Yes folks, you read that correctly. The forum Bushcraft USA has actually trademarked the word bushcraft. Again, I’ll repeat, they have not just trademarked the forum name Bushcraft USA but rather the word bushcraft itself.
SUMMARY:
I’ve inserted this summary into the post to give you the general outline of what we know, what we don’t know, and everything in between. I’m writing the summary because the overall post is getting to be a bit too long. Considering that the BCUSA response thread, in which I or people who agree with me are not allowed to post in over 20 pages, I think I’ve done okay as to keeping it short. :) Anyway, here is the summary:
Things we know for a fact:
- Bushcraft USA LLC has trademarked the word bushcraft. The application was submitted July 30, 2012, and was issued November 12, 2013. source: United States Patent and Trademark Office records.
- The trademark is a service mark (a trademark with respect to services) for the general use of the word bushcraft. The trademark is not limited to forums or electronic forms of communication or commerce. source: United States Patent and Trademark Office records; see Limitation Statement on the trademark registration.
- Bushcraft USA LLC, through its owner, Guy Wood has contacted at least one forum to “discus” their use of the word bushcraft in their name. There have been several admissions as to what was sent, ranging from a legal letter, to a non legal letter, to just a discussion. Those posts have been deleted and changes so many times now that I’ve used the mildest form here in the summary. source: admission by Guy Woods in the thread on Bushcraft USA Forum dated July 24, 2014. The name of the forum that was contacted was also revealed in the thread, but I will not post it here. The thread was locked and moved to the members only section. If the relevant comments have been deleted by now, then make your own judgments on this one.
- Guy Wood has threatened me with litigation for writing this post exposing the fact that Bushcraft USA LLC has trademarked the word bushcraft. source: an email sent to me by Guy Wood. See screen capture below.
- The information about the trademarking of the word bushcraft was first revealed on the Bushcraft USA Forum on July 23, 2014. The thread was deleted that same day. All Facebook comments about the issue on the Bushcraft USA Facebook page were deleted, and a second thread started on the forum on July 24, 2014 was locked and moved to the “members only” section of the forum. source: admission by Guy Wood in the above locked thread. Again, I don’t know how much of the statements remain undeleted as I no longer have access to the thread and can not confirm.
- On July 24, 2014, after this post was published, Bushcraft USA LLC applied for supplemental trademark for the term Buschraft USA. Bushcraft USA LLC now owns the trademarks for both Bushcraft USA and the actual word bushcraft. source: United States Patent and Trademark Office records.
Things that are disputed:
- According to Chuck Winchester, at a Georgia meet last year, organized by Mr. Winchester, Guy Wood spoke about how he was the owner of the word buschraft, an that he plans to go after anyone who uses the word online. Specifically, he threatened to go after the forum Blades and Bushcraft, which he mockingly called Bed&Breackfast. Guy Wood has disputed the allegation by simply calling Chuck Winchester a liar. Mr. Winchester had published the information independently, in part through comments on other threads and posts. How much of that information, of Guy Wood’s responses remain undeleted, I don’t know.
- Bushcraft USA LLC has alleged that they were forced to trademark the word bushcraf back in 2012 because other forums were trying to shut down Bushcraft USA. No evidence of any sort has been provided as to which forums those were, how they were going to shut down Bushcraft USA Forum, or for that matter, how such a thing would be possible. There has also been no explanation provided as to how trademarking the word bushcraft would have prevented such shutting down. If another forum had tried to trademark the word (which evidence from the US Patent and Trademark Office shows did not happen), then the registration could have been stopped with a simple objection to the office. There has also been no coherent story as why Buschraft USA LLC didn’t trademark BuschraftUSA, BCUSA, Buschraft Outfitters, or Bushclass rather than the word bushcraft, if protection was their actual concern.
