RNC threatens Roy Barnes over use of elephant logo, and the letters ‘G,’ ‘O,’ and ‘P’
The Republican National Committee has threatened to take Democratic nominee Roy Barnes to court over the use of its elephant logo on his “Republicans for Roy” web site, as well as the letters G-O-P.
Who knew GOP was a registered trademark? Sounds like the legalese you hear before baseball games: “No accounts” of the game allowed without permission. Which, if strictly enforced, would really hamper water-cooler talk.
Read the Sept. 30 letter here. In part:
Mr. Barnes clearly lacks a belief in private property rights, as his unauthorized use of the RNC’s intellectual property demonstrates. The Barnes campaign’s use of the RNC’s Official Elephant Logo and “GOP” trademark thus appear to be clearly designed to mislead the public into thinking that Mr. Barnes is someone he is not and that he has the support of the Republican Party, which he assuredly does not have…
The RNC hereby demands that the Roy Barnes campaign immediately cease and desist from utilizing “GOP” and the Official Elephant Logo or we will be forced to pursue the matter in a court of law….
The letter is signed John R. Phillippe Jr., chief counsel for the RNC.
But no doubt the RNC will need local counsel as well. We have in mind a certain Marietta law firm with a GOP-documented reputation for suing the heck out of rich businesses — and winning.
Update at 3:15 p.m.: Both sides are looking to stoke this issue. Said Rachel Bauer Taylor, spokeswoman for the RNC:
“Roy Barnes is no Republican. In fact, he’s running as a Democrat against the bona fide Republican, Nathan Deal. During his former reign as a liberal Governor of Georgia, he left Georgia with a $640 Million shortfall at the time he was fired and also the largest overall job loss in the state for that period since the Bureau of Labor and Statistics first started tracking back in 1939. Roy Barnes was wrong for Georgia back then and he’s certainly wrong for Georgia now – no matter how hard he tries to cloak himself in our logo.”
And the retort from Emil Runge of the Barnes campaign:
“Congressman Deal asked his Washington friends to protect him after he saw how many Republicans were flocking to Roy Barnes. Georgia’s Republicans know that unlike Congressman Deal – who voted for the largest tax increase in state history – Roy is the true fiscal conservative in the race for governor.”
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217 comments Add your comment
babybecks
September 30th, 2010
1:14 pm
Anyone who votes for Steal and his band of crooks is an idiot
Imma Community Organizer
September 30th, 2010
1:15 pm
Many have already shown they were dumb, Obama got elected.
Dirty Dawg
September 30th, 2010
1:16 pm
G-O-P: Greed – Obstruction – Prejudice
And the worst part is that they’re proud of it.
td
September 30th, 2010
1:16 pm
Barnes speaking to President Obama: “Mr President, I am trying my best to fool these voters in Georgia that I am a conservative and if you endorse me then I will lose by double digits. So please, please do not come to Georgia or mention Georgia before Nov 2nd”.
Old Timey
September 30th, 2010
1:19 pm
Wait a minute. Isn’t this the same bunch that came up with the phrase- “A Roy named Sue.” Shoes on the other foot now.
girl
September 30th, 2010
1:19 pm
Look at the the Republican’s out wit their own brand of special Jesus hate today. Jesus sounds like such a lovely hateful man.
Road Scholar
September 30th, 2010
1:19 pm
BIG GEORGE: Who are you going to vote for in the runoff? One hint- Mounds won’t be on the ballot!
Does anyone proof-read their post before sending? Lately, numerous posts have had misspellings,bad grammer, poor punctuation, etc. (content questionable also) Or is the result of our wonderful school system?
Joe Biden
September 30th, 2010
1:20 pm
Hey! Don’t forget me!! heeheehee….You know I’m the dumbest in the room! Ya never know what’s gonna pop out of this ol’ piehole!!
Hey! Did ya know I’m second in line for the Presidency?!?!
joe
September 30th, 2010
1:20 pm
Both Barnes and Deal succ. I’m voting Libertarian.
Monds for Gov
September 30th, 2010
1:20 pm
Libertarian John Monds is an excellent alternative to these two azz-clowns!
Martin Thompson
September 30th, 2010
1:22 pm
Go Roy Go.
Do they prefer GO(B)P??
John
September 30th, 2010
1:22 pm
I thought the GOP was against lawsuits and trial lawyers…oh wait, that’s only for medical malpractice cases. You know, where someone may have been seriously injured for life or have lost their life due to negligence.
