NaturalNews is reporting
Susan G. Komen For the Cure and the Lance Armstrong Foundation’s LIVESTRONG initiative are two of the most widely known nonprofit organizations publicly fighting cancer. But a recent Wall Street Journal article explains that these two groups, and others, are aggressively defending their brand identities from infringement by suing other nonprofit organizations.
According to the report, Susan G. Komen has taken legal action against numerous nonprofits for using the phrase “for a cure” in their names or for using the color pink, two hallmarks of Komen’s brand. And the Lance Armstrong Foundation went after a foundation called “HEADstrong” for bolding the word “strong” and for using a gold color in its logo similar to the yellow used in “LIVESTRONG”.
But many of the groups being charged with infringement say they had no idea that their brands were similar those of these major groups. Others contend that colors and simple, common phrases like “for the cure” cannot be owned by a single nonprofit.
Be warned, if your cause uses the word “strong” and the color yellow you may be in danger of offending or being sued by Lance Armstrong. If you use the word “cure” or the color pink you may be in danger of a lawsuit from the Susan G. Komen Foundation. I wonder if Victoria’s Secret is scared of a lawsuit for the word “pink”- does the Susan G. Komen Foundation think they own the word or just the color?
The article adds, “both Komen and LIVESTRONG allege that donors often get confused by similar branding and end up mistakenly donating to an entirely different charity.” This sounds similar to the excuses used to keep candidates off the ballot – “voters may get confused if they have too many choices!” I could agree with Komen or Armstrong if someone were using the EXACT name of the “charity”, but to claim infringement because the name is “similar” is absurd!