[Lnc-business] protecting party assets

[Alicia Mattson]

Oliver Hall's attention is requested for this email:

LP Bylaws, Article 5.1, "No person, group or organization may use the name
"Libertarian Party" or any confusingly similar designation except the Party
or an organization to which the Party grants affiliate party status or as
otherwise provided in these bylaws."

This provides a very narrow scope for use of our party name.  Yet one only
has to search on Facebook for the name "Libertarian Party", and you will
find many groups that are not the national party, and are not an affiliate
of the national party, but they use our party name to increase their
profile in search results, build their own following, and use the group for
their own purposes.

One such example can be found here:  (fair warning - this page contains
varying degrees of nudity)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/233590827023815/

We also have a trademark on the name "Libertarian Party".  My understanding
of intellectual property law is that we need to actively defend our right
to the name or else over time we diminish our ability to successfully
defend it.

Our bylaws don't mention the logo, but am I correct to presume that we have
also staked out a legal claim to our past and present logos?

I also see other groups (not our affiliates) using our logo in their memes,
incorporated into their own logos, etc.

Some of these could potentially be rectified by merely asking the groups to
cease using our name and/or logo.  Others might need to receive
cease-and-desist letters from our attorney.

I'd like to discuss this at our upcoming LNC meeting.  Perhaps it makes
sense to just make it part of the Special Counsel agenda item, since we'll
likely want to chat with Mr. Hall about it.

-Alicia
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