- According to the latest from Bushcraft USA LLC, it has been alleged that their ownership of the word bushcraft is not an issue because they have never enforced it against anyone. Specifically, it has been asserted that there have been no Cease and Desist Letters, and since no one has produced such a letter, Bushcraft USA LLC has not enforced the trademark. This argument seems to be based on a confusion about what a Cease and Desist Letter actually is. Everyone is looking for some legal document that was sent, or the commencement of litigation. In reality all that a Cease and Desist Letter is is a writing which tells someone to stop doing something. It is also called a Demand Letter. No specific format is required. It is not disputed that Guy Wood contacted at least one forum in order to “discuss” their use of the word buschraft in their forum name (again, assuming his admissions have not been deleted by now). However, since (form what I understand) the writing did not have “Cease and Desist” in the title, I’ve put it in the “disputed” list of allegations. The dispute however is more of a semantic one than a substantive one. If you are looking for me to publish a letter which says “Cease and Desist” on top of the page, I don’t have one.
So that is the summary of what is disputed and not disputed so far with respect to Bushcraft USA LLC trademarking the word bushcraft. What’s disputed and what’s not disputed seems to be changing all the time as posts admitting to certain actions are removed or altered, or simple removed from my view, so I can no longer guarantee their existence. So far the trademark for the word bushcraft remains in the ownership of Bushcraft USA LLC.
To save you a lot of trouble, if you look at the above facts and disputed allegations, and you do not see a problem, then reading the rest of the post is pointless. There is nothing wrong with that; we are each entitled to our opinions. If on the other hand you look at the above summary and think that something wrong has happened here, then the rest of the post will give you some more detail and maybe worth a read.
When reading the rest of the post, keep in mind that over the last week, hundreds of posts have been deleted, and whole threads shut down and removed. I’ve tried to keep the statements on this post as current as I can with what is being said, admitted to, and then deleted. Since I have no control over what statements are deleted on other forums and Facebook pages, and some of them have been placed in parts of forums to which I do not have access, I can’t confirm for you which statements and admissions remain undeleted. Make your own judgments based on what little information remains out there.
Here is a screen capture of the trademark search from The United Stated Patent and Trademark Office:
Here is a close up of the relevant portion. Note the registered owner of the word bushcraft.
It looks like the registration went through in November of last year. I’m not sure when it was actually published. How did I find out about it? Well apparently their lawyer has been sending cease and desist letters to other forums that use the term, or so I was told. To be fair, Guy Wood, owner of Bushcraft USA LLC has stated that it wasn’t a legal letter, but that he contacted another forum owner to discuss his use of the word bushcraft, or at least that is the mildest form of the statement that I have seen. There have been multiple statements ranging from there being only one legal letter sent, to there being a non-legal statement sent, to there being just a discussion. I have no way of keeping track of which comments have been removed, so I have put the one most favorable to Buschraft USA LLC here. I know a few forum owners that are now scrambling to change names in order to avoid litigation. Since the name of my blog does not include the word, it has not been a worry for me from that stand point. I don’t know if things have been patched up between Bushcraft USA LLC and the forum that was contacted whether it be with a legal or non-legal letter or for discussion purposes, so I will not mention their name here.
I must admit that my mind was blown when I heard about this, and especially when I did the search myself and the above page came up at the trademark office. The arrogance required to trademark the word bushcraft is just beyond imagination. Look, financial motivations have always been a strong driving force for people, but this goes beyond anything I can imagine.
How can this happen, you ask? Well, the trademark office are not exactly known for doing much due diligence. Since they weren’t familiar with the term, they just let it through. Any amount of research would have indicated that the word has been in use in the US for decades prior to the creation of Bushcraft USA LLC. There are certainly pre-existing commercial uses of the term prior to the creation of Buschraft USA LLC in the US, and certainly internationally. Bushcraft UK was in existence well before Bushcraft USA. After all, that is where Buscraft USA got the name for the forum. Horace Kephart used the term, and so did Richard Graves just to name a few.
