“For the cure” lawsuits waste resources
Earlier this week I had stopped by my parents’ house to visit.
It was close to suppertime and, like most evenings I remember growing up, my mother had the television tuned to the news.
Being a news reporter you would think I would already know what was going on and would have little interest in watching the evening news, but it’s actually very easy for me to get caught up in the news here in Franklin County and forget to check in with the rest of the world.
I settled in with my mother to see what had taken place that day and after a few minutes, the news anchor launched into a story about the world’s largest breast cancer organization, Susan G. Komen for the Cure – an organization I have a lot of respect for, or did.
I haven’t ever been exposed to breast cancer personally. The closest I’ve been to having cancer affect someone close to me is when complications from lung cancer claimed my grandfather’s life in 1991 when I was weeks away from turning four years old.
I miss my grandfather terribly, but what I miss the most are the memories I never got to share with him over the years.
The toll his death took on my father, grandmother and aunts greatly surpassed my sorrow because they remembered those memories clearly and also remembered the time he spent battling the disease and how hard it was.
Cancer, in any form, is arguably just as hard for the family members as it is for the victim, so I appreciate the efforts of organizations like the American Cancer Society and Susan G. Komen for the Cure in raising money to fund research that might ultimately bring about a cure for diseases that have affected so many people.
But as I alluded to above, I lost some respect this week for the Komen Foundation after I watched the story unfold on the news Monday evening.
According to this story, the Komen Foundation has apparently been “policing” the world for other organizations that use any variation of “for the cure” in their names.
Once it finds an offending organization, it gives notice that the organization should stop using “for the cure” in their actual name or event title or they could face a long and costly lawsuit because apparently, the Komen Foundation owns the phrase “for the cure.”
Seriously?
But it gets worse: the report said the Komen Foundation actually uses the money people all over the world have donated to go towards the purpose of funding breast cancer research to sue all these lesser causes and non-profits for copyright infringements.
SERIOUSLY?
I was appalled that millions – yes, millions – of dollars were being spent on something so silly.
Being a writer, I know the vast importance copyrights and trademarks carry. If it weren’t for copyrights and trademarks, someone else might have been the author of “Gone with the Wind;” someone else might have written the song “How Great Thou Art;” someone else might have painted the “Mona Lisa.”
You get the picture.
Copyrights and trademarks are put in place because they’re essential to protect someone’s thoughts or ideas. If someone could make money off of another person’s idea or product, it could severely damage the livelihood of the original author, artist or inventor.
But in this particular case, the organizations being sued by the Komen Foundation are working towards a common goal: finding a cure for cancer.
They’re not trying to upstage the mega fundraising machine that takes in millions of dollars every year through donations or fundraisers. The smaller organizations couldn’t possibly compete with that level of fundraising. They’re just simply trying to do their part in the fight against a disease that has affected them or someone they know.
During the news report, a lady named Sue Prom was interviewed. Prom started a breast cancer fundraiser six years ago called “Mush for the Cure,” a dog sledding event held in the town of Grand Marais, Minn.
Prom was contacted by the Komen Foundation this past summer and told she could not use “for the cure” in conjunction with her event.
She was facing a costly lawsuit or changing the name of her event, something that would cost her tons of money coming straight from her own pocket.
Lawyers and spokesmen for the Komen Foundation say that the reasoning behind these types of suits is because the phrase “for the cure” is trademarked and has long-been associated with the Komen organization.
They say the reason they aren’t allowing others to use the phrase is because some people might be confused and think they’re supporting the Komen Foundation when they’re really not. But if the poor, confused donor is still supporting breast cancer research, what does it matter?
If someone comes around to raise money for an event that uses “for the cure” in the name, most people are going to realize it’s to support some form of cancer and if they feel so led, they will make a donation.
Most people ask what they’re supporting before they just go and drop a couple hundred dollars to support it, so there shouldn’t be a problem with organizations using a similar name. There shouldn’t be enough confusion to warrant this level of aggressiveness from a group that should be focusing on research and fundraising efforts instead of being the trademark police.
Using donor money to sue smaller organizations that are also working to raise money for cancer research is useless and counterproductive, and I sincerely hope the Susan G. Komen FOR THE CURE Foundation sees that working together with these organizations is the best way to unite and fight for the greater good.
