Best Buy goes after a priest!

[TheGreatSatan]

I saw this on another forum.


Best Buy Threatens Priest's ''God Squad'' Car

http://media.bestofmicro.com/god-squad-best-buy-geek-squad,2-7-257983-13.jpg

A Catholic priest from Wisconsin has been told that he is in violation of a trademark owned by electronics giant Best Buy, and could face legal action if he does not comply with a cease-and-desist order issued by the retailer's legal department.

According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Father Luke Strand (center) has been driving a black Volkswagon Beetle with 'God Sqaud' stickers on the doors since he was a seminarian. Unfortunately, he may not be driving it in it's current state for very much longer. Fr. Strand has received a letter from Best Buy's lawyers claiming it violates the trademarked logo of their well known 'Geek Sqaud' tech support team.

A friend of Fr. Strand said the vehicle was just a little fun, intended to incite discussion in the community.

"There was never any kind of formal God Squad group or organization. Father Luke and some friends simply decided to design a car that would act as a cool and fun way to bring our faith into the public. It's just a conversation starter," Janasik told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"It's obviously not a Best Buy vehicle. When people see the car in public they usually laugh, and then it leads into lots of great conversations with strangers about faith and God."

A senior Best Buy PR representative confirmed that they had made contact with Strand regarding a trademark infringement and elaborated that sending the cease-and-desist order was a hard decision to come to.
"This was a really difficult thing for us to do because we appreciate what Father Strand is trying to accomplish with his mission. But at the end of the day, it's bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others," Paula Baldwin, senior manager for public relations at Best Buy told the Journal.

[SXRguyinMA]

lmao that's hillarious!

[msmrx57]

It would be funnier if it weren't so assinine on best buys part. Just one more reason not to like em.

[diluzio91]

i think these guys should go after best buy.. lol

http://www.tvshowsondvd.net/graphics/news3/ModSquad_S1V1.jpg

[x88x]

Wow Best Buy, way to make yourselves look even more like giant pricks. I would be willing to bet that this is more about them challenging anything even remotely resembling their trademark, so that some other group can't come at them later and invalidate it because they didn't defend it. ...that being said, I think Fr. Strand would have a good legal case if it were taken to court. The only thing that Best Buy could possibly claim is 'confusion', and I would hate to meet the jury or judge that would agree that somebody might be confused into thinking that either a) this priest is offering technical support services, or b) Best Buy has started offering religious services. Also, it appears to me that he took due diligence to avoid confusion when he inverted the color scheme and used a different color scheme on the car as a whole. However, as much as it bugs me that Best Buy is doing this, I really kinda hope that Fr. Strand doesn't fight it because that would a) give Best Buy the attention they so obviously crave, and b) draw attention away from and cheapen the reason he made the thing in the first place.

...all that being said, I'm guessing that something along these lines will happen:
1) Fr. Strand will decide that Best Buy is being ridiculous and it's not worth fighting for, as he put it, "just a bit of fun", and take the logo off his car. (done)
2) Best Buy will make a huge deal about redesigning an acceptable logo for him to use. (done)
3) Best Buy will make a big deal about giving him the new logo and how wonderful they are for doing him the favor.
4) The novelty will have worn off, and Fr. Strand will politely accept Best Buy's gift and promptly stick it on a shelf in his closet where it will sit for years, gathering dust.



But at the end of the day, it's bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others. We're now working closely with Fr. Strand's organization to modify the God Squad logo so that it still works for him and yet doesn't violate the Geek Squad logo. We're confident that together we'll come up with a good (dare we say heavenly?) solution for everyone.
Emphasis mine.

...damn, Best Buy, full of yourself much?

EDIT:
I forgot to include links:
Geek Squad official trademark registration: http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4007:im8qp3.4.18
Reason I think Fr. Strand has a good legal defense: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_org/iptf/articles/content/2006011001.html
Given the above precedent, at the very least, it would be Best Buy's responsibility to prove the existence and viability of confusion.

