2 min read

Three hour cruise.

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale A tale of a fateful trip

Around 2001, I took the tiny ship "Open Grove" and rode to the Trademark office.  We weren't a non-profit then, so I paid a lawyer nine hundred dollars to research the Open Grove.  Nine hundred dollars.  And he came up with nothing.  Nothing was even close to the Open Grove. (There's a wiccan group in Wisconsin that uses the name but who cares? Right?)

Not thinking anything of it, I filed with the Trademark office and promptly went on with my business.

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About a month later, I received a letter stating that my application was behind five other applications for the same mark.  They would let me know when or if my application came up for review.

Being me, I thought, "that's weird".  Colorado Lawyer's for the Arts provided me with a trademark lawyer, as we were now a non-profit corporation, who said, "That's weird.  I'll call  you when I know something."

I went on about my business.  I never thought a single thing about it.  Not one thought until...

The weather started getting rough, The tiny ship was tossed,

Almost five years later, I received a telephone call from our trademark attorney saying that the trademark office deleted four applications and denied ours.

"WHAT?"

"The review believes it's too close to another application."

"What application?"

"It was filed three minutes before your application was filed."

"WHAT?"

And for the last year, we've been fighting with the other group (in another country no less) to share the United States Trademark. SHARE!  That's all.  We want to share it. You know, like children do in kindergarten.

They would allow us to share it as long as we don't do any of the things we have done - write newsletters, create audio content, book reviews, and on and on.  Word for word, they crossed out every single thing we've done.

Why? Because they could.

What could we do? I wanted to drowned myself in the nearest toilet.  Instead we stopped creating content and waited.

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If not for the courage of the fearless crew The Open Grove would be lost...the Open Grove would be lost.

I heard today that we are going to resolve this issue.  Our fearless lawyer had been going toe to toe with this other group in another country's lawyer.

What does it mean?  I don't know.

Maybe we can finally get off the Trademark island.  Wish me luck.

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