Ace lawyer David Yerushalmi, AFLC Senior Counsel, presented oral argument on March 4, 2014, in federal court in Washington, D.C., requesting that the court overturn the United States Patent & Trademark Office’s (USPTO) denial of the trademark application for “Stop Islamization of America” and “SIOA.” It was a brilliant performance. Watch above.
“‘Stop the Islamisation of America’ Trademark Litigation,” from the American Freedom Law Center, n.d.:
In February 2010, Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer, executive directors of the American Freedom Defense Initiative (FDI), an advocacy organization that raises awareness about the human rights abuses perpetrated by sharia-adherent Islamists, applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to register the trademark “Stop the Islamisation of America” to foster and provide an understanding of how to prevent sharia-based tyranny and Islamist terrorism. The USPTO rejected FDI’s application because it deemed that the trademark disparaged Muslims and linked them to terrorism.
The USPTO rejected FDI’s application in an “Office Action” based on the following analysis: (1) “Islamisation” means converting to Islam or “to make Islamic;” and (2), “Stop” would be understood to mean that “action must be taken to cease, or put an end to, converting or making people in America conform to Islam.” Thus, the trademark, according to the “Office Action” ruling, disparaged Muslims and linked them to terrorism.
As a result, AFLC appealed the rejection of the SIOA mark to the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board (TTAB), filing a detailed and lengthy brief opposing the USPTO’s ruling. AFLC’s brief demonstrated that the term “Islamisation” is not broadly defined as a conversion of an individual; or even a whole society to the religion of Islam; or to the state of being more culturally Islamic. Rather, AFLC argued, “Islamisation” is the process of implementing sharia into a society in order to convert that society to a sharia-compliant Islamic state.
At oral argument before the TTAB in Arlington, Virginia, Senior Counsel David Yerushalmi argued that the only probative evidence in the record for the actual meaning of “Islamisation” was that presented by his clients and which showed beyond any doubt that Muslims and non-Muslims alike used and understood “Islamisation” to be the political movement to implement Islamic law or sharia as the law of the land.
Peculiarly, the USPTO argued in its brief filed with the Federal Circuit Court that the government sought to protect sharia-adherent jihadists from disparagement—not just law-abiding Muslims. That is, the USPTO was not going to draw any distinction between protecting the reputations of law-abiding U.S. citizens and murderous jihadists. In response, AFLC explained to the court:
The second argument we treat here is an argument hard to take seriously at any level. The USPTO concludes its brief by asserting that a Section 2(a) disparagement rejection applies equally to protect the law abiding as well as the seditious. The statute requires, at least according to the USPTO’s newest argument, a rigid moral equivalency. The most basic problem with this argument, and there are plenty, is that it is empirically false. Thus, there are trademarks that oppose and seek to stop those who carry out abductions, such as the Somali pirates or parents who believe they are acting justly in abducting their children in violation of court orders (“Stop Abductions”); or those who might advocate for—what some people call cruelty to animals—animal sacrifice for religious observance or just harmless sport (“Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals”); as well as those parents who firmly believe they are acting responsibly and in the best interests of their children by “not withholding the rod” (“American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children”). There are even trademarks that suggest judges and others involved in the judicial system are terrorists (“Judicial Terrorism”). Would the USPTO also take this view of a mark appearing as “Stop Human Trafficking” because it insulted those who treat women and young children as chattel? Moreover, even assuming this argument has legs, the fact remains that no Islamist would be disparaged by the fact that law-abiding and patriotic Americans oppose the Islamization agenda, and there is simply no evidence in the record to suggest otherwise. Indeed, based upon the factual record as a whole and specifically as previously noted herein, Islamists fully expect Western political orders to resist any move to replace the Constitution with Islamic law. That is precisely why the Muslim Brotherhood Islamists inform us, through the Brotherhood’s motto, “Allah is our objective, the Prophet is our leader, the Qur’an is our law, jihad is our way, dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.”
CASE UPDATE (March 4, 2014): Senior Counsel presented oral argument in the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, requesting that the court overturn the denial of the trademark application.
bikeboy says
These judges are making decisions for this country. We are in serious trouble.
rubiconcrest says
We do not have judges in this country schooled in all things Islam. They are highly intelligent people who learning just as we are. This is going to be a long slog to develop judges who can deal intelligently with these issues. One expert, Walid Phares, has suggested that the government have a special judges who hear these types of cases.
Jessica Bloomwood says
The ideology of islam should be rejected by all humanity in the same way that the ideology of nazism is rejected by virtually all human beings. It is a crime against all basic dignity and humanity. Mohammed was a FALSE prophet. He was a pedophile (wife Aisha was age 6 at the time of their marriage), a murderer, a thief, a polygamist, a rapist and had sex with goats. What NORMAL person would revere someone like that, associate them with a deity and strive to emulate them unless they ascribed to evil? Muslims have been/are being deceived.
RG says
To ‘rubiconcrest’ – You said, “We do not have judges in this country schooled in all things Islam.”
Ok, and are you thereby suggesting that we need to school our legal representatives in SHARIA LAW??? SURELY YOU JEST!!!!!
Are you muslim???? If not, then PA–LEEEZE wake up and smell the camel urine!!! SHARIA LAW IS AN ABROGATION OF ALL THINGS AMERICAN–AND IT CAN NEVER EXIST SIDE BY SIDE WITH THE AMERICAN CONSTITUTION. You can’t have fire and water together in the the same container BECAUSE THE ONE CANCELS OUT THE OTHER!!!!
DO YOU GET THAT?????
PJG says
Calm down, RG. Rubiconcrest mentioned Wald Phares. Isn’t that enough for you to see that his reference to Islamic schooling is about the schooling WE would approve?
In any case, knowledge of Islamic law has been useful to many in the counter-jihad movement. One of my first awakening experiences about Islam was listening to a South Sudanese Christian rave angrily about his time at university studying law: he was forced to study sharia law.
rubiconcrest says
Get a grip. I would guess that a relatively small percentage of judges in the USA and for that matter, the developed democracies have a thorough understanding of Islamic law. And yes they need this to understand in it’s totality this dangerous legal doctrine. The patent judges would not be asking some of the questions they did if they had said knowledge.
And we need new laws throughout the land protecting the constitutional rights of all persons regardless of their faith when it comes to cases where foreign law is introduced in the courtroom.
gravenimage says
RG wrote:
To ‘rubiconcrest’ – You said, “We do not have judges in this country schooled in all things Islam.”
Ok, and are you thereby suggesting that we need to school our legal representatives in SHARIA LAW??? SURELY YOU JEST!!!!!
Are you muslim????
…………………..
RG, rubiconcrest is a longtime poster here.
What he meant was that American judges should be knowledgeable about the *threat* of Islam.
Cindy Mccoy says
This is not what links muslims to terror attacks, it is the fact that the killings and bombs they blow up that link them to terror activity. It was not little old white grandmothers taking down buildings and blowing things up!!! It was NOT middle aged white men who did it either!! It was muslims!!! That is not what I think, it is simply the facts!!
Veracious_one says
sounds like the judges were trying their hardest to find a way to appease the Muslims…