The Republican National Committee is threatening to sue CafePress for hosting an online venue for vendors to hawk GOP-related regalia like T-shirts, stickers and portrayals of elephants.
The committee, as it turns out, owns the trademarks to "GOP," "Grand Old Party," "Republican National Committee," "RNC" and the official GOP elephant logo.
Sean Cairncross, the party's chief counsel, wrote the Foster City, California online vendor that the GOP "takes infringements upon its trademarks seriously."
"Please cease and desist from allowing vendors to utilize the federally registered trademarks of the RNC or we will be forced to consider a legal remedy," Cairncross wrote CafePress.
CafePress attorney Paul Alan Levy, of Public Citizen, noted Thursday that some uses of the party's trademarks are critical of the GOP, but many are not.
"The majority of the images over which the RNC has threatened to sue reflect positive opinions about Republicans," he said. "Several designs simply put the elephant logo on a T-shirt, so that the wearer can walk around bragging about his or her adherence to Republicanism."
You read that correctly--the Republican Party wants to stop people from buying shirts that "denigrate" Republicanism. Fair enough, what's a little censorship, right? Their brand is in the toilet--they got nothin' left to run on.
But what these geniuses also want to stop are shirts like this:
Yep--they want to stop the pro-McCain and pro-Republican stuff, too.
America's Republicans--shooting themselves in the foot (and the face) just to keep people from making a profit by spreading positive images of their own party.
--WS
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