We Wish These Companies Would Enforce Their Trademarks!

Kerusso has got to be the biggest purveyor of Jesus Junk on the planet. Their slogan is "Change Your Shirt. Change the World". Ironically they've Trademarked this slogan. Why is this ironic?

Answer: Because Kerusso is constantly ripping off or infringing on other companies' trademarks and logos for their "witness wear" t-shirts.

Their trademark infringements, aside from being downright embarrassing, borders on the criminal. Which makes us wonder how they can justify this behavior when scripture clearly says, "Thou Shalt NOT steal."

If they want to herald the kingdom of God with their "witness wear" t-shirts then they need to stop stealing the logos and marketing ideas of secular companies and create their own ideas.

The photo attached to this exhibit is a perfect example of what we are referring to. Stealing Starbuck's logo is wrong on so many levels. It may be time for a boycott of all Kerusso products. Not only that, it may be time to call the lawyers for these companies and ask them to sue Kerusso for their trademark infringements.

Comments

[merry]

I think every "Christian" T-shirt I've ever seen was ripped off of every popular brand/movie/tv show/book/rock band/restaurant/magazine/religion/you-get-the-point . . .

Actually Christian rock music, Christian books, Christian TV shows, Christian coffee shops, and basic Christian materialism was all ripped off of its secular counterparts.

Copyright infringements are something I've been wondering about for a really long time now . . .

[Caleb]

Talk about hypocriscy on the part of Kerruso. I don't think "stealing in the name of God" would be a good defense in a lawsuit. This situation kind of makes me think of Matt. 7:21-23.

[Bryan]

While I do agree that the designs are really cheesy and embarrassing, I disagree that it's borderline stealing (at least within U.S. Copyright Law) as it would fall under "parody" which is protected by law. If we were discussing moral grounds, then there might be more of an argument, but there is nothing companies can do via "enforcing their trademarks." They do enforce their trademarks, there's just nothing illegal going on here.

[Mrs. Pilgrim]

I agree.

Besides, it's an obscene logo anyway. (You mean you HAVEN'T see the version that shows the woman is topless? I have.)

[Sam]

Not sure I would advocate suing Christians in any circumstance, as Paul says, "Why not be wronged, why not be cheated?" And, as it would be an act of revenge. The Lord says "vengence is mine; I will repay." And I certainly wouldn't advocate the passive form suing a Christian, by getting someone else to sue them for us because we are angry. A lawyer isn't going to sue someone because you ask them to. They take their orders from the board of directors.

The main point is that Kerusso is making money off of the kingdom of God, lowering themselves to the cultural idols because they think it will "reach" people, and that wearing a t-shirt with "Jesus" on it gets us out from under the commandment to go and preach the gospel. Pins, tote bags, ichthi on car bumpers do not count. However, they are only selling what American Christians want - the world, whitewashed.

Any Christian who believes someone is going to come up them and say "I just couldn't help noticing that trendy shirt. How can I be so cool? Can I be a Christian?" is a fool and does not take Jesus seriously. Anyone who just wants to "share their faith" through a t-shirt truly doesn't want to share it at all. They are ashamed of portraying Jesus as he really is. They just want to be identified as "saved" without having to be mocked and humiliated by preaching the truth, which is offensive and brings persecution. After all, we don't want our 17.99 shirts getting ripped and all bloodied, do we?

[Paul W]

I think the Greeks should sue for misuse of their word.

[jftheophilus]

Yeah I agree with Bryan. It's not a matter of stealing, it's more a matter of parody.
Which leads to the real question: Why?
Remember shirts like "abreadcrumb&fish," what does it accomplish? They say they want to witness through shirts..I'll be honest, these shirts identify that you confess you're a Christian but I don't think anyone really comes to faith b/c of a Starbucks logo parody.

Honestly, I love a good Christian artistic shirt. The graffiti art is awesome.. but the parody shirts, though sometimes are clever, are cheesy & not very appealing to me.

[Jud]

Youse guys keep forgetting that Jesus just isn't interesting enough for our culture. Now if we can get people to identify the Messiah with their favorite cup of coffee then they will come to our churches and ask the coffee man "into their hearts". We can pave this narrow path into a super freeway to the pearly gates !!!

[frank]

The supreme court ruled back in the 90s that parody is "fair use of a copyright" requiring no royalties to the original. For example, Weird Al Yankovik who parodies pop songs, no longer needs the artists aproval and he doesn't have to pay them a cent for doing their songs. I know this because I am friends with some fellows who have a Christian band, called the Apologetix. They're known nationally. They are a Christian band but parody secular songs...changing the lyrics. Some Christians have a problem with them for doing that. Whether one agrees with what they do, one thing I will say in their favor is that as a pastor, I've not met two laypersons who are more "on fire" believers with such a thorough knowledge of the scriptures as J (the singer) and Karl (their guitar player).

[jftheophilus]

yeah Apologetix, I have no idea how he uses such creative Biblical references in the lyrics.. their good.

[jazzact13]

Team Pyro has recently done some satirical posters about the EC, based on those cheesy 'motivational' posters that I guess are in offices.

So, my question is, was TP wrong to use an obvious rip-off of something basically secular in order to make their point? Or is that ok because it's mocking EC?

[Paul]

I work as a youth pastor and recieve Kerussso's catalog in the mail a few times a year. My favorite Kerusso product is their Christian poker chips.

The slogans on these are just priceless. Phrases like "I'm All In for Jesus" and "Give your heart to Jesus before you cash in your chips" make these a timeless classic. Kerusso pedals these with the spin that you can slip one into your non gambling poker game with your sinner friends and when one of them notices it, you get to start a Christ centered conversation.

[Matt]

I came up with what is hopefully an original line of Christian t-shirts. My main focus was to not ripoff a corporate slogan or logo in any way. See for yourself...

http://www.ten14online.com