Of course, just because a term is registered with the trademark office does not make the trademark enforceable in any way. I would love to see the lawyer that would manage to win this case in court.
That being said, the threat of potential litigation will have a serious chilling effect on many in our community. The people most directly effected will be private forum owners, blog writers, and small makers of bushcraft gear who utilize electronic means to market and sell their products. Those people simply do not have the financial means to fight a lawsuit and will most likely fold under the threat before risking any challenge to their use of the word. I think there is little question right now that Bushcraft USA, or should I say Bushcraft USA Limited Liability Company of Missouri, is a business enterprise, with financial gain as the driving mechanism behind the organization. We have Big Oil, I suppose now we have Big Bushcraft as well.
It is no secret that in recent decades our country has become obsessed with financial gain, and litigation has come to be one of the most common forms of human interaction, with everyone suing everyone else for everything. However, even I must admit that I could not have imagined this. I keep thinking, apparently falsely, that at least in our community, which is in theory focused on getting back to nature, back to simplicity, and to the skills of our ancestors such things would not occur. I’ve been proven wrong over and over as threats of litigation have become an essential part of getting back to nature. Apparently for some when we speak of learning the traditional skills of our ancestors, what comes to mind is not Daniel Boone and Horace Kephart but rather men like J.D. Rockefeller and J.P. Morgan.
Update: July 24, 2014
Now, for those of you not familiar with the trademark process and trademark law, here are a few points which will help you detect the b.s. that I am sure will be unleashed soon. If you are really concerned about any action that may be taken against you, please contact an attorney in your jurisdiction. You should not take what I say here as legal advice in any way.
The word was trademarked in order to protect it for the community
The trademark process does not work based on who registers a mark first. It is not a race to the trademark office. What creates rights to a trademark is the actual commercial use of the mark within a jurisdiction; in this case the jurisdiction being the United States. If you are the first to use a mark in commerce, then no matter if someone registers the mark later, you still remain the one with the rights to the mark. Not only is the trademark not enforceable against you, but if you want it removed, you can file a cancelation request to the US Patent and Trademark Office, tell them that you were using the mark or word before the person who registered it, and the trademark will likely be removed. So, any statements to the extent of how Bushcraft USA LLC trademarked the word bushcraft to protect it from being trademarked by other random people is simply nonsensical. It is not how the trademark process works. Trademark registration is simply a tool for litigation.
Furthermore, commonly used words or marks can not be trademarked. You can not trademark the word survival, the word backpacking, or the word axe. First, second, or last at the trademark office, those are commonly used terms and can not be trademarked. Same goes for the word bushcraft. It is a commonly used term and as such can not be trademarked. That is why Bushcraft USA LLC’s current trademark is likely not enforceable. That is what makes the act of actually registering it so atrocious and unbelievable. It wouldn’t even cross the normal person’s mind to try to trademark such a word. What’s next? Backpacking Light trying to trademark the word backpacking? Or Council Tool Co trying to trademark the word tool?! The notion is as ridiculous from a legal standpoint as it is from a common sense one.
It’s not a trademark, it is just a service mark
A service mark is a type of trademark. It’s like saying “it’s not a car, it’s a sedan”. For those who don’t deal with this often, a service mark is simply a trademark on a word or mark related to the providing of services rather than goods. This is directly form the US Patent and Trademark Office: “A service mark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or a combination thereof, that identifies and distinguishes the source of a service rather than goods. The term “trademark” is often used to refer to both trademarks and service marks.” Again, whether it be service mark or trademark, they are both referred to as trademark and are equally despicable in this context.
Bro, it happened like two years ago
As far as the “Bro, this happened like two years ago” defense, the trademark, according to my research was not published until August 27, 2013 and wasn’t registered until November 13, 2013. I’m not sure how the filing of an application in early 2012 makes this any better, or how people would have known about it. I don’t believe there was any notification posted on the Bushcraft USA forum. The reality is that they snuck it in. That hardly makes the action any less despicable.
