{"id":10677,"date":"2010-08-16T18:43:32","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T22:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/?p=10677"},"modified":"2010-08-16T18:43:32","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T22:43:32","slug":"god-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2010\/08\/god-squad\/","title":{"rendered":"God Squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Father Luke Strand of Holy Family Catholic Church in Fond du Lac, Wis. wasn\u2019t looking for attention from corporate America; he simply wanted to promote vocations to the priesthood. Instead, he\u2019s facing a cease-and-desist letter from Minnesota-based electronics retailer Best Buy over his Volkswagen Beetle.<\/p>\n

The black VW sports a \u201cGod Squad\u201d decal on the door that\u2019s similar in appearance to the logo used by Best Buy\u2019s Geek Squad computer technicians.<\/p>\n

Best Buy says that Father Strand\u2019s use of the logo violates its trademarks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a really difficult thing for us to do because we appreciate what Father Strand is trying to accomplish with his mission,\u201d Paula Baldwin, Best Buy spokesperson, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. \u201cBut at the end of the day, it\u2019s bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others.\u201d<\/p>\n

Father Strand mentioned the cease-and-desist order during the 9:30 a.m. Mass at St. Mary\u2019s Catholic Church on August 8, but cannot discuss the details of the case.<\/p>\n

Then-Deacon Strand, received the car in 2007 from Father Quinn Mann of the Diocese of Green Bay. Not only does the car sport the God Squad logo, but also the websites thinkpriest.org and cyexpeditions.org on the fenders. His license plate reads GODLVYA, and the very front of the Beetle has a white paint stripe to match his priestly collar.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt stimulates a lot of conversation,\u201d Father Strand told the Fond du Lac Reporter in 2009. \u201cPeople don\u2019t always know when the right time is to start a conversation about faith questions. The church is alive, young and vibrant. This is a new and creative way to bring the faith I love into everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blogger Brian Osborne, of Geek.com, said that Best Buy has \u201ccreated a public relations nightmare\u2026the kind that could only come as a result of a company suing a priest,\u201d and that the company is now facing the \u201cbacklash\u201d from its decision.<\/p>\n

Baldwin said that Best Buy is working with Strand to try to alter the God Squad logo in a way that will still work for him without infringing on the Geek Squad trademark.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re confident that together we\u2019ll come up with a good solution for everyone,\u201d said Baldwin. [Source<\/a>]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now if this priest started charging outlandish prices for minor spiritual tuneups and giving crappy service than I could see a case for copyright infringement. A priest offering services for free without trying to sell you an extended warranty will in no way get confused with the Geek Squad despite having a logon on a VW.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father Luke Strand of Holy Family Catholic Church in Fond du Lac, Wis. wasn\u2019t looking for attention from corporate America; he simply wanted to promote vocations to the priesthood. Instead,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-punditry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10678,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10677\/revisions\/10678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}