I saw some discussion regarding the Invisible Disabilities Association on Twitter and decided to take a look.
Turns out that the IDA trademarked the term ‘invisible disabilities.’ Wayne Connell has somehow decided that he owns the term invisible disabilities. This is not true. Since the use of that term goes back to the early 1900s, I’m not quite sure how the US Patent Office approved that.
Once they did that, they got the Invisible Disability Project kicked off Facebook for trademark violation after sending IDP a cease and desist letter.
So far, the IDA Twitter page has not actually responded to people but began to block those of us speaking out about this subject and asking for reasoning or clarification. Even board members are getting in on things.
How sweet.
We cannot allow this to continue. How long will it be until the IDA decides to come after those of us who blog or write about our invisible disabilities? How long until they decide those of us who make our living off of work related to our invisible disabilities?
We cannot allow this to continue. Please sign this petition!
That’s insane! This is by no means a brand that can be trademarked. I was sure that it has been trademarked or is it in the process? Anyone can ask for something to be trademarked, but usually they are smarter than actually granting a trademark to a medical term.
Here is what is listed on the USPTO site: http://imgur.com/a/p4MEc
This is a service mark not a trademark as the IDA provides a service more than selling products. The same basics of trademark law apply, however.
But they are selling products, there are T-shirts you can buy that they will make money on.
They do sell items, but they do this as a non-profit under the guise that the profits from these items will support their organizations NOT just to make money. That's the difference.