Protect Marriage Sues Courage Campaign Over Logo Parody

Do you notice anything similar between the two logos above? The bottom one was the official logo of ProtectMarriage.com, the proponents of Proposition 8, the state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in California, who are now the defendant-intervenors in the Perry v Schwarzenegger federal lawsuit going on before a 9th Circuit District Court Judge in San Francisco. The top one is the logo of Prop8TrialTracker.com, which has become one of the
most heavily trafficked LGBT weblogs in the last week, since it is an excellent source for real-time information on the landmark trial on the unconstitutionality of Proposition 8.

Last week, ProtectMarriage.com's lawyers sent Courage Campaign (the people who are responsible for creating the Prop8TrialTracker.com website) a cease and desist letter complaining about the use of their copyrighted trademark in the logo of the new website. Courage Campaign replied with a letter that said, in very nice lawyerly language: go f*** yourself.

Yesterday, the heterosexual supremacists responded by filing suit(pdf) in federal court against Courage Campaign. What is amusing about the logo lawsuit is that ProtectMarriage.com is arguing in one federal court that the image of a same-sex couple and an opposite-sex couple are "substantial indistingushable" when depicted graphically, but in their defense of Proposition 8 in another federal court, they are claiming that same-sex marriage and opposite-sex marriage are two completely different and very distinguishable entities (and one of these is much better than the other--guess which one?)

Makes you go, hmmmm, right?

Here's a press release from Courage Campaign about their latest legal response (pdf) to the logo lawsuit:

Courage Campaign Institute responds to Complaint and Motion for Temporary Restraining Order by Prop 8 supporters

Jacobs: "The Courage Campaign Institute will continue to focus our energy on this historic trial and the rights and protections at stake for loving, committed same-sex couples. 'ProtectMarriage.com' can continue to expend time, energy and resources on a logo. Frankly, I think that says a lot about our respective priorities."

LOS ANGELES, CA - The Courage Campaign Institute responded this morning to a complaint and temporary restraining order delivered yesterday by lawyers for ProtectMarriage.com and announced it will continue to refuse to remove a logo on their Prop 8 Trial Tracker website that parodies the ProtectMarriage.com logo.

Courage Campaign Institute legal counsel Nathan Sabri of Morrison Foerster continues to assert in written documents to ProtectMarriage.com that "this difference between our client's logo and your client's logo is a graphical representation of the core difference between Courage Campaign's views and ProtectMarriage.com's views, presented in a sassy way that will not be lost on the public."

In an Opposition response statement filed to the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of California, Sabri cited numerous examples of case law, including cases involving the World Wrestling Federation, Mattel, and Universal Studios to show that Courage Campaign has a legal right to parody the ProtectMarriage.com logo.

Rick Jacobs, Chair of the 700,000-member Courage Campaign Instititute, commented on the irony of ProtectMarriage.com's continued focus on this issue. "We thought that our response laying out the tremendous legal precedent in cases like this would be the end of this silliness," said Jacobs. "But we are more than happy to defend our case if Prop 8 supporters continue to argue that the difference between their logo and ours is 'substantially indistinguishable,' given that their logo features a father and mother and our logo features two mothers."

In a response letter to ProtectMarriage.com sent Friday, January 15, attorney Sabri had previously stated that "while our client does appreciate the irony of the suggestion in your letter that a logo of a family made up of a man, a woman, and two children is 'substantially indistinguishable' from a logo of a family made up of two women and two children, your assertion is incorrect."

"The Courage Campaign Institute will continue to focus our energy on this historic trial and the rights and protections at stake for loving, committed same-sex couples," said Jacobs. "ProtectMarriage.com" can continue to expend time, energy and resources on a logo. Frankly, I think that says a lot about our respective priorities."

Jacobs concluded, "This is yet another attempt by Prop 8 supporters to distract from the facts being brought forth at this trial that are demonstrating quite clearly both the discrimination same-sex couples face and the need and benefit to society of equal treatment under the law."

Courage Campaign's Prop 8 Trial Tracker web site has garnered more than 700,000 views and 5,000 comments since it launched on January 11 and has become a leading source of real-time updates on the Perry v. Schwarzenegger trial.