Additionally, to the best of my knowledge, when you file an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office you have to swear that you do not know of any prior commercial use of the word or mark, and that the word or mark is not in common use. Whoever filed the application likely made some serious misrepresentations on that papers. There is no question that the word bushcraft was in commercial use, even electronic commercial use prior to the creation of Bushcraft USA LLC, and there is no question that it is a commonly used term. That could not have been unknown to the person who filed the application.
Don’t take my word on any of this. Do your own search. The link to the US Patent and Trademark office is at the top of this post. Trademark filings are public record.
Update: July 25, 2014
Just a few notes on last night’s developments. It appears that after Guy Wood got tired of threatening me, he and the rest of the Bushcraft USA LLC team took the time to write a statement explaining what is going on. After going through the same type of weak excuses we discussed yesterday, there were a few new excuses I wanted to touch on:
Mosrs Kochanski has trademarked the word bushcraft, so why can’t Bushcraft USA LLC do it
Well, Mors Kochanski has not in fact trademarked the word bushcraft anywhere. For starters, if he had trademarked it in the US, Bushcraft USA LLC would not have been able to get their own trademark. After all, Mors was using the word long before they were. Additionally, a search of the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office reveal no trademarks on the word bushcraft by Mors or anyone else. The only trademark on the word is that owned by Bushcraft USA LLC.
Someone was trying to trademark the word back in 2012, so Bushcraft USA had to do it first to protect their interests
That of course can not be true. If there was a competing party applying for the trademark, it would have become clear that this was a commonly used word, and the trademark would not have been granted at all. Besides, if Bushcraft USA LLC was worried about this other person or corporation trademarking the word, all they had to do was file an objection and stop it. They did not need to go through a two year process to get the trademark themselves, and do it all in secrecy. If this was a public service to the community, why was no announcement made when the process started? Why was the thread about this issue, which was posted on Bushcraft USA a day before I did my post taken down immediately and the people responsible for it banned? Why was I threatened with litigation when I exposed this “noble community service”. This reminds me of some words by one of my favorite bands: “Ooooh that smell; Can't you smell that smell”.
Someone tired to trademark the word recently and got upset when they couldn’t to do it
Well, that person certainly wasn’t me, yet here I am all upset about it. If there was in fact such a despicable person, then they lack integrity just like the people who did this two years ago. Being the first one to do a reprehensible thing just makes you faster, not less of a bad person.
We are the top ranked bushcraft forum of Google and someone was trying to take us down, so we had to register the word to protect ourselves
That doesn’t even begin to make any sense. How was someone trying to take down Buschraft USA back in 2012? Does that mean there was simply a competing bushcraft forum that had a chance of becoming higher ranked? If so, trademarking the word just so you can undercut them is a despicable move. It is clear how that helps Bushcraft USA, but not at all clear on how it helps the community or furthers education. Besides, how exactly is trademarking the term bushcraft going to prevent this other mysterious entity of taking them down? The only practical way that I can see is to threaten to sue them and hope they close down. If anyone can come up with another scenario here, please let me know.
The trademark symbol (TM) has appeared on BuschraftUSA banners and gear for years, so people should have known the word bushcraft was trademarked
Well, that is a more sophisticated way of saying “Bro, that was like years ago!” The fact that no one discovered it earlier doesn’t make it less reprehensible as an act. Furthermore, the (TM) on Bushcraft USA banners and products is for “Bushcraft USA”. The TM is not displayed for the word “bushcraft” but rather BushcraftUSA(TM). To claim that their use of the allegedly trademarked term BushcraftUSA should have put people on notice that they also got a trademark for the word bushcraft is a disingenuous argument.
