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trademarks and such
This has all been very interesting and helpful to me in knowing how Greek members feel about the subject of trademarks and licensing. I regret if anyone felt threatened - it was absolutely not my intention.
The original note was simply to educate regarding the ownership rights of our various fraternity and sorority clients. As a Greek member myself (Sigma Chi), I have been working hard to protect Greek trademark rights for the last 10 years. We continue to see pornography companies using Greek marks on their websites and in their films. Also, we have encountered products that have no place carrying Greek marks as they truly don't reflect the lofty values that the insignia represents. Our systems of trademark control allow us to stop these uses when we become aware of the - protecting the image of Greek organizations which helps us all! We are hired by more than 40 national Greek orgnizations to help them protect the marks so we all can rest assured that our Greek organizations will be around - and known for the values that define us - for many, many years to come.
As to what constitutes fair use and what does not. Any commercial use of the marks is not considered fair use. Commissioning someone to make a t-shirt or banner, for example, would require licensing approval. I know it may seem unrealistic to require this level of approval, but as an earlier poster remarked, all trademark owners must control the use of their marks to keep exclusive ownership of the marks. Allowing unmonitored use over time can constitute "abandonment" - and I am sure we all want to prevent this from occuring to our respective Greek organization.
Thank you for letting me clarify a bit. Again, I apologize if anyone felt that the original message was a threat. We are simply trying to do help protect our clients marks - and we try to educate as much as we can, wherever we can.
If you have any questions - feel free to send them to me in a pm.
Interfraternally,
Dan Shaver
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