Poppies

Scanning the net this morning I came across Colby’s piece on the Royal Canadian Legion’s absurd intellectual property claim agains Pierre Borque for putting up the poppy on his site.

the poppy is a trademark of the Legion and anyone who wants to use it has to apply. Otherwise it would be all over the place. There are numeorus [sic] examples where it has been used for sales and other purposes. As it is not in the public domain and because it is a registered trademark of the Legion the organization is taking every step it can to protect it (and I do mean every step). All this can be avoided in the future if you ask to use it on your site and you get the proper approval. Sorry, I know your heart and many others are in the right place. Unfortunately we have to protect this image or lose its use as a symbol of Remembrance.
bourque via colby

Colby says he’ll never wear the poppy again. I contented myself with this letter to the midgets at the Legion….

Gentlemen,

My grandfather Fredric Brown was a WWI flying ace, MC and bar. My father, George B. Currie was the youngest commissioned officer in the Royal Canadian Navy in WWII.

I wear my poppy to remember their service and the service and sacrifice of the millions of Canadians who were their comrades in arms.

I was about to put a poppy up at my websites.

I will not be in light of the Legion’s absurd position as to its “mark”.

Understand something: it is not your mark. It is the symbol, one of the few remaining symbols, of the people of Canada’s willingness to fight and die for our nation.

I am trying to raise my young boys with a sense of the honour which our military has given Canada in past wars and at present. I want them to wear their poppies with pride. Part of teaching them are the extraordinary resources of the net. Your sad position means that one important symbol is lost to an internet generation which needs those symbols desperately.

In peace, as in war, there are always little men whose obsession with yesterday’s detail means today’s battle is all the harder to fight. In war, the Canadians at Vimy showed the world what valour combined with vision might achieve. Your actions are the precise opposite of both valour and vision.

You should be ashamed of yourselves.

Yours,

Jay Currie

Written by jay on November 9th, 2005 with 7 comments.
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7 comments

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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Dr.Dawg
#1. November 9th, 2005, at 8:12 AM.

Stand up, Jay, and post a picture of the poppy. They can’t put us all in jail.

http://drdawgsblawg.blogspot.com/2005/11/poppycock-royal-canadian-legion-has.html

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Alan
#2. November 12th, 2005, at 9:10 PM.

Do I recall correctly, Jay, that you are of the gown and wig like me? You might, then, have a look at the CIPO trademark data base for trademarks and ask where this actual trademark can be found. When I looked I could only find the Legion’s crest on a poppy background and not the plain poppy pin:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/0861/trdp086103200e.html

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jay
#3. November 13th, 2005, at 9:12 AM.

Isn’t that interesting…While my gown and wig are long since hung up, Alan’s instinct is dead right. A scan through the associated marks reveals no trade mark in the poppy.

Which suggests a) the legion is talking through its hat, b) that it may very well be impossible to gain a mark for the poppy itself simply because it is not distinct enough.

Hmmm.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Bob Tarantino
#4. November 14th, 2005, at 9:56 AM.

There’s a bunch.

See here:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/0554/trdp055410800e.html

and here:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/1094/trdp109499700e.html

and here:

http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/0980/trdp098028900e.html

Take those plus “confusingly similar” and you’re done.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jay
#5. November 14th, 2005, at 10:09 AM.

Of course Bob is a practicing intellectual property/entertainment lawyer so his search trumps (and is far more accurate) than mine.

Right, so the Legion does have a mark.

Which, as Bob points out at his blog, is something which must be protected or potentially lost.

However, it does not change the point that the legion would be better advised to promote the use of its mark by way of an effectively open licencefor non commercial use for persons or organizations from say, Nov 1 to Nov 15.

It is also interesting that the Legion gets its mark by way of an Act of Parliament which means that, in principle, that act could be amended to include such a licence.

Thank you for that Bob….If I ever have a trademark I’ll be in touch. Rolling those 50,000 pennies for your retainer shall commence forthwith.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Bob Tarantino
#6. November 14th, 2005, at 8:31 PM.

It is also interesting that the Legion gets its mark by way of an Act of Parliament

I found that interesting as well. What I find even more interesting is that I can’t seem to find the text of this Act anywhere (An Act Respecting the Royal Canadian Legion). If you can turn it up, please let me know.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Alan
#7. November 15th, 2005, at 1:39 AM.

Hi Bob,

There was a 1948 private statute. Too far back for
Quiklaw and only referenced by its citation on the Federal statutes site:

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/privlaw/207676/7312.html

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