ProtectMarriage.com has sued gay group
the Courage Campaign for copyright infringement of their logo.
The Courage Campaign says its logo for
the website prop8trialtracker.com
is a parody of ProtectMarriage.com's original logo. The original
logo shows a stick figure heterosexual couple with two children. The
redesigned logo substitutes a lesbian couple and alters the text.
But ProtectMarriage.com, the primary
sponsor of Proposition 8, the gay marriage ban approved by California
voters in 2008, was not amused by the clever redesign. In a January
12 cease and desist letter, ProtectMarriage.com demanded the group
stop use of the redesigned logo. A formal lawsuit that accuses the
Courage Campaign of trademark infringement and unfair competition was
filed on January 19 after the group ignored the original demand
letter.
The Courage Campaign is using the
parody logo on a website that follows the historic federal trial of
Proposition 8 now in its second week in a San Francisco courtroom.
On Wednesday, Judge Lawrence K. Karlton
denied ProtectMarriage.com's motion for a temporary restraining order
prior to a full ruling.
Karlton disagreed with plaintiffs, who said use of the logo was likely to “result in confusion, mistake,
or deception to visitors of their respective sites as to the source
of origin of its services,” saying “the use is not explicitly
misleading.”
“In this case, the logo itself is
artistic,” Karlton said in his ruling. “Moreover, the broader
website, while perhaps not artistic, is undeniably expressive of a
political idea, and both political and artistic expression are
protected by the First Amendment.”
“Defendant's use of the mark has
relevance to the expressive message, namely, support for homosexual
marriages, and specifically, opposition to recent California efforts
to limit the right to such marriages. This support is expressed by
the modification of the 'father' figure in the original mark to
depict a second 'mother'.”
A January 20 blog entry at the Courage
Campaign website called the lawsuit “entertaining.”
“We continue to be entertained by the
Prop 8 attorneys simultaneously admitting that the two images of gay
parents and straight parents are 'substantially indistinguishable',
and yet failing to grasp that the difference between the logos
illuminates the core difference between their views and ours.”