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Everyone is Sue Happy this year including the GOP

According to Common Dreams NewsCenter “CafePress made several attempts to reach out to the RNC’s counsel to raise some of these issues and to determine whether the RNC has any legitimate concerns that can be accommodated while respecting the free speech rights of CafePress users. Time after time, the RNC refused to talk and its only response to CafePress’ efforts was to reiterate its demands and threaten treble damages. It appeared that this dispute was headed for the courts.”

Can the RNC forbid the use of an elephant or “GOP” to identify Republicans?

According to Consumer Law and Policy Blog

“Although these references have been in popular use since the 1870’s, and owe more to Thomas Nast than to the Republicans themselves, back in the 1997 and 1995, respectively, the RNC trademarked the initials “GOP” and a stylized elephant showing three stars across its body. Relying on these trademarks, the RNC has been trying to suppress the use of the initials or an elephant to refer to Republicans generally, such as in the images that appear above and on the left.”

Furthermore: According to Ben Smith’s Politco

“Don’t mess with their elephant.

Or at least, don’t infringe on what the Republican National Committee refers to as the “Official Elephant Logo (Federal Trademark Registration 1908397).” The phrase appears in a letter demanding that a Web-based T-shirt company “cease and desist” from putting a version of the iconic Republican symbol on shirts and other merchandise.

The demands from the RNC to the California-based CafePress.com put the committee at the intersection of political speech and trademark law, legal experts said. The company is refusing to comply with the letter, despite a second letter from the committee referring to “further action” and possible damages.

“If you want to say ‘GOP’ and design an elephant that’s similar, want to design an elephant that’s not precisely the same as ours, that’s fine,” RNC chief counsel Sean Cairncross told Politico. “Our elephant is specific. It’s stylized, it’s blue and red, it has three stars across its back that are tilted. They’re using that precise elephant.”

Well this will be interesting to say the least as many of the money making shops at Cafepress are political shops- This will certainly put a crunch in their style- And quite probably remove them from the GOP voting choice.

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