In 2012, Oakland, California, resident Samantha Matalone Cook and some friends started a group for their kids called Hacker Scouts. The adults taught children who were between eight and 12 years old how to build circuit boards, make DIY ice cream, laser cut picture frames, among other things, and the kids could earn badges by completing projects. The group became popular and within a year, according to the Los Angeles Times, parents across the country were inquiring about how to start their own local chapters.

But the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is not happy with the new scouting group. On Monday, Cook wrote on the Hacker Scouts blog that for the past several months, her association has been trying to compromise with the BSA, which sent the Hacker Scouts a Cease and Desist letter claiming that the BSA has an exclusive right to the term “scout.”

"Through various letters, we have tried to quietly come to a compromise, but the BSA position is clear: change our name or they will take us to court,” wrote Cook.

Since 1919, the Boy Scouts of America has held a congressional charter that protects the organization's “exclusive right to use emblems, badges, descriptive or designating marks, and words or phrases the corporation adopts.” This, the charter says, is in order to “promote, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues, using the methods that were in common use by boy scouts on June 15, 1916.” (Yes, Girl Scouts have a similar congressional charter).

Cook, in her blog post, wrote that Hacker Scouts was not modeled after the Boy Scouts and has never claimed any affiliation with the BSA. “We believe the charter itself may be unconstitutional," she wrote, "and that 'scouts' is a world-wide connotation for a youth organization that existed before [the BSA] and will exist long after them.” On the Hacker Scouts' Facebook page, some parents said that their children were members of both scouting groups and were surprised that the BSA would make the use of the term "scout" an issue.

Boy Scouts public relations director Deron Smith told the Los Angeles Times that his organization "has a responsibility" to its members to maintain "trademarks, symbols, words, and phrases" that create "a sense of belonging."

"As any organization would do, from time to time, it's necessary for the BSA to take steps to protect its intellectual property and brand," he told the Times. "The BSA plans to continue corresponding with this organization in hopes of reaching an amicable resolution."

Cook has said that the Hacker Scouts board will make a decision on how to move forward in the near future “based on advice from our lawyers and our own sense of duty.”