Seek lost to trademark infringement

It was a sad day in June when we received a letter from attorneys representing Standard Publishing (Cincinnati, Ohio) telling us that their client “must object to BIC’s use of Seek.” This was the General Church’s second encounter with U.S. trademark law, the first coming early in 2007 when the acronym “EfM” to identify our Equipping for Ministry coursework was challenged by the University of the South as infringing on their trademarked short-hand identifier of the school’s Educating for Ministry program.

That first situation was relatively easy to correct: we simply dropped the acronym for Equipping for Ministry. In the case of the magazine, however, we must select a completely new name for the denominational publication. Even derivatives of the former name (titles such as Seek First or Seeking More) are out of bounds. As the letter from Standard Publishing’s attorneys stated: “We believe there is a strong likelihood of confusion between BIC’s usage and Standard Publishing’s very well-established mark.” The letter also asked for “assurances that BIC will not use Seek or any confusingly similar name in the future.”

So after less than three years of Seek magazine, it’s back to the drawing board for the communications team. As a crucial first step, and one we now realize should have been taken the first time around, we are working with our own attorney as we seek to re-title the magazine. Two possible names are currently moving through the trademark process, and if one or both are cleared by the third-party search firm, our attorney tells us we will be free to use the new title while we pursue registration of the mark. 

Because of the time required to clear the way for a new name, there will not be a fall issue of the denominational magazine. Our newly renamed magazine—assuming all goes as anticipated with the trademark work—will be mailed in early December. The communications staff is using the delay as an opportunity to revisit the purposes of the magazine, to redesign the look of the publication in keeping with a new name, and, with this issue of Momentum to seek feedback from readers. We invite you to take 20 minutes or so to complete the readership survey.

If you are interested in reading more about trademarks and their importance for ministry organizations, we point you to the most recent issue of Focus on Accountability (PDF), the newsletter of the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. As the article on page 3 cautions, “trademarks are not only organizational names, but also include: logos and symbols; program names; acronyms; slogans; and names of publications,” and the rules apply to churches as well as other nonprofit organizations. Trademark laws are similar in Canada and the United States.    

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