Bushcraft USA LLC only has a service mark with respect to forums, nothing else
This does not conform with the documents provided by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The trademark registration actually includes a limitation clause. You know it is a limitation clause because it says “Limitations Statement”. The one of this trademark filing reads, and I quote: “Limitation Statement: As to “Bushcraft”” That’s it. All the other language about providing electronic service on top of the page is just a description of what the trademark holder actually does. However, assuming the trademark is only applicable to electronic services that would mean that their trademark applies to any forum, blog, YouTube channel, Facebook page, Google + page, and company that markets or distributes goods and services through electronic means. So, using this trademark, Bushcraft USA LLC would be able to shut down Blades and Bushcraft (forum), Rocky Mountain Bushcraft (blog), Northwest Bushcraft (YouTube channel), and Foster Knives (seller) who offer a Bushcraft knife in their inventory. I’ve just picked an example from each category. I’m sure you can add hundreds more especially if we look at Facebook ad Google+ pages. If to you that is nothing, then you have nothing to worry about.
Oh, and lastly, a US trademark can in some cases apply to foreign entities is they transact business within the jurisdiction of the United States.
We are a nation of laws. This is now the law. If you don’t like it too bad
Interesting argument indeed. However, if I was Buschraft USA LLC and friends, I wouldn’t harp too much on the law. Not only is this trademark a joke from a legal sand point, but whoever filed this application may very well end up facing fines for the representations made to the US Patent and Trademark Office. So screaming about the law may not be the best move for Bushcraft USA LLC.
Besides, when did something being legal become the same as it being the right thing to do. There have been plenty of murderers who have gotten away due to technicalities in the law. Does that make those murders a good thing, or something we should support and not be upset about? Seems like a very twisted was of looking at things.
Bushcraft USA has never used and has no plans for using the trademark against anyone
Why thank you benevolent dictator. Everyone knows that a corporation’s word it its bond. To make things unbelievably worse, I am told there was some discussion in last night’s thread, regarding how other forums and blogs can still use the word bushcraft in their name, but they have to ask Bushcraft USA LLC for permission and possibly pay a fee. I wish I was there to take some screen captures of it. Unfortunately the thread was “disappeared” before I could do that. Those of you who were there know exactly what was said, the rest can make your own judgments. Needless to say, things blew up. As a result, people were banned, the thread was taken down (all 23 pages of it) and then moved to a private section (I have no idea how much content was removed), and the Bushraft USA Facebook page was scrubbed clean and all comments removed.
Furthermore, it appears from communications I have received from other people (I was not there personally) that at a Georgia meet last year, Guy Wood made it clear that he was the owner of the word bushcraft, and that he was going to use the trademark of the word to shut down a specific competing forum as well as anyone who used the word buschraft on the internet. Seems like that attempt was made against at least one forum I know, which Guy Wood specifically named as a target at the meet last year, and now that forum is in the process of changing their name. I have been contacted by Chuck Winchester, among others, who I understand was the organizer of the Georgia meet last year, and he has confirmed the above statement.
In addition to the above we all remember the threats of litigation Guy Wood made against me yesterday. Due to popular demand I’m putting back up the email I received from Guy Woods. In the interest of fairness, I have also included my response to him in the screen capture.
It would appear, shockingly, that yet another corporation has acted in its own self interest and for financial gain at the expense of the regular guy. Bushcraft USA LLC has grabbed one of the most used words in our community and used it to further their own self interest. If Bushcraft USA wants to keep the word integrity in their forum caption, they need to surrender this trademark right now, and apologize to the community for what they have done. There is no such thing as a benevolent dictator; there are just dictators. Someone owning the trademark to such commonly used word with the promise that they will not use it against anyone because they are such nice guy, does not sit right with me.
Update: July 25, 2014
There has been a lot said about this issue in the last two days. A lot of it has been a smoke and mirrors routine worthy of Johnie Cochran. I can sit here and make legal arguments all day long, and point to you why all of the "defenses" being presented do not hold any weight. I can explain to you why I don't believe Bushcraft USA has a valid trademark. I can tell you how to file a cancellation of trademark request. However, I will not, nor should anyone take what I say as legal advise on the issue.