ZELL4PRES
September 30th, 2010
1:23 pm
After the last few days writing on these pages, I’ve come to the conclusion that none of you really have any clue about you are spewing. Its all just hate, slander, and false allegations. Nobody talks about the issues…just vile.
jason
September 30th, 2010
1:25 pm
http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4007:bo2b8i.6.25
clipper
September 30th, 2010
1:25 pm
Excuse me Keith, but Nathan is up 8 points on king roi, and will get the majority of the undecided and libertarian votes, since libertarian is only wishful thinking.
Marlboro Man
September 30th, 2010
1:26 pm
Bring it on, so who is the ambulance chaser now ?
Tracy
September 30th, 2010
1:28 pm
Can we sue Deal yet to get our tax dollars back he stole ?
Ernest T
September 30th, 2010
1:29 pm
Big shout out to my sweet Rowena. I love you so! And a big Happy Birthday to Fred Flintstone. At 50, He’s wore out the soles of his feet from years of applying the brakes on his car.
FtheRNC
September 30th, 2010
1:29 pm
“Barnes is a thief, and will steal whatever needed to win back power.”
Clearly Faux News has brain washed you if you think that Barnes is the crook and not Deal…have you been living under a rock????
SteveR
September 30th, 2010
1:29 pm
Lynn summed it up for me. The silent majority in the middle who would like common sense in politics instead of one extreme or the other. So where are the candidates? What if a qualified write-in candidate would present themselves? Can you imagine if we voted an independent, highly qualified candidate into office over the lesser of evils we have now?
Barnes’ campaign has made so many missteps last time and now in this one, it’s become comical. Instead of using the “official” logo which they should have known better (again comical), they should use a big elephant with it’s foot on Deal, holding him down.
Lacy
September 30th, 2010
1:30 pm
Can we sue Roy yet to get our tax dollars back he stole?
schmitty
September 30th, 2010
1:32 pm
Keith – That is a registered trademark. Apparantly Keith is proving to us that democrats don’t care about the law and property rights.
lala
September 30th, 2010
1:32 pm
Does anyone even care that Deal was under investigation for Congressional ethics violations?
FtheRNC
September 30th, 2010
1:32 pm
Also, all you repukelicans who want the RNC to sue, who the hell do you think is going to pay for it??? Surely not the RNC…this will come out of our pockets, which is exactly what you guys are frothing at the mouth for in the current state of affairs.
Marcos
September 30th, 2010
1:33 pm
So that’s all they got? Of course their candidate is a Congressional quitter who fled in the dark of night to avoid an investigation, profited from gouging the tax payers, and has such convoluted finances that it would take an army of accountants to cull through… so yeah, I guess this is the best they’ve got on Barnes.
Houston Oil Man
September 30th, 2010
1:34 pm
After being here in Georgia for a week all I have to say is God Bless Texas.
Vince
September 30th, 2010
1:36 pm
Let’s see–a guy who couldn’t hold on to the job in the first place, or yet another corrupt politician? If only there were a third choice…oh wait, there is. John Monds, the Libertarian candidate! Tea Party does not equal crazy conservative Republican. If you truly understood what the Tea Party represents, you’d vote Libertarian. But most people aren’t that smart or can’t be bothered.
Robopop
September 30th, 2010
1:39 pm
It is extremely sad that the race for governor has come down to a choice of the lesser of two evils. I would say it’s going from bad to worse but, in this case the bad is horrible. Another problem with bad to worse is that it’s hard to decide which is which. This lawsuit is simply an attempt to produce as much negative publicity as possible for Mr. Barnes – the same thing his campaign is doing to Deal. It’s awful when mudslinging causes you to vote for the candidate you hate the least. The candidate that gets my vote is the one that doesn’t stoop to mudslinging. Oh wait, there isn’t one.
GaBlue
September 30th, 2010
1:40 pm
“Does anyone even care that Deal was under investigation for Congressional ethics violations?”
Apparently that’s not important. You see, if he has an (R) by his name, then he’s “good and honest and upstanding and has our kind of values.” But more imporantly, he’s not one of “those people.” The benefit of the letter-by-the-name system is that folks don’t have to turn off “Dancing with the Stars” or other important pursuits to inform themselves on the candidates or the issues. Just pick a letter and stick with it. No objective analysis or critical thinking required.
C. Tampa Ironworse
September 30th, 2010
1:40 pm
Go John Monds!!!!!
Best for Georgia
September 30th, 2010
1:43 pm
I did not even know about the “Republicans for Roy” website. Thanks, GOP, for bringing it to my attention.
