trademark is relatively inexpensive for any large corporation or group, and big businesses like Wal-Mart, Nike, Honda, etc. would likely buy a trademark under all of the categories to avoid someone -say- buying the trademark for Wal-Mart as an artist’s name so the could release albums under the name ‘Wal-Mart’ and use the company’s popularity to piggyback. Trademarks also prevent minor changes to things that are already trademarked for that same purpose- you can’t trademark your artist name as Taylor Swiff and try to lead people to your music. You can’t trademark your apparrel ‘Adida’. Hope that helps. Here’s a link to the categories. Scroll down a few pages for the 45. https://www.mandourlaw.com/trademark-classes/
Interesting thanks for the post. I just remember with the WWF they had to change to WWE from a court injunction cause of the world wildlife foundation were in existence first.
Does the BLM assert trademark rights in three letters of the alphabet?
Not sure. I know that with other companies if you use anything of theirs you get sued. So by them selling merchandise that says BLM isn’t that an infringement? You could argue now that when you hear BLM you think of something else other than Bureau of Land Management. If you saw signs that say these lands are BLM managed lands, would you associate it with Bureau of Land Management or Black Lives Matter? To me that’s a problem.