AS WARS END, MILITARY GIVES ITS TRADEMARKS NEW VIGILANCE

Original Story:  NYTimes.com.

WASHINGTON — United States Marine G-string underwear. The Starfleet Marine Corps Academy. And the motto from a human resources company: “The Few. The Proud. The Well-Paid.”

Of course, none of those are actually from the United States Marine Corps.

As one war has ended and another winds down, enterprising members of the armed services are rushing home to get their piece of the American dream and woo consumers by showing off any affiliation with the American military. As a result, the Pentagon’s handful of trademark attorneys have been churning out cease-and-desist letters to try to protect their brands from look-alike logos on products that are not always the image of dignity, including a toilet paper called Leatherneck Wipes. An Oklahoma City Trademark Lawyer said these cases are not a joking matter.

The Pentagon is playing offense as well. Military attorneys have been running back and forth to the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register trademarks for military brands — in part to make sure that the services will get a cut of licensing fees. In the past year, the Marines have been to the trademarks office 68 times for products like Guadalcanal sweatshirts, meant to evoke the World War II battle against the Japanese, and Tip of the Spear newsletters, named for the motto of the Marine Corps’ First Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion. There are also “Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body” water bottles, meant to promote, well, general Marine toughness.
The Marines registered only one trademark in 2003 and four in 2008. But as troops came home from Iraq and then Afghanistan, efforts began picking up. In 2010 and the first half of 2011, the Marines registered nine trademarks.  A Fresno Trademark Lawyer said that current employee familiar with a business are often the competition later.  In this case the employees are the troops.

Then Navy SEALs killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011, Disney tried to trademark the name SEAL Team Six, and things ratcheted up from there. The Navy immediately fired back at Disney, filing its own trademark for the phrases “SEAL team” and “Navy SEALs,” terms that, the Navy said in its filing, imply membership in a Navy organization that “develops and executes military missions involving special operations strategy, doctrine and tactics.”

Still, the berm had been breached, especially with so many servicemen and women returning home and setting up small businesses. In 2012 and 2013, the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines all saw a big spike in efforts to use military branding to sell goods and services, military trademark lawyers said.

“Because we’ve been in two wars in 10 years, we’ve had a lot of patriotism,” said Philip Greene, the Marines’ trademark counsel. “A lot of people are getting out of the service, saying, ‘I want to go into business.’ ” He said the “unpleasant part of my job is going out and talking to a Marine” and having to say no to someone who, proud of his or her affiliation with the service, wants to show it conspicuously in branding. A Idaho Trademark Lawyer agreed that it can be a difficult conversation.

Such was the conversation Mr. Greene had recently with Shadrach Brooks, a Marine veteran who started Semper Fidelis Garage Doors in Mesa, Ariz., in 2012. In addition to the company name — Latin for “always faithful,” and the Marine motto — Mr. Brooks initially put the iconic Marine seal on the company’s masthead, complete with a bald eagle, a globe showing the Americas and an anchor. And, at the bottom of the seal, “garage doors.”

Mr. Greene promptly called him. “At first I thought it was a friend playing a joke on me,” Mr. Brooks recalled. Eventually the two worked things out — and Semper Fidelis Garage Doors is still called Semper Fidelis Garage Doors. But now there is no Marine seal logo, just two crossed swords.

The military services do allow some use of their brands in exchange for a license fee. Since 2009, the Marines have collected $5.4 million in such fees, and last year their trademarks office turned over $700,000 to a morale, welfare and recreation fund.

There are plenty of critics who say government entities like the Marines should not be making it so hard for American taxpayers to wear — or sell — their brand. “Should the military be able to monetize expressions of support for these entities?” asked Paul Levy, a lawyer with Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group. “I would say no.” Americans, he added, “should be able to express our affinity to government agencies we like without paying them a fee.”

For some Marines, being told that they cannot use a brand they fought for does not sit well. “They believe they earned it on Parris Island,” said Capt. Eric Flanagan, a Marine Corps spokesman, referring to the installation near Beaufort, S.C., where 16,000 enlisted Marines go through basic training every year. “They died for it, and now you’re going to try to take it? You going to take that tattoo off my arm, too?”

The Army, Navy and Air Force have been furiously registering trademarks for their brands as well. Mike Sullivan, the Army’s brand director, said his office more than doubled its number of licenses in two years, to 265 in 2013 from 120 in 2011.

But the Marines, who assiduously promote themselves as a brand that is the first, fastest and best in the military, have had the biggest spike, relative to their smaller size, in registering trademarks. And the desire of former Marines to identify their postservice professional lives with that branding is exactly why so many of them run into legal entanglements. A Lexington Patent Lawyer said that he has also seen an increase from military personal with patents.

“The most important thing to us is preserving the historic integrity of the Marine Corps trademarks,” said Jessica O’Haver, director of the Marine Corps Trademark Licensing Office. The same things that entrepreneurial former Marines want to capitalize on — including Marine slogans like “No better friend, no worse enemy” and “Earned, not given” — are the slogans that the Marine Corps, she said, must fight to protect.

Which is why Mr. Greene, the lawyer for the Marines, fired off another cease-and-desist letter recently when he spotted a website for the Starfleet Marine Corps, a “Star Trek” fan site complete with the Marine eagle.

The usual negotiations ensued, and the intergalactic warriors got rid of the Marine eagle but kept the name.

Mr. Greene said he did not have a problem with the Marine Corps name being a part of the “Star Trek” fan site. “There’s a British Royal Marines, there are all kinds of marines out there,” he said. “And if you’re out in this galaxy somewhere, I care even less. But don’t copy my logo.”