July 24, 2008

RNC’s Upraised Trunk Now Only Partially Erect

As mentioned last week (”Republican Party: Hands Off the Elephant; GOP’s Trademark Claims Stifle Political Speech“), the Republican National Committee had a hissyfit over the use of its elephant logo on third-party-created designs for T-shirts and stickers and the like — even when the use represented the Republican Party in a good light. (I know, it’s hard to believe, but some people actually want to display their ignorance by sporting the Pubbies’ pachyderm on their pecs.)

TZone has been following the story more closely than we have, and brings us up to date:

The Elephant Lives! RNC Backs Down on Cease and Desist order to Cafepress: “RNC Crumbles under pressure and agrees to allow Cafepress shopkeepers to use the GOP acronym and elephant logo on T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise. Sort of. The exception being any designs that are only the acronym ‘GOP’ or stylized Elephant which the RNC is demanding Cafepress shop owners secure a license…”

Zazzle Falls to GOP Logo Threats from the RNC: “Here we go again folks- the RNC got nowhere with threatening Cafepress with a cease and desist order on the GOP Logo and Red White and Blue stylized elephant, so now it’s onto the competitor, Zazzle. Sadly it appears that Zazzle has crunched under pressure as Zazzler’s are getting this email from the company on the current GOP Tees in the Zazzle galleries. …”

TZone also found this excellent protest from Irregular Times: