The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) holds and
actively enforces trademark registrations for "Mormon" and related terms
through its entity, Intellectual Reserve, Inc.. While the
Church has pivoted to using its full name, it asserts trademark rights
to prevent confusion, recently targeting critics like the "Mormon
Stories" podcast, and opposing marks like "Bad Mormon" and "Mormons for
the Devils"
Intro from the author: "The
suit accuses podcaster John Dehlin of intentionally deceiving members
of the church for his own benefit.
- The costs of defending himself
against the lawsuit are sure to place enormous pressure on Dehlin and
the Open Stories Foundation, the nonprofit he started to support the
podcast.
- The filing marks a shift in how the church has dealt with its
critics, attempting to both discredit him and substantially alter how he
defines and promotes his platform.
The suit could also have unintended impacts on the church—a Streisand
effect that creates more awareness of and conversation about a man it
has excommunicated and whose claims it has advised its members to
ignore.
- Already, the drama is helping popularize the podcast:
- The response to the lawsuit
Dehlin posted to his YouTube channel garnered 135,000 views in a week,
several times the typical number of views for his most recent videos.
On April 17, the church filed a lawsuit against the makers of Mormon Stories,
a popular ex-Mormon podcast, alleging that they had used church
trademarks and copyright materials with the intention of confusing
individuals and causing them to “access Defendants’ content mistakenly
believing it comes from or is affiliated with or endorsed by the
Church.” Some of the contested imagery is highly specific, including the
Christus rendering and copyright photographs; some of it is much
broader, like “blue” and “all colors and orientations of the Light-Rays
Design mark.” The lawsuit also contests the podcast’s use of the word Mormon itself, which the LDS church has trademarked in reference to specific groups and products, like the Book of Mormon, the Mormon Channel, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