Instead, I will ask everyone who is currently going through fine print and Google inspired legal maneuvering, the following:
Is this the type of America you want to live in? Is this the type of America you want your children to live in? An America where it is considered a good thing that you were first to commit a horrible act. An America where words like "bushcraft", "woodsmanship", "knife", etc can be owned by corporations. An America where it is considered just good business to then try to shut down small forums, blogs, and independent producers who are struggling to make ends meet by selling their products online. An America where all of the above is considered to constitute integrity.
I ask you this not from a legal stand point, but from a moral and from a common sense perspective.
I have no delusions of Bushcraft USA LLC going away. They are a large corporation, and if history has thought us anything it's that large corporations don't go away. That doesn't mean we have to pretend that what has been done is not atrocious. At the end of the day, after all of the dust settles, the beginning, middle, and end of the story is that a corporate entity now owns the trademark to the word bushcraft. The WORD bushcraft! We can spin it however we like, but those facts will not change.
Update: July 26, 2014
Well, not a lot of developments since the last update, but the developments that we have had have been substantive ones.
The first is perhaps the most significant since this whole story broke, first on Bushcraft USA, then on several other forums, and eventually here on this blog. It seems that Bushcraft USA LLC has finally given up on efforts to justify its action and deny the facts of what they have done. Bushcraft USA LLC appears to have tacitly admitted to the fact that they trademarked the word bushcraft; that they did it to further their own financial and personal interests by preserving their status as the largest bushcraft related forum; and that they have used that trademark to enforce their rights with respect to the word. Guy Wood however insists that only one demand was made to another forum and that it was not legally drafted letters, but rather private communications between him and the owner of the other forum. I tend to believe him as his actions have been so ill advised that it would be hard to believe they were the result of any legal advice or the involvement of legal counsel.
A minor down side to Bushcraft USA LLC giving up on denying the allegations made earlier, here and elsewhere, has been that in a fit of anger, they have launched a full scale smear campaign against me personally. Sadly, these personal attack have been entirely based on aspects of my life that have nothing to do with the outdoors at all, let alone with the issue of Bushcraft USA LLC trademaking the word bushcraft.
The second development, which has largely been the result of Bushcraft USA LLC tacitly making the above admissions, has been a somewhat uncoordinated attempt to claim that the registration of the trademark for the word bushcraft was a mistake. The story goes that they were trying to register a trademark for BuscraftUSA, but the US Patent and Trademark Office made a mistake and gave then a trademark for the word bushcraft instead. Now, anyone who is familiar with the process, knows that this is impossible. There are detailed documents that have to be submitted, describing the trademark in every possible way, numerous times. There is no way such a specific error was made with respect to all aspects of those documents.
That being said, I’ve spent the day improving my water trapping sets, and am in particularly good mood, so I figured I would give them the benefit of a doubt. Let’s say for a moment that Bushcraft USA LLC in fact intended to trademark BushcraftUSA, but by mistake was given the trademark for the word bushcraft. According to the earlier “Bro, that happened like two ears ago” defense, this happened two years ago. The trademark was then published for review in August of 2013, and then made public in November of 2013. If this was in fact an unintended error, why didn’t Bushcraft USA LLC fix it during this two year period. All they had to do was write a letter to the US Patent and Trademark Office, and the error would have been fixed. There were endless opportunities to do it. Well, let’s say that maybe they forgot. Even so, when they were reminded of the “error” by a thread that was started on their own forum several days ago, they certainly had the opportunity to cancel the trademark. Yet it wasn’t done. Instead those people were banned, the forums that wrote about it were threatened with litigation if they do not remove the post, and so were bloggers (me) who also wrote about it. Such peculiar behavior from someone who has made an error. Even so, in the spirit of generosity, I say let’s give Bushcraft USA LLC yet another chance to do the right thing: cancel this preposterous trademark, apologize to the community for this “error”, and save whatever piece of integrity is left in that organization.
