What is it about presidential campaigns that brings out some of the worst examples of trademark bullying?



Two years ago, we shot down bogus a trademark demand by the Ready for Hillary pre-campaign PAC, which tried to suppress Liberty Maniac's “Ready for Oligarchy” parody. (Readers of this blog may remember Liberty Maniacs (and its owner, Dan McCall) for having drawn threats from the NSA for calling it “The only part of the government that actually listens.”) Last year, it was a demand from Ben Carson’s campaign trying to take the Carson name off both critical and complimentary campaign wear. In 2012, Ron Paul’s campaign committee contended that its trademark was infringed by a YouTube video that satirized its efforts. And in 2008, we had to seek a declaratory judgment against the Republica n National Committee to get it to back off an effort to use trademark to prevent people from using the elephant logo to describe the Republican Party as an object of affection or derision. Each time, the lawyers representing candidates or political committees made stupid legal threats based on a misunderstanding of trademark law (or using pretended trademark law claims as an excuse), and each time, the public response to the demands taught them about the consequences of making such demands.



Now it is the turn of Bernie Sanders' campaign to learn that lesson. Yesterday a Seattle lawyer claiming to represent "Bernie 2016, Inc." sent a demand letter to Daniel McCall of Liberty Maniacs, contending that the following parody image, which plays on Sanders' personal background as an avowedly Socialist candidate by referring to him as a "comrade" and linking him to Communist leaders from the 19th and 20th centuries, might confuse users into believing that the Sanders campaign is voluntarily associating its candidate with the communist party.



Invoking the campaign’s trademark and copyright in the Bernie 2016 logo, a lawyer named Claire Hawkins has demanded that McCall stop purveying this image.