In the Season Three finale of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City,” cast member Heather Gay says that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is suing her over her autobiography, “Bad Mormon.”
That’s not exactly true. The church is not trying to prevent the book from reaching bookstores as scheduled on Feb. 7. It’s not suing over anything between the covers. It’s suing over what’s on the cover: The title.
And it isn’t really about the title; it’s about Gay’s attempt to trademark it.
Why is the Church seeking to protect and own a word that it’s current President has outlawed?
Although church President Russell M. Nelson has counseled against the use of the word “Mormon” to describe Latter-day Saints — calling that “a major victory for Satan” — the church’s foundational scripture remains the Book of Mormon. And the church retains its trademarks on multiple variations of the term “Mormon.”
The church declined to comment on the ongoing dispute, but, according to Mandour & Associates Intellectual Property Law, the church’s lawyers filed an opposition to Gay’s proposed Bad Mormon trademark, arguing it “would create a likelihood of confusion, trademark dilution, falsely suggest a connection to the church, and be otherwise deceptive.”
Trying to trademark the phrase “Bad Mormon” is pretty brazen. I would hope she fails. I’m with the Church on this one. Of course it is hilarious that they want to protect the word Mormon, but if they want to keep her from trademarking the phrase “Bad Mormon,” they have my thanks regardless. This kind of legal “protection” of silly, common words is an abuse of the law.
“The past no longer belongs only to those who once lived it; the past belongs to those who claim it, and are willing to explore it, and to infuse it with meaning for those alive today.”—Margaret Atwood
So she wrote a book, probably a crappy one, and doesn’t want another coming along and making a tshirt that says “Bad Mormon” on it to make a few bucks. She wants any such proceeds because it was her publisher’s idea to call it “Bad Mormon”? I might be with Kish on this.
“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos