Is The General Conference Afraid Of Blacksda? Options

[Artiste]

It has come to my attention that Calvin, our owner and administrator at BlackSDA, has been undergoing unwanted attention from the General Conference legal department for the last ten months.

On October 4, 2006, he reported receiving an e-mail from the Office of General Councel of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It stated that the office was monitering the use of the church's trademarks. Upon complying with their request to call them back, Calvin was questioned as to his affiliation with the church and informed them that he was an elder of his local church. He was told he needed to fill out a form that would go before a General Conference review committee.

Calvin was then required to get a letter of endorsement from his Conference President.

Having completed the form and obtained the letter of endorsement, he finally had things ready and sent in by January of 2007.

He waited six months.

On July 31, 2007, he reported receiving a certified letter from the Office of General Counsel. Signed by Dionne A. Parker, Associate General Counsel, it informed him that he could not be granted a license to use the "SDA (trademark)" as long as he used sponsered ads on his website. In addition, requesting donations on the website also went against church policy, she said. Calvin was asked to "kindly find another name for your website".

The above is interesting for two reasons:

1) After a six-month time period, the letter arrived only several weeks after banner ads began to be used.

2) A search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office reveals that the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not have a registration of the "SDA" trademark.

In referring to "your trademark license application" and the fact that "we are unable to grant you a license for your organization to use SDA (trademark)", Ms. Parker implies that the church actually has this trademark registered.

Also, the impression is given that the Seventh-day Adventist Church Office of General Counsel has been monitering the website until they could find what they considered a valid reason to deny the application and request that Calvin change the name of the website.

What would be accomplished by changing the name of BlackSDA's website?

It has been suggested to me that changing the name would impede the function of search engines. "BlackSDA" in many circles has become synonymous with "information source for 3ABN issues".

Does the General Conference have some reason to want to suppress this information?


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[Ozzie]

It has come to my attention that Calvin, our owner and administrator at BlackSDA, has been undergoing unwanted attention from the General Conference legal department for the last ten months.

Does the General Conference have some reason to want to suppress this information?
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Interesting and more interesting and intriguing! Wonder if it really is 'THE GC' or just particular persons within that office?

As SDA is not a registered trade mark, there isn't anything they can do is there? I'm just not up-to-date with US law, so don't know what and if, they can do anything.

[lurker]

I googled *sda* and sda is all over the place - alone and in words with very little or no connection to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. How can they patent or trademark something that everybody else is already using and has been using. Especially when it is part of a word like blacksda. It is like trying to trademark "th" anytime you find it in a word.

[Johann]

I googled *sda* and sda is all over the place - alone and in words with very little or no connection to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. How can they patent or trademark something that everybody else is already using and has been using. Especially when it is part of a word like blacksda. It is like trying to trademark "th" anytime you find it in a word.

McDonald tried in court to claim they had a copyright on other names starting with Mc, but lost.

[jodi]

It has come to my attention that Calvin, our owner and administrator at BlackSDA, has been undergoing unwanted attention from the General Conference legal department for the last ten months.

On October 4, 2006, he reported receiving an e-mail from the Office of General Councel of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It stated that the office was monitering the use of the church's trademarks. Upon complying with their request to call them back, Calvin was questioned as to his affiliation with the church and informed them that he was an elder of his local church. He was told he needed to fill out a form that would go before a General Conference review committee.

Calvin was then required to get a letter of endorsement from his Conference President.

Having completed the form and obtained the letter of endorsement, he finally had things ready and sent in by January of 2007.

He waited six months.

On July 31, 2007, he reported receiving a certified letter from the Office of General Counsel. Signed by Dionne A. Parker, Associate General Counsel, it informed him that he could not be granted a license to use the "SDA (trademark)" as long as he used sponsered ads on his website. In addition, requesting donations on the website also went against church policy, she said. Calvin was asked to "kindly find another name for your website".

The above is interesting for two reasons:

1) After a six-month time period, the letter arrived only several weeks after banner ads began to be used.

2) A search of the United States Patent and Trademark Office reveals that the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not have a registration of the "SDA" trademark.

In referring to "your trademark license application" and the fact that "we are unable to grant you a license for your organization to use SDA (trademark)", Ms. Parker implies that the church actually has this trademark registered.

Also, the impression is given that the Seventh-day Adventist Church Office of General Counsel has been monitering the website until they could find what they considered a valid reason to deny the application and request that Calvin change the name of the website.

What would be accomplished by changing the name of BlackSDA's website?

It has been suggested to me that changing the name would impede the function of search engines. "BlackSDA" in many circles has become synonymous with "information source for 3ABN issues".

Does the General Conference have some reason to want to suppress this information?
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I wasn't too surprised to see this new information, since I know alittle about the history of our GC suing other faithful Seventh-day Adventist groups. I am saddened that they are now coming after BlackSDA as I personally have been so blessed by your website as I'm sure millions of others have also.

When a letter comes out from the Office of the General Counsel, it does represent our General Conference. Our GC has spent millions in the past 20 or so years suing small groups. One of the more recent trademark lawsuits was against Walter McGill, who has a small East Coast church called "Creation Seventh-day Adventist Church." Last fall (2006) the GC was seeking a "preliminary injuction" requiring McGill to immediately stop using the disputed church name, even before the trial was conducted. The GC was listed as the plaintiff. On October 19, 2006, McGill's attorney notified him that the lawsuit might cost him "in excess of $150,000 to defend."

It is interesting to note that the GC initially took the McGill lawsuit through the expensive procedures of the European court - and that court had no final jurisdiction over McGill and his sign! The final decision of the EU court was in favor of the GC. Now, it is proceeding through our courts. McGill hs been notified that the lawsuit will be held in Tennessee in January, 2008.

There is Rabbi Benhayll Yellen, a Messianic Jewish Seventh-day Adventist believer who lives in Escondido, CA. His little church is called the Federation of Jewish Adventist Society. After joining ASI, the GC and Vincent Ramik, its trademark attorney, discovered that "Adventist" was included in the title of this little group. So Ramik sent Yellen a letter, advising him that a trademark lawsuit would begin soon if Yellen did not remove "Adventist" from his group's name! Now the denomination has threatened legal action over the single word, "Adventist". Yellen was in charge of a Jewish synagogue before he, with his group, converted to Adventism.

Millions and millions are being spent by the GC for these lawsuits (there are more than the above mentioned) while the growing trend in the denomination is to abandon our historic name!

The Texas Conference changed the name of three churches from "Seventh-day Adventist" to "Cross Points Adventist Fellowship" on all handbills, bulletins and PR/materials.

Their web site is: www.crosspointsonline.com.

In their church newsletter, dated January 2007, they state:

"As was announced several Sabbaths ago, the Church Board voted at its December meeting to change the name of the church - for community outreach and name recognition purposes - to CrossPoints Adventist Fellowship. The legal name will remain Corpus Christi Seventh-day Adventist Church......

"Another reason to think of ourselves in different terms is that we unconsciously use "SDA" as an ingrained part of our church's subcultural lingo. Church leaders, however, are now encouraging members and church organizations to instead use the single word "Adventist." emphasis mine.

"Adventist" conveys one of the central beliefs of the church, that Jesus is coming again soon. "SDA" does not. "SDA" