Bears Matter Wins Trademark Battle
“Bears Matter Wins Trademark Battle” which was one of the toughest fights Barb Murray has had to overcome on behalf of bears and her Bears Matter organization, with which she has been protecting her much loved bears.
A grizzly bear with a cub is on high alert near Whistler in August 2015. PHOTO BY RICHARD MACKELLAR /Vancouver Sun
This article below, published January 2017, is the very beginning of the Barb’s five year trademark battle over the name or phrase ‘Bears Matter’ with the Guide Outfitters Association of B.C.
This is a classic David and Goliath story
UPDATED LINK: Dated: 2021-03-31. A 29 page decision by the Trademark Opposition Board which found in favour of Barb Murray and rejected the GOABC’s Trademark Application! https://decisions.opic-cipo.gc.ca/tmob-comc/decisions/en/item/496171/index.do
B.C. guide outfitters rile NFL team, environmental group with bid to trademark ‘Bears Matter’
Author of the article:Larry Pynn
Publishing date:Jan 18, 2017 • January 18, 2017 • 2 minute read •
Bears matter. Everyone agrees on that. But when it comes to who owns the legal rights to those two words, the debate is extending from the wilderness hunting grounds of B.C. all the way to the playing fields of the NFL.
The Guide Outfitters Association of B.C., which caters to foreign trophy hunters seeking to kill grizzlies and other big-game animals, has applied to the Canadian Intellectual Property Office for the trademark rights to the name, Bears Matter.
Camille Labchuk, a lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice, which is helping Bears Matter (bearsmatter.com) file its complaint, said in an interview it’s “galling” to think the outfitters might “steal their name.”
Labchuk said her client never formally registered the name: “They don’t have to be entitled to legal protections, though, as they can rely on common-law protections for their trademark as well. It’s pretty common that groups don’t formally register.”
Among them: Conservation Matters, registered in 2014; Knock Your Socks Off, 2009; Mountain Hunter, 2011; Wildlife Stewardship is our Priority, 2011; and Fair Chase … No Fences, 2011. The organization hosts three websites — goabc.org, mountainhuntermagazine.com and bearsinbc.com.
“It’s part of our business process to protect whatever intellectual property we have,” he said. “We bundle as much around to drive traffic to bears in B.C. as we can. We’re not trying to get any name from anyone. I don’t know anything about the environmental group, Bears Matter. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He added: “I would much rather talk that bears matter than someone’s trademark. That’s all crap.”
Established by Barb Murray of Nanoose Bay in 2006, Bears Matter says in a mission statement posted online: “We are B.C. voters speaking up for grizzly bears who are still being legally killed.” It supports Pacific Wild’s petition to Premier Christy Clark to ban the grizzly trophy hunt.
Murray said she was very active on the grizzly trophy hunt issue in 2014 and finds it hard to believe the outfitters don’t know of her group.
She said she never registered Bears Matter as a non-profit society to issue tax-deductible receipts because it would have restricted her political activism on bear issues.
