No "Big Love" for use of a Mormon Trademark
In a recent article by the Associated Press, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints sent a cease and desist letter to Just Add Coffee, a Utah coffee shop, for using the image of a robed an
gel holding a trumpet up at an angle as coffee is poured into it. The Utah coffee shop used the image in ads and to sell t-shirts and greeting cards. The church claims that the image of the angel Moroni is a registered trademark.
What’s even more interesting is the lengths to which the church has gone to protect its intellectual property rights. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has set up a non-profit corporation, the Intellectual Reserve, Inc., which owns most of the church’s intellectual property. Most notably, in 1999, the Intellectual Reserve filed suit against Utah Lighthouse Ministries, Inc. seeking a preliminary injunction for copyright infringement. The Intellectual Reserve claimed that the defendants were infringing their copyrights held in a Church Handbook of Instructions by posting it on a website. The court granted the preliminary injunction.
Sidebar comment: While writing this article I couldn’t help but to think back to the great South Park episode “All About Mormons”. If you haven’t seen it, you can check out a summary of the episode here.