THE ARTEMIS PROJECT
PRIVATE ENTERPRISE ON THE MOON
Legal and Political Issues
Section 3.5.
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Logo and Trademark Violation

We hear lots of stories about logo and trademark violation -- most ofthem exaggerated -- concerning absurd decisions by judges and juries; andsome unscrupulous lawyers make enormous amounts of money preying on peopleby telling those stories. These cases are the exception, not the rule.It's not surprising that out of millions of cases argued in court everyyear we have notoriously stupid decisions.

If a dispute over a logo went to a trial, the "reasonable person"criterion would prevail. That is, would a reasonable person say that thisrepresentation of the logo was sufficiently similar to the plaintiff's thata customer might confuse the defendant's product with the plaintiff's? Ifso, a violation has taken place, which any reasonable person wouldagree.

In the case of the Artemis Society, for instance, no matter whatgraphics were used, if you received a solicitation with an organizationcalling itself the Artemis Society, and it wasn't the one we know registeredas a non-profit corporation in Alabama, there would be a violation afoot.Similarly, if anyone plastered the words "Moonbase Artemis" across the faceof the moon, any reasonable judge would conclude this was a trademarkinfringement. We can't lay exclusive claim the name of the goddess, but wecan carve out our territory for the areas we're working in. As long asthere's no confusion in the consumer's mind, nobody loses anything sothere's no problem.

A broader example would be calling anything "Coca-Cola" thatisn't owned by the Coca-Cola company. No matter what your logotype lookedlike, a jury would award your hide to the folks that work so hard topublicize their logo. Of course, Coca-Cola has the resources to sue youinto oblivion even if you win the case.

Sabin Entertainment, which owns the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, is inthe same situation. They said they out-spend trademark violators 10 to 1,which keeps counterfeit Power Rangers merchandise off the market. That'swhy there's a huge chunk of money in the budget estimates for the ArtemisProject for lawyers.

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Legal and Political Issues

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