ProgressOhio

Group wants rival to change its name

Is there a difference between standards and values?

The dictionary says so, but what's in a name means even more when it involves two similarly named groups with diametrically opposing opinions about strippers and adult clubs.

The combatants are Citizens for Community Values, the conservative, religious-oriented, Cincinnati-based organization, and Citizens for Community Standards, a rival group made up of owners of adult-oriented clubs and strippers in Dancers for Democracy.

The latest skirmish occurred this week when Charles M. Allen, a Virginia attorney who specializes in intellectual property rights litigation, accused Citizens for Community Standards of picking a name similar to its rival's "with the intention of creating confusion and misleading voters."

Allen, representing CCV, demanded in his Tuesday letter that CCS must "cease and desist" using the name because it violates his client's trademarked name.

Careful there CCV . . . Trademark law is designed to fulfill the public policy objective of consumer protection, by preventing the public from being misled as to the origin or quality of a product or service.  If you go to Court, you're going to have to disclose the "services" that you provide that are the basis for your trademark claim.  Those "services" are the same ones that Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is already appointing a special counsel to investigate. Are you sure you want to expose all that information to legal discovery in Court over a trademark complaint?

Especially a claim that is "kind of laughable" . . .

Citizens for Community Standards spokesman Sandy Theis could not be reached for comment yesterday.

But Brian Rothenberg, spokesman for Progress Ohio, a group that supports Citizens for Community Standards, called the accusation "kind of laughable."

"They act as if they invented the terms community and values," Rothenberg said. "Their values are not my values."

Update: See "Citizens for Community Values vs. The Strippers - Round 2"