基于信仰的公司在分发带有圣经经文的狗牌的法律斗争中又向前迈进了一步

埃兹 |福克斯新闻

Fundamentalist Christian legal organization First Liberty Institute is now attempting in federal court to make Christian jewelry company Shields of Strength owner Kenny Vaughan free to put the official trademarked Department of Defense (DoD) branch emblems on the Bible verse dog tags his company makes by claiming that the DoD “fraudulently” obtained its trademarks and that all of the DoD’s trademarks should be revoked. Seriously!

原教旨主义基督教法律组织第一自由研究所目前正试图在联邦法院让基督教珠宝公司 Shields of Strength 所有者肯尼·沃恩 (Kenny Vaughan) 自由地将国防部 (DoD) 分支标志的官方商标放在他的公司制作的圣经经文狗牌上，声称国防部“以欺诈手段”获得了其商标，国防部的所有商标都应被撤销。严重地！

But First Liberty isn’t telling its followers (a.k.a. potential donors) about this new legal strategy of transforming what was a religious liberty case into a case regarding trademark law.

但第一自由组织并没有告诉其追随者（又称潜在捐助者）这一将宗教自由案件转变为商标法案件的新法律策略。

After a federal district court ruled late last month that the case can proceed, First Liberty posted an article on its website titled “Bible Verse Dog Tag Company, Shields of Strength, is One Step Closer to Victory,” in which these paragons of Christian virtue made no mention at all of this now being a trademark law case that will have little if any bearing on religious liberty. And First Liberty’s co-conspirators at Fox News were happy to play along, as usual, 

在联邦地方法院上月底裁定此案可以继续审理后，第一自由在其网站上发布了一篇题为“圣经经文狗牌公司，力量之盾，距离胜利更近了一步”的文章，其中这些基督教美德的典范完全没有提及这件事现在是一个商标法案件，对宗教自由几乎没有影响。 “第一自由”在福克斯新闻的同谋也像往常一样很高兴地合作，

And (spoiler alert for those who are going to read this whole post), MRFF has uncovered that Bible verse dog tag maker Kenny Vaughan is no stranger to trademark infringement lawsuits. He was sued for trademark infringement back in 1996 when his coin business (which is still operating, using a different name) blatantly ripped off his former employer’s, and then competitor’s, ads, presumably to cause confusion between his former employer’s well-established business and his new similar business to steer business his way.

而且（对于那些将要阅读整篇文章的人来说，请注意剧透），MRFF 发现圣经经文狗牌制造商肯尼·沃恩 (Kenny Vaughan) 对商标侵权诉讼并不陌生。早在 1996 年，他就因商标侵权而被起诉，当时他的硬币业务（仍在运营，但使用了不同的名称）公然抄袭了他前雇主的广告，然后又抄袭了竞争对手的广告，大概是为了在他前雇主的成熟业务和其他业务之间造成混淆。他的新的类似业务将按照他的方式引导业务。

Back in the summer of 2019, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF) was made aware of a company that was selling Bible verse dog tags with the official U.S. Marine Corps emblem on them, a clear violation of Department of Defense (DoD) regulations, which strictly prohibit the use of any official DoD emblems or logos on merchandise that promotes a religious belief (or political message). 

早在 2019 年夏天，军事宗教自由基金会 (MRFF) 就发现一家公司正在销售带有美国海军陆战队官方徽章的圣经经文狗牌，这明显违反了国防部 (DoD) 的规定，严格禁止在商品上使用任何宣扬宗教信仰（或政治信息）的国防部官方标志或徽标。

There are two versions of the official DoD service branch emblems — the official Service Seals, which may only be used by the DoD and its components, and the Emblems and/or Crests, which are trademarked variations of the Service Seals that may be licensed by businesses for use on their merchandise, subject to the approval of the service branch’s Trademark Licensing office. There are also logos, such as the familiar Army star logo, which are also trademarked and require a license to use.

国防部官方服务部门标志有两个版本：官方服务印章，只能由国防部及其组成部分使用，以及徽章和/或徽章，它们是服务印章的商标变体，可由国防部授权企业在其商品上使用，须经服务部门商标许可办公室批准。还有一些徽标，例如熟悉的陆军星形徽标，它们也已注册商标并需要许可才能使用。

As MRFF quickly ascertained, the company that was selling these Bible verse dog tags, Christian jewelry company Shields of Strength, did have a license from the Marine Corps — but for “inspirational dog tags” — and a quick look at the Shields of Strength website revealed that the company was also selling Bible verse dog tags with Army, Navy, and Air Force emblems and logos on them.

