Tiffani Otey & Phil Gura in IPWatchdog: Girl Scouts File Trademark Complaint Against Rival Boy Scouts

The Girl Scouts of the United States of America have filed suit to force the Boy Scouts of America to put the “Boy” back into “Boy Scout.” The two venerable youth organizations will soon face off in a high-stakes trademark battle in federal court ( click here to read the full complaint ). The Girl Scouts filed a trademark complaint in November 2018 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. In it, the Girl Scouts claim the Boy Scouts’ use of the trademarks SCOUTS, SCOUTING and SCOUTS BSA without the word “boy” for programming for girls has and will continue to create confusion for families seeking to enroll their daughters in Girl Scouts.

In October 2017, the Boy Scouts announced it would begin admitting girls into its traditional enrichment programming. The decision to admit girls reverses the Boy Scouts’ century-long focus on single-gender programming. It also comes on the heels of other significant changes, including a 2013 decision to admit gay scouts and a 2015 decision to allow LGBTQ scout leaders.

Click here to read the full article in IPWatchdog .

Tiffani Otey is an IP attorney who focuses the majority of her work on trademark-related matters and has a proven track record of protecting her client’s online identities and social media accounts. Her experience includes all aspects of trademark protection, from selection of an available trademark, to protection of that mark under the applicable federal and common laws, to enforcement of that mark against infringements and unauthorized uses.

Phil Gura has more than 30 years of experience helping companies manage privacy, data security, governance and regulatory compliance challenges. For the past 15 years, he has served as the Chief Legal Officer of major corporations, including Merchant Customer Exchange LLC (MCX), RaceTrac Petroleum Inc. and LaRoche Industries, Inc. His in-house experience includes managing and directing corporate governance, regulatory/compliance, privacy/ data security and intellectual property efforts.