He apparently doesn’t want to share his own wealth
(Reason) Liberty Maniacs, a Minnesota-based “independent brand that designs and sells some of the world’s favorite political and satirical apparel and merchandise,” was served with a notice of infringement last week from Garvey, Schubert, Barer, the legal firm officially representing Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
At issue is a T-shirt (which was unveiled last November) featuring the democratic socialist senator from Vermont beside some other socialist icons, namely philosophers Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels and their dictatorial admirers Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong, positioned over the words “Bernie IS MY COMRADE.” The word “Bernie” appears to be in the same font as the official Bernie 2016 logo, and the parody design also apes the campaign’s use of two wavy lines beneath the candidate’s name.
Liberty Maniacs founder Dan McCall told Reason in a phone call today that taking the five-point star that appears above the letter “i” in the “Bernie” logo and altering it to make it resemble the revolutionary communist red star is a classic example of parody, which is protected by the First Amendment.
Hey, they just want to share the wealth. What’s the problem?
Claire Hawkins, one of the lawyers from Garvey, Schubert, Barer, penned the letter demanding Liberty Maniacs “cease and desist” and “destroy and/or take offline all materials” bearing the Bernie 2016 official logo. Hawkins added:
As an intellectual property owner, our client is obligated to take steps to protect its trademark and copyright rights and to protect the good will built up in its name and brand.
This is from the lawyers of a guy who is dead set against capitalism, and loves him some socialist economics. Trademarks and copyrights are capitalist notions. With Bernie’s brand of socialism, everything is owned by the people and Government. Especially government. Strange that he doesn’t want to share his own stuff and income stream when he wants Everyone Else to do share theirs.
