Army cracks down on Web site name

[OneBlueSky]

By Greg Bruno
Times Herald-Record
[e-mail]
Saturday, May 6, 2006

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/05/06/news-gbwebsite-05-06.html

West Point - Delis are OK. Car washes and dry cleaners, too. There's even a "West Point" real estate agency for the patriotic home buyer looking to relocate.

But creators of an anti-Iraq war Web site have learned the hard way: Army trademark czars don't like politics.

A trio of 1962 U.S. Military Academy graduates have been told to stop using the words "West Point" on a Web site that harshly criticizes the Bush administration's justification to go to war.

The warning was first made in an April 12 letter from a lawyer, days after the site, www.westpointgradsagainstthewar.org, became active.

- more . . .

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2006/05/06/news-gbwebsite-05-06.html

[Syrinx]

1. Can the government really own a trademark?

I've never heard of that before.

[DRoseDARs]

2. Doesn't sound like the Army has much basis for a case...

Too many diverse businesses in the area use the name, nevermind a simple Google search providing numerous other instances of "West Point" throughout the country.

Google:
Results 1 - 10 of about 8,420,000 for "West Point" -academy -military (0.43 seconds)

[Syrinx]

5. not to mention of at least one whole town

West Point, Mississippi. The Feds better shut it down, I guess. :shrug:

[Up2Late]

10. Georgia has a town called West Point also.

Just north of Columbus.
There was also the "Atlanta & West Point Rail Road"

<http://railga.com/atlwp.html>

[Solo_in_MD]

6. Yes they can, and some of them are zealously enforced

California has very strict laws and rules concerning UC.

[DaveJ]

7. uh..... I think that's different....

If another college prefixes their name with UC that means they are trying to imitate the real UC and thus a 'trademark' violation has occurred. Nobody can take a phrase and say that it can't be used by anyone else under any context, as far as I know.

[Solo_in_MD]

9. There have been enforcement actions taken

Against websites and commercial entities, including alternative publications in CA. Its not just schools

[DaveJ]

3. There is no justification for this.

They are trying to take the right of ex-military to express their opinion. The trademark justification is ridiculous. The URL name simply indicates who they are.

Anyone good enough to graduate from WP realizes that the Iraq war is an imperialist invasion and nothing else.

Edit: I'm no lawyer but it's my understanding that trademarks are meant to identify products. Unless the lawyers intend to argue that this website is a competing military school I don't see how they would have a case.

[Marr]

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[OneBlueSky]

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