Petition Against Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness Trademark Ownership
The Petition
*** ipetitions.com updated their software and altered our page. The petition itself has not changed:
This petition is started in part of an appeal process against an application with the U.S. Patent & Trademark office for ownership of the awareness of Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH).
CDH is a rare and often deadly birth defect that affects 1600 babies in the U.S. each year.
1 organization is seeking to own the term "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" and therefore dictating it\'s use. This would be detrimental to every cause, every CDH organization, every family affected by Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia that wishes to raise awareness, advocacy, research and support of this birth defect in memory and in honor of these babies. This would effectively exclude everyone but a few within a specific organization of using CDH Awareness ribbons, petitioning the government of CDH Awarness Days, holding events, fundraisers and any other activities in correlation for raising awareness of this disease without specific permission from one specific individual within one organization for their benefit.
It is our collective opinion that no one should benefit from the pain and / or deaths of babies born with Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia by claiming ownership of the awareness of this birth defect. We petition the United States Trademark & Copyright office to deny claims to this term and any terms that would negatively affect the families, medical care givers and general public who may be affected by CDH.
As this would be detrimental to several other organizations who have been practicing CDH Awareness for over a decade, 1000\'s of families around the world and general public - we hereby sign that we petition against the ownership and trademark of the phrase "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" by Breath of Hope, Inc and any entity, organization or individual.
You can view the application for trademark ownership of "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" as well as all the trademark paperwork here:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarrregser=serial&entry=77436855
From the United States Trademark & Patent office:
Word Mark CONGENITAL DIAPHRAGMATIC HERNIA AWARENESS
Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Promoting public awareness of congenital diaphragmatic hernia; Public advocacy to promote awareness of congenital diaphragmatic hernia. FIRST USE: 20070701. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20070701
Standard Characters Claimed
Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK
Serial Number 77436855
Filing Date April 1, 2008
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1A
Supplemental Register Date July 16, 2008
Owner (APPLICANT) Breath of Hope, Incorporated CORPORATION VIRGINIA PO Box 6627, Charlottesville VIRGINIA 22906
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register SUPPLEMENTAL
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
That organization\'s only response, with no reasoning for why they want to do such a horrible thing, is that they wouldn\'t police how Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness is used. This is not true. This organization began threatening to sue over the use of "Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia Awareness" in 2007, without grounds, without owning the trademark that was applied for on April 1st of 2008 as per the documents on the U.S. Patent Office\'s official web site signed by the CEO of this organization.
The lawsuit threats and complaint filings have continued through 2010 as well.
