Christian company trademarked the phrase "worship leader", now sending cease and desist letters

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

Christian company ignites ‘insane’ battle after trademarking ‘worship leader’

A Christian company called Authentic Media registered the phrase "Worship Leader" as a trademark with the U.S. government in 2016 — and is now sending cease and desist letters to anyone using that phrase, despite it being a common job title used by churches and people of faith, reported Relevant on Friday.

------------- In June 2022, Authentic Media posted a detailed explanation of why they are beginning to protect their trademark."

“Owning and managing our trademark is part of stewarding the mission that God has laid on our business, and we take that very seriously,” they wrote. “Most recently, with the passing of our founder and the new partnership that we formed, we’ve been a bit behind, but we’re now getting caught up and plan to continue to defend our trademark, as we have for decades.” The company added that for anyone else who wants to use the name, “God has so much creativity that you can lean in on your own gifting and come up with your own name.”

One recipient of the litigation, according to Church Leaders, is Scot Leonard, a worship director who goes by "Rogue Worship Leader" on social media, suddenly found his Facebook page suspended for "trademark infringement."

“The company Worship Leader is essentially reporting me for violating trademark laws because I have the term, ‘worship leader,’ in my name,” Leonard said on Instagram. “How crazy is that? This is a common term. This is a job title. It’s a term that has been used by churches, thousands of churches all over the world.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/christian-company-ignites-insane-battle-after-trademarking-worship-leader/ar-AA18LZnd

[Tetrachloride]

1. I can imagine a whole lot of websites, youtube accounts etc

with worship leader or misspellings thereof.

troll the twit.

[calimary]

5. YES. TROLL the twits.

How ‘bout WE decide what they’re called. If they’re gonna try to take out trademarks, then maybe WE should come up with our own branding, do WE determine how they’re described and what they’re called.

Just a thought. I find myself spending time nowadays trying to think up ways to frustrate the branding and the labeling they come up with. How can we take their verbal weapons and manipulations and fuck with ‘em?

[TheBlackAdder]

10. I'm trademarking 'Prayer Leader,' then suing everyone who uses it for $$$. God would want that.

[LonePirate]

2. While I would normally enjoy religious entities arguing in court, this is copyright abuse.

The government needs to stop issuing copyrights for commonly used words that are clearly not highly specific slogans. These copyright infringement claims are pedantic and serve no purpose but to annoy people or to send the copyright owner on some ego trip.

[Hekate]

16. They are not pedantic-- they are abusive. OTT, I agree

[Solly Mack]

3. I need to trademark "Prayer Warrior(s)" right fucking now then.

[sprinkleeninow]

4. warship lederhosen

[Easterncedar]

8. Snort!

[Earth-shine]

6. Does God care about such legalities? No, only petty, little, money-grubbing men.

I am an atheist, but sometimes I hear God loud and clear.

[Bucky]

7. It's like they're trying to copyright Christianity itself.

What would Jesus do?

And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers' money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.

—?John 2:15–16

[FBaggins]

9. Poor reporting

It isn’t true that they’re sending cease and desist letters to anyone using the phrase. Relevant’s own reporting shows that it was a single social media account that then blew up to a whopping six other accounts (by Facebook… not at the company’s request).

They haven’t been sending letters to the tens of thousands of organizations that use the term.

This isn’t all that uncommon. You can create a magazine called “Musician” and copywrite the word. That doesn’t keep everyone from using the word (or hiring people with that job title), but it could mean keeping others from creating public sites or accounts that could be confused with the magazine.

It’sa but like the “genericized “ issue with trademarks. Like Vaseline or Velcro

[trusty elf]

11. ...

[Kid Berwyn]

12. The guy that passes the plate got a title?

Seems his is the one that worship corporations are all about.

[TheBlackAdder]

13. That's like Sir Richard Branston trademarking Virgin and then going after small shops to change name

.

He sent a bevy of cease and desist letters to businesses and websites that had Virgin in their name, and most of them could not afford the legal challenge to defend their prior usage, so most changed their names.

.

[Ilsa]

14. Change to "Leader of Worship" or "Worship Director" or

Or Worship Dictator, or Secretary General of Worship. So many options.

[Midnight Writer]

15. Note to self: Copyright "Messiah" and "Savior" and sue all the churches that use those words.