[TheGreatSatan]

There's a company down here called "Geeks on Call" that have little red VW's and BB doesn't complain about that.

[dr.walrus]

it would be Best Buy's responsibility to prove the existence and viability of confusion.

Exactly right.

Frankly, though, 'God squad' makes me sick in my mouth a little bit

[FuzzyPlushroom]

Exactly right.

Frankly, though, 'God squad' makes me sick in my mouth a little bit

Agreed, on both counts. Regardless, though, it seems obvious that confusion would be limited, and that the car is intended as parody (and thus possibly protected as fair use, but that's for the courts to possibly decide), especially since Fr. Strand's intent isn't to earn profit.

[TheGreatSatan]

^He'll be fixing computers in no time!

[Mark_Hardware]

Just further proof that worst buy is the devil

[Airbozo]

But at the end of the day, it's bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others," Paula Baldwin, senior manager for public relations at Best Buy told the Journal.

It shouldn't matter that this is a priest. Just because he dresses up in funny clothes and pushes his particular beliefs on others does not exclude him from abiding by public law.

Suppose this was some other person infringing on BB's trademarked logo? What if I were to copy the Geek Squad logo and slap it on my VW painted exactly the same and call my self the "Bozo Squad"? Would it be OK if it were for religious intent? I mean come on, who wouldn't want to loin the peaceful Bozo Movement? This guy is infringing on BB's trademark logo and should be treated like any other person doing the same thing..

[x88x]

It shouldn't matter that this is a priest. Just because he dresses up in funny clothes and pushes his particular beliefs on others does not exclude him from abiding by public law.

Suppose this was some other person infringing on BB's trademarked logo? What if I were to copy the Geek Squad logo and slap it on my VW painted exactly the same and call my self the "Bozo Squad"? Would it be OK if it were for religious intent? I mean come on, who wouldn't want to loin the peaceful Bozo Movement? This guy is infringing on BB's trademark logo and should be treated like any other person doing the same thing..

See my original post. Since it is not a direct copy of BB's trademark, it is what is in copyright circles called a 'parody'. There is no 'parody' stipulation in trademark law as far as I can tell, but there is a 'confusion' clause, that basically says that if one symbol/etc that is being used by a company is sufficiently similar and signifies a sufficiently similar thing (ie, the consumer may be confused into thinking that company A's product is actually company B's product), then it may be infringing the trademark. However, because of the legal precedent I linked in my first post, the full burden of proving the existence and viability of this 'confusion' is on the person defending their trademark. In this case, I do not think that they could do this as the services signified by the modified Geek Squad logo are sufficiently removed from the services offered by Best Buy, that confusion should be impossible. Also, the car isn't actually painted quite the same; Geek Squad Beatles have a white midsection and roof, whereas the Beatle in question is completely black. Also, the colors of the logo are inverted, further removing it from the Geek Squad logo.

So, to answer your 'Bozo Squad' question...maybe. If you were offering technical services it would probably be ruled infringement because of confusion if, however, you were offering something completely different, say, clown services, then Best Buy would probably still try and take you down but I doubt they would win.

[Airbozo]

x88x: I agree with the intent and "confusion" clauses, but agree that BB still has to pursue this for clarification and to bolster any other "infringement" claims by showing no preference to "religious" organizations.

The only reason this case has gotten so much press is due to the fact the guy is a priest. If this was "Bozo Squad", the blurb in the paper would be buried next to the classified section.

[mDust]

This is a waste of time and tax dollars. You and I are paying a judge to listen to this crap as well as for other court services. I personally don't care what company is involved or whether the defendant is a religious figure. As x88x said, there is little chance of any confusion. So what is the problem? A large company with a team of employees who's sole purpose is to scrutinize what everyone else is doing to make sure it doesn't look even remotely similar to what their company is doing...that is the problem. Surprisingly, the priest is not the zealot in this case.:think:
This still isn't as bad as the FBI vs Wikipedia...

Every one and every organization need to stop suing at the drop of a pin.