Scott
September 30th, 2010
1:48 pm
Of course you can’t use the logo any junior staffer probably could have told you that
Sunburnonmyneck
September 30th, 2010
1:49 pm
So Roy wants voters to think he is supported by both wings of the government party. Lie, cheat, steal and whatever else it takes. Vote Libertarian.
lawladyk
September 30th, 2010
1:51 pm
The author clearly has no grasp of trademark law. Of course GOP and the elephant are registered trademarks. Democrats have their own as well. Trademark law and the law of unfair competition protect the PUBLIC (not the Republican National Committee) from being confused- in this case- as to whether or not the GOP endorses or sponsors Roy Barnes. In this case it does not, but the use of the GOP’s trademarks makes it appear as though he has such an endorsement or sponsorship. This case is a slam dunk- and a flagrant misuse of trademarks. If the GOP DIDN’T send such a letter, they could also later be accused of failure to police their marks, and their rights could diminish.
The Barnes camp should know better. Nothing stops them from saying that “members of the GOP” endorse him, etc. This is a fair use. They also appear to be guilty (as does the author of this article) of preying on the general public’s ignorance of the law governing this subject- and ignorance of the law’s purpose- in order to make members of the GOP look bad. Shame on you.
Kennesaw Republican
September 30th, 2010
1:53 pm
Why can’t they concentrate on Checking out the BAD “DEAL” they have? petty petty petty!!!
red hill
September 30th, 2010
1:54 pm
Yeah, they shouldn’t be suing King Roy for using the logo. They should be suing him for false advertising. Anyone who votes for this scumbag is not a Republican. A vote for King Roy is a vote for Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Rangel and all the other Democrat rats.
Smart like a Fox
September 30th, 2010
1:55 pm
Ga republicans do not think for them selfs, they follow blindly behind big money crooks who call them selfs christens while the hide behind the bible. The republicans could turn Georgia into a giant Jones town massacre if they wanted to….drink up dummys
GEORGIAONMYMIND
September 30th, 2010
1:58 pm
OUR CHOICES FOR GOVERNOR ARE: DUMB AND DUMBER
Imma Community Organizer
September 30th, 2010
1:59 pm
Smart like a Fox
September 30th, 2010
1:55 pm
“Ga republicans do not think for them selfs, they follow blindly behind big money crooks who call them selfs christens while the hide behind the bible. The republicans could turn Georgia into a giant Jones town massacre if they wanted to….drink up dummys…”
Let me guess, educated in Government schools, huh?
BRW
September 30th, 2010
1:59 pm
GOP = Greed Over Principle
GEORGIAONMYMIND
September 30th, 2010
1:59 pm
Smart like a Fox. where did you learn (or not learn) to spell?
Almedin
September 30th, 2010
2:03 pm
Good, I hope the Republican’ts do sue the Democraps.
Almedin
September 30th, 2010
2:04 pm
Republicant’s.
Almedin
September 30th, 2010
2:05 pm
BRW, you have got to be joking. The Republicans are the only greedy ones? What principle have the Democraps have with them? Nothing. They proved that time and time again, Pelosi, Obama, Sex on the Congress floor with another man Barney Frank. They are all garbage and greed.
Wit Protection
September 30th, 2010
2:06 pm
If “D, one grade above an F” is funny, what does “R” stand for? Rated R – Not for General Audience – Contains violence, inappropriate situations, and bad hair. Or “R”, for the Rich and Religious ?
Karen Handel Supporter
September 30th, 2010
2:06 pm
Well barnes got this Gop vote for Nov 2. I am a Karen Handel supporter
yellow dog
September 30th, 2010
2:09 pm
Hey Pillsbury – forget “capital vs capitol” You wrote “you’re job” (you are job!) Should be “your job”, now who’s stupid? “Just saying”
Best for Georgia
September 30th, 2010
2:09 pm
When even Karen Handel dismissed Deal as a “corrupt relic,” it should come as no surprise that some Republicans would want someone like Roy who is (a) fiscally conservative and (b) competent.
Almedin
September 30th, 2010
2:10 pm
Karen Handel, you must not be a real GOP supporter if you are voting Barnes. Seriously, after all the garbage the Democraps have done, you are actually voting for that? Why not a third party?
ga2010
September 30th, 2010
2:10 pm
I guess some forget that Deal was a “liberal democrat lawyer” before he became stealing republican….if he wins everyone will find out the “real deal”