Update: July 29, 2014
Alright, so there has been a new update from the excuse factory. It appears that the “it was an accident” excuse has been abandoned, because well… it was silly. The current excuse has reverted back to “Yes, we trademarked the term, but we had to, and we’ve never used it against anyone”.
There are two components to this excuse. The first is that Buschraft USA LLC had to trademark the word bushcraft in order to protect themselves from yet unidentified forces of evil. This assertion is of course false. That’s not only because there is no evidence of it, but it’s simply not true from a legal stand point. Assuming there was in fact a threat to Buschraft USA LLC, and someone else was trying to register the word bushcraft (something of which there is no evidence at the US Patent and Trademark Office), then all Buschraft USA LLC had to do was to file a one paragraph objection with the office, and the term would have remained in the public domain. Instead, Buschraft USA LLC went through a two year process to trademark the term. Had to do it? Absolutely not! Besides, if they indeed needed protection, they could have trademarked BushcraftUSA, BCUSA, Bushcraft Outfitters, Bushclass, or any other variant of their name. They did not. Instead, they trademarked the word buschraft. Had to do it? No! No they didn’t!
The second component of the excuse is the allegation that Buschraft USA LLC has never acted against anyone on the bases of the trademark. In support of that assertion, Buschrtaft USA LLC has repeatedly stated that no one has produced a cease and desist letter, which according to them proves that they have never acted against anyone. Now, let me ask you this, do you know what a cease and desist letter is? A cease and desist letter is just a piece of writing which tells someone to stop doing something. It is also called a demand letter. Guy Wood already admitted that he contacted one forum to “discuss” their use of the term bushcraft in their forum name (If you are lucky, his comments have not yet been deleted from the thread. If they have, make your own judgments as to who to trust). That is all that is required from a cease and desist letter. It’s not a magical legal document. It is just a writing which tells someone else to stop doing something. Those of us who have been following along have seen Guy Wood admit to doing it. For those of you who are coming late to the party after threads have been scabbed clean of unintended and unfavorable posts, you would have to make your own judgments.
Amusingly, to make the above sad excuse more palatable, someone came up with what I consider the most ridiculous argument in this whole fiasco, i.e. that owning the trademark for the word buschraft and not using it is the same as owning a gun and not shooting someone. That comparison makes absolutely no sense. The comparison would only be accurate if we could all register a trademark for the word buschraft at the same time, and then sue each other over it. As it stand right now, a more appropriate comparison for Buschraft USA LLC owning the trademark to the word bushcraft would be if a corporation got a law passed which only allowed that corporation to own any guns. Anyone else who wants to own guns would have to ask the corporation for permission and/or pay them. That is the gun equivalent of what has happened here. Would you have a problem with one corporation being the only one with the right to own any guns? What if they hadn’t shot anyone yet with their guns?
And last but not least, today it was made public that on July 24, 2014, after this post was published, Bushcraft USA LLC filed for a supplemental trademark for the term Buschraft USA with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Bushcraft USA LLC now owns the trademark for both Buschraft USA and the actual word buschraft.
All I can say is… finally! Now we can finally get past all of the b.s. excuses about how Bushcraft USA LLC had to trademark the word bushcraft in order to protect the Buschraft USA Forum. As it was evident from the beginning, that was just a weak excuse. They could have just as easily, if not more easily, trademarked the actual name, Bushcraft USA, rather than making a power grab for the word bushcraft. It’s sad that we had to go through all this for Buschraft USA LLC to finally register the proper term. I think I speak for a lot of people when I say that we have absolutely no problem with the registration of Bushcraft USA.
Maybe now that Bushcraft USA LLC has finally registered the trademark for the proper term, and we no longer have to pretend that they had to register the word bushcraft, they can do the right thing, surrender the word buschraft, and return it back to the community.
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