The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is suing Mormon Stories Podcast and Dr. John Dehlin claiming trademark and copyright infringement. We feel very confident in our standing in this case. We also feel as though the church is mischaracterizing what happened in mediation in a way that is misleading, untrue, and damaging.
Please join us today to learn our perspective on what the LDS church demanded in mediation, what John Dehlin and Mormon Stories did to accommodate reasonable requests, and how you can help support Mormon Stories Podcast.
- To donate to the Mormon Stories Podcast legal defense fund, please click here: http://mormonstories.org/legal
- To review some brief responses to the church’s lawsuit and press release, click here.
Thumbnail Credits: Main photo of John Dehlin taken by Maya Dehlin; Background image from Found Image Press
4 Responses
Got to shut you down any way they can. This demonstrates how much the fear your potential impact on the “faithful”, and their bottom-line tithing base.
As we know that the church is true then follow the church’s advice and do what is right. Best thing to do is to work with them, counsel with them and follow their advice and their teachings.
I’m a Nevermore-man (see what I did there?) You should be able to get the case thrown out in short order – don’t settle – but You’ve already made it more difficult by making any concessions at all – it’s an implicit admission of guilt.
The first reason that you should be able to get it dismissed is that a trademark/copyright must be defended 100% against anyone using it without explicit license- all you have to do is show that the LDS aren’t suing everyone that is using what they claim as their IP.
Copyright expires while Trademark does not. Trademarks must be registered in order to be enforced- no registration = no violation. I don’t recall ever seeing any indication of anything you’ve been sued over actually being trademark – if they can’t provide proof of trademark registration BEFORE you started using Gold on Blue color scheme, you have grounds for a counterclaim.
The term Mormon is most definitely in the public domain as any claims of copyright have long since expired. It’s no longer under trademark (if it was ever registered which is doubtful) because the LDS have explicitly rejected any commercial connection with the term. The Christus can’t be copyrighted by LDS as it is a reproduction of a statue created in the early 1800s over in Europe.
DO NOT SETTLE. Force them to either dismiss “with prejudice ” or you proceed with with counterclaims… Every negative thing posted in public about you is proof of harm… don’t go easy on the LDS … they have bilked BILLIONS out of the unsuspecting masses… I know you have lived to “turn the other cheek” but that’s not the rule they play by. Countersue for $1 more than they are suing you, plus any and all legal expenses. Bring back the old logo, and the Christus. Basically undo all the concessions you’ve made because they are implicit admission of guilt.
As a disclosure- I am NOT a licensed attorney in any State or US Territory, so take my comment how you will.
Listening to RFM’s coverage, the “Book of Mormon Stories” official material for kids is mentioned, I tried to check since when that exists at all and the archive.org records has the oldest capture in 2020, and the oldest video has the URL date of 2010:
https://web.archive.org/web/20200710122531/https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/video/2010-12-01-chapter-01-how-we-got-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng
mormonstories.org clearly predates that, the oldest capture is from 2005:
https://web.archive.org/web/20051102090757/http://www.mormonstories.org/