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Members of Congress or U.S Supreme Court: AMEND U.S. LANHAM  ACT IN REGARD TO FAITH-BASED TRADEMARKS

Members of Congress or U.S Supreme Court: AMEND U.S. LANHAM ACT IN REGARD TO FAITH-BASED TRADEMARKS

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This petition has been created by Giselle A. and may not represent the views of the Avaaz community.
Giselle A.
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Members of Congress or U.S Supreme Court
United States Congress protects proprietary names against unauthorized use through the Federal Trademark Lanham Act of 1946, or the “Trademark law.”

The question arises, however: How does this apply when U.S. private corporations that are faith-based institutions and incorporated churches trademark the name of a religion, or faith based terminology?

This question becomes even more significant when we note that this is fast becoming a GLOBAL religious liberty issue. U.S. private corporations are currently using U.S domestic civil courts in an attempt to protect their trademarks against infringement that has occurred even beyond the borders of the United States. This is due to the broad jurisdictional language in the Lanham Act on extraterritorial issues, as the Lanham Act applies to “all commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress.”

What this means is that religious corporations can regulate religion by law, if they want to, and restrict freedom of speech in daily Internet communication. One of them, the General Conference Corporation of Seventh day Adventists, is even attempting to enjoin offshore website hosting companies and domain name registrars, using U.S domestic courts, for simply hosting blog, sites, forums, social media platforms, and chats that allows the general public to be educated about religious facts, philosophies or beliefs in a peaceful manner.
https://archive.org/…/NewSDAMotionofCompleteCivilAnnhilation

Hopefully, dear reader, you will realize the wide latitude of authority provided to religious corporations today by this broad application of the trademark law, and the dangerous level of power this gives them over individual lives and beliefs.

Today, the Seventh day Adventist Church has received Trademark on its name from the United States Government that has allow it to control “religious observances, missionary services and publications” of other, unaffiliated minority churches and individuals.

If the SDA G.C Corporation is attempting now to restrict the freedom of expression and conscience of Creation Seventh Day Adventists and daily online communications of others, what would stop other religious corporations from following the same example, considering the potential for extraterritorial applications of the U.S Trademark law?

As the Michigan Supreme Court rightly pointed out, it is a universal proposition that as a religion grows, differences of opinion over doctrine and practice will develop and new religions will form from those differences keeping the name of their religion. [ Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias v. Improved Order Knights of Pythias, 71 N.W. 470, 471 (Mich. 1897)] Therefore, Trademark law should not be used to regulate religion; only commerce.

With Trademark law, as it is now, U.S courts are demanding minorities and people to kill their own convictions to worship a particular type of religious institution, that is, to submit blindly to its authority with threat of civil punishment (high fines, confiscation, seizure, and permanent incarceration). See this
https://archive.org/…/NewSDAMotionofCompleteCivilAnnhilation

Therefore, new provisions must be included in the U.S Federal Trademark Law of 1946 in regard to faith-based trademarks to avoid religious corporations having jurisdiction over religious publications, missionary services, religious observances and individual conscience at a local and global scale.

Did you know, U.S Courts already have established that the religion of Creation Seventh day Adventists is illegal in the U.S? Today, they are prohibited to act and express themselves based on all their religious convictions, including the name of their faith.

Therefore, we, as people of many faiths and beliefs petition U.S Congress or the U.S Supreme Court to rectify the language of U.S Trademark law in regard to faith-based trademarks to stop establishing religion in courts of law, and respect the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights.

Section 37 of U.S Trademark Act empowers a federal court as follows: 'In any action involving a registered mark the court may determine the right to registration, order the cancellation of registrations, in whole or in part, restore cancelled registrations, and otherwise rectify the register with respect to the registrations of any party to the action."



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