One of the reasons many national orgs are taking "ownership" of badges is to protect the orgs marks. Many are now registering the badge as a trademark of the organization, protecting it from copy or reproduction by unauthorized sources. If organizations don't take steps to protect their marks, they may lose right to them all together.
I heard a story about a national fraternity--we'll call it XYZ--that discovered there were groups of men somewhere in Asia that had gone to their website, downloaded their materials, and were calling themselves XYZ. They even had copies of the badge made. From a liability standpoint alone, I think we'd all agree this isn't good.
I know there is an NPC sorority that has members sign a statement agreeing that their badge is property of the national org. If I think of it, I'll throw it out there. I've done some research on this since I just wrote a convention resolution on ownership of the badge.
Love the curling iron commentary....
