Are they just sabre-rattling here, trying to scare people with a lie? From lds.org:

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” “Liahona,” “Book of Mormon,” and “Mormon” are trademarks of Intellectual Reserve, Inc.


I thought that this claim over the word "Mormon" was settled in court and found to be generic, and that the Mormons could not sue people over its use. Anyone know? I know that they recently took a dating website to court over its use, but since the website was run by TBMs, I think they just adjusted the name in deference to the church.

Then the signs on the chapels should have the ™ symbol.

It IS a corporation, after all.

Nor the Mormon culture, dietary restrictions, or Mormon leadership, prophets and such?

I'll keep doing it until I hear I'm being dragged to court by one of their lawyers.

I suppose that means that you can't make a profit off of the word, "Mormon." Only the LDS church can make a profit off of the word, "Mormon."

But you can't copyright a historical person! So was Mormon real or not? If yes,then they can't copyright him. If not, then, well...

...they tried to copyright the word/term "Mormon", but case was dismissed............probably being ridiculed by US patent attorneys as being "wildly frivolous; without any merit whatsoever. A ridiculous and hopeless request, at best."


http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78161091&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

ConcernedCitizen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> ...they tried to copyright the word/term "Mormon",
> but case was dismissed............probably being
> ridiculed by US patent attorneys as being "wildly
> frivolous; without any merit whatsoever. A
> ridiculous and hopeless request, at best."
>
>
> http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78161091&caseTyp
> e=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

Actually, to be correct, LDS Corp. attempted to trademark the word Mormon in 2003, not copyright it. Trademarks are handled through the Trademark Operation of the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Trademarks protect symbols, words, designs or phrases. Copyrights are handled through the United States Copyright Office and is a department of the Library of Congress. Copyrights protect authorship.

The Mormon cult sought to trademark the word "Mormon" in September 2002. The trademark was was turned down in March 2003 because "The examining attorney refuses registration on the Principal Register because the proposed mark is merely descriptive of the identified services." Mormon has a dictionary definition and the Trademark Office didn't buy IR's argument that the cult owned rights to the word Mormon.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78161091&docId=OOA20030318152617#docIndex=27&page=1

The cult appealed and did not abandon the trademark registration until 2007.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78161091&docId=NOA20070823100119#docIndex=0&page=1



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2014 11:30AM by No Mo.

If the Church acknowledged that the original 1830 edition named JS being "author and proprieter", and used that edition in it's filing, which would the Church have been granted, a copyright or trademark status??????

They tried a while back and failed, at least in the US.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=78161091&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

Ridiculous to try to trademark mormon, when the LDS are not the only group that refer to themselves as mormons. It would be like one branch of Baptists, or Lutherans trying to trademark those and say other branches of those churches couldn't use the terms.

I think that was the whole reason behind it. They didn't want the FLDS and the 100 other splinter groups calling themselves mormons.

Agreed-- FLDS and other splinter groups using the word 'mormon' was part of the reason for the trademark attempt, but I think the overall reason was much larger than that.

If the LDS cult was able to successfully trademark the word 'mormon', then theoretically they could go after any group using the word-- including "exmormon.org" and other exmormon sites, and/or virtually any site critical of the church. I think their primary purpose of the trademark was to stifle information.

cludgie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Are they just sabre-rattling here, trying to scare
> people with a lie? From lds.org:
>
> “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
> Saints,” “Liahona,” “Book of Mormon,”
> and “Mormon” are trademarks of Intellectual
> Reserve, Inc.
>

That is a flat out lie. The IR applied to have the Mormon trademarked in 2002, was denied in 2003, and abandoned the claim in 2007.

The page that you to which you refer, https://www.lds.org/legal/terms

was revised in 2012. The bastards know that they are lying.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/documentviewer?caseId=sn78161091&docId=NOA20070823100119#docIndex=0&page=1

I would think that the church could no longer trademark or copyright the Book of Mormon any more than you could for any historical literary work. Don't books fall into the public domain after a certain period of time?

Surely you can't trademark or copyright the name of a butterfly ?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papilio_mayo

Tom in Paris

Wow. Blue Mormons. I want so much to see that. And I want to see Marie Osmond as a blue avatar.

Damnit I was going to name my dog Liahona. Remind me what is a Liahona again? sounds hawaiian

If your dog is a Pointer, it'd be a great name!

". . . a brass ball that operated as a type of compass with two spindles. One of the spindles was said to point the direction Lehi and his party should travel after their escape from Jerusalem." (wikipedia)

rofl

That's perfect thnk you

If the church were to claim that the book of mormon is fiction, then they could protect the name as their intellectual property, the way that Disney protects the use of its characters. If the book of mormon is a true and historical account however, then its no one's literary work and therefore cannot be protected. It's ironic isn't it? The church's own lies about the authenticity of the BOM prevent them from owning it. Someone should start a brand of mormon cigarettes, mormon condoms, mormon beer, etc...