Independence, USA - A breakaway faction of the denomination formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has been ordered to stop using the RLDS name and seals.
The RLDS, based in Independence, changed its name in 2001 to the Community of Christ but continues to own the rights to the old name.
After learning that the Devon Park Restoration Branch was using its name and seals on its signs and literature, the Community of Christ filed a trademark infringement suit against the group late last year.
Devon Park responded by admitting that it used the name and seals but insisted that the Community of Christ had abandoned the RLDS name.
“In fact,” it said in its answer, “the COC Church has now accepted the new COC name and identity as the word of God and canonized it by placing it in the Doctrine and Covenants as a divine decree.”
U.S. District Judge Gary Fenner didn’t buy that argument and, in a ruling last week, granted the Community of Christ a preliminary injunction. Fenner concluded that the Community of Christ was likely to prevail on the merits and had, among other things, established a likelihood of confusion.
“Defendants are not using merely similar marks,” he wrote. “They are displaying plaintiffs’ exact marks in their sanctuary and on their sign, Web site, and other materials…
“By placing their sign in Independence, Missouri, defendants have used plaintiffs’ marks geographically near plaintiffs’ world headquarters and various congregations of plaintiffs in and around the Independence area.”
Nor did Fenner buy Devon Park’s argument that the RLDS marks in question — “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints” and “Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints Peace” — were merely descriptive and thus not entitled to trademark protection.
“Plaintiffs have used these marks to distinguish their services as a denomination of Christianity for at least the last 40 years such that there are approximately 250,000 Community of Christ members in 50 nations that would instantly identify plaintiffs as the source of services offered under them,” Fenner wrote.
Fenner gave Devon Park 10 days from the date of his April 23 order to change its sign, Web site and any other items using the Community of Christ’s marks and to cancel any advertisements containing the infringing marks.
An attorney for Devon Park did not return a call seeking comment.
Devon Park broke off from the Community of Christ over doctrinal differences, including the latter’s ordination of women as priests. In its answer, Devon Park claimed that the Community of Christ “no longer adheres to the original theological or religious doctrine established by Joseph Smith Jr. in 1830, and perpetuated in the Reorganized Church by his son Joseph Smith III.”
The suit marks the second time the Community of Christ has sued a breakaway group for trademark infringement. Last year it got an injunction — also issued by Fenner — against the South Restoration Church in Raymore.
Union counsel
Rick Holtsclaw of Holtsclaw & Kendall has been appointed legal counsel for the United Transportation Union, which represents 125,000 active and retired railroad, bus and mass transit workers.
Holtsclaw and his firm are one of several dozen designated counsel for the union throughout the United States and Canada. The union’s designated attorneys represent union members, typically in cases involving work-related accidents.
Before starting his own firm a decade ago, Holtsclaw worked for Hubbell Peak O’Neal Napier & Leach — the only other designated counsel for the union in the Kansas City area.