Is Your Angel Registered? Apply Here

[DeSwiss]

Unbeknowst to me, and I'm pretty damn sure everybody else, angels can be trademarked. Up til now, I had been of the opinion that one couldn't claim individual ownership of a deity, nor any of its holdings, subsidiaries and/or agents. It usually being recognized that god's belong to everyone that believes in s/he. (I'm sure I saw it in the fineprint of the Ten Commandments). Apparently I was wrong.

The Mormon Church says that they own Angel Moroni's® image and if you use their Angel Moroni's® image without their permission they'll sue you on behalf of Angel Moroni®. And they're not waiting to sue you in heavenly court. Nope. They'll do it right here on earth. Right now. You see, they don't want anyone spreading the good news about Angel Maroni® but them. God's angel or no, they have exclusive rights and they've got the papers to prove it.

Obviously, signed by God.

Mormon Church Objects to Angel T-Shirt

TAYLORSVILLE, Utah (AP) -- For a coffee shop, t-shirts of an Mormon angel with java flowing into his trumpet are selling well. But they don't have the blessing of religious leaders. The shirts have upset the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Not only is Moroni a revered figure - Mormons believe he appeared to church founder Joseph Smith - but LDS members are discouraged from drinking coffee.

The shirts show the angel Moroni, a male figure in a robe blowing a trumpet. The trumpet is turned up at an angle as coffee is poured in. "They've been the best-selling T-shirts we've ever done," said Just Add Coffee co-owner Ed Beazer.

The church informed Beazer that the angel's image is a registered trademark.

"If they provide proof, we're going to comply," Beazer said. "We don't want to break any laws or anything."

Just Add Coffee put the image on greeting cards about a year ago and started selling the shirts before Christmas. Moroni also appeared in ads that caught the church's attention.

Church spokesman Scott Trotter said the image is a trademark.

"It was a spoof," Beazer said. "It was meant to be fun."

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MORMON_COFFEE_SHIRT?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-03-24-00-11-43

*** - "It was a spoof," Beazer said. "It was meant to be fun." See, this was his first mistake. In religion, you have to be careful when you spoof. Its hard to tell sometimes where the spoof ends and the truth begins. And vice versa....
O8)

[Withywindle]

1. Moroni?

That's your problem right there. Clearly the angel's real name is Morani.

Get a brain!

[DeSwiss]

2. I stand corrected....

...once again.

DeSwiss -----------> :dunce:

[moggie]

3. Like this?

[kiahzero]

4. I'm not positive, but I think the LDS claim is invalid.

Then again, we just started trademarks in my IP class (coming down from weeks on copyright), so I could be mistaken. However, there's not going to be any customer confusion or anything along those lines, so it would appear at first glance that the coffee shop's use is non-infringing.

Just another religious group abusing IP law to prevent criticism. See also, Scientology.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Here's a question: could an image of an identifiable statue be an infringement of copyright?

eg would it be possible for the LDS to claim the copyright on photographs of a statue they own?

[DeSwiss]

7. Well, here's what I found....

From Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel_Moroni#Angel
According to the Book of Mormon, Moroni was the last Nephite prophet and military commander who lived in North America in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Latter-day Saint theology can be interpreted to mean that after his death Moroni was resurrected and became an angel. In addition to the Book of Mormon account, Joseph Smith and the Three Witnesses also testified they saw Moroni in the form of an angel of light.

As regards the use by others outside the LDS of depictions of a purported angel shown blowing a horn, I fail to see how they could prove that any such depiction is in fact Moroni without some proof that a likeness conforms to other depictions. Since there are none, one could conceivably have such a depiction on a t-shirt and say the figure is my interpretation of my Aunt Mabel.

And in fact, I haven't found any registered trademark of Angel Moroni. I pulled up the The Department of Commerce's United States Patent and Trademark Office listings for trademarks registered by the LDS and got 14 hits. Those trademarks registrations were exclusive to the use of their name and various media products they use in the form of audio cassettes, educational materials, their choir, or were related to their social service activities. There was nothing about Moroni, nor any other angels.

A couple of interesting things that I did find was under government policies and regulations which states that one does not have to register a trademark for ownership to be claimed under "common law." Assuming of course that a particular state even recognizes common law, the LDS might have a case under those circumstances, but then they'd still have to prove its Moroni.

Trademark policy and law: http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm#laws

The other interesting thing was that the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs has created its own depiction of Angel Moroni for use on the grave stones of fallen soldiers. And this particular depiction is said to be "in the public domain" since it was created by a US government agency. So one must assume that if one were to use this depiction of Moroni, the LDS would be hard-pressed to claim exclusivity.

US Veteran Affairs LDS

[EvolveOrConvolve]

6. The Mormons sue the shit out of anyone who doesn't believe as they do

LDS, Inc.'s umbrella of companies includes an Intellectual Property company that does nothing but manage the church's lawsuits.