正如 MRFF 很快确定的那样，销售这些圣经经文狗牌的公司，即基督教珠宝公司 Shields of Strength，确实获得了海军陆战队的许可——但针对的是“励志狗牌”——快速浏览一下 Shields of Strength 网站据透露，该公司还销售带有陆军、海军和空军徽章和标志的圣经经文狗牌。

MRFF quickly sent letters to the Trademark Licensing offices of each of the military branches, demanding that they stop Shields of Strength from putting the trademarked military emblems and logos on its Bible verse dog tags or any other religious items, as this clearly violated DoD Instruction 5535.12, “DoD Branding and Trademark Licensing Program Implementation,” Section 2.d. of which states (emphasis added):

MRFF 迅速致函各军事部门的商标许可办公室，要求他们阻止力量之盾将已注册的军事徽章和标志放在其圣经经文狗牌或任何其他宗教物品上，因为这明显违反了国防部指令 5535.12 ，“国防部品牌和商标许可计划实施”，第 2.d 节。其中指出（强调是后加的）：

“In accordance with subpart 2635.702 of Title 5, Code of Federal Regulations (Reference (i)), DoD marks may not be licensed for use in a manner that creates a perception of DoD endorsement of any non-federal entity or its products and services. DoD marks may not be licensed for any purpose intended to promote ideological movements, sociopolitical change, religious beliefs (including non-belief), specific interpretations of morality, or legislative/statutory change….”

“根据《联邦法规》第 5 章第 2635.702 款（参考文献 (i)），国防部标志不得以任何非联邦实体或其产品和服务产生国防部认可的方式获得许可使用。国防部标志不得被许可用于任何旨在促进意识形态运动、社会政治变革、宗教信仰（包括无信仰）、道德的具体解释或立法/法规变革的目的……”

Three of the four military branches immediately agreed with MRFF, sending cease and desist letters to Shields of Strength, ordering the company to stop putting their trademarked emblems and/or logos on its Bible verse dog tags.

四个军事部门中的三个立即同意 MRFF 的意见，向 Shields of Strength 发送停止函，命令该公司停止将其商标标志和/或徽标放在其圣经经文狗牌上。

In 2019, fundamentalist Christian legal organization First Liberty Institute, ever at the ready to champion the causes of “persecuted” Christians like Shields of Strength owner Kenny Vaughan and get them publicity — lots of publicity — took up the case.

2019 年，原教旨主义基督教法律组织第一自由研究所 (First Liberty Institute) 接手了此案，该组织随时准备为像 Shields of Strength 所有者肯尼·沃恩 (Kenny Vaughan) 这样的“受迫害”基督徒辩护，并让他们得到宣传——大量宣传——接手了此案。

The right-wing media had a field day with this story of Christian persecution, almost all deceptively omitting that DoD regulations prohibit DoD emblems from being used on religious merchandise and either downplaying or omitting that these emblems are trademarked, leading their readers to think that the military was prohibiting service members from wearing Bible verses, which was simply not true. Nobody had told Shields of Strength that it couldn’t make and sell Bible verse dog tags or that service members couldn’t wear Bible verses. They just couldn’t have the DoD’s emblems on them. I wrote about this at the time, in a post titled “Do Bible Verses Lose Their Meaning If They Don’t Have Government Endorsement?”

右翼媒体对基督徒迫害的故事大肆报道，几乎所有媒体都欺骗性地忽略了国防部规定禁止在宗教商品上使用国防部标志，并且淡化或忽略这些标志已注册商标，导致读者认为军队禁止军人佩戴圣经经文，但这根本不是事实。没有人告诉 Shields of Strength，它不能制造和销售圣经经文狗牌，也没有人告诉军人不能佩戴圣经经文。他们只是身上没有国防部的标志。我当时在一篇题为“如果没有政府认可，圣经经文就会失去意义吗？”的帖子中写到了这一点。

In January 2020, shortly after taking on Vaughan’s case, First Liberty

2020 年 1 月，在接手沃恩的案件后不久，First Liberty