Best Buy goes after a priest!

[TheGreatSatan]

I saw this on another forum.

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

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

[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...07:im8qp3.4.18
Reason I think Fr. Strand has a good legal defense: http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/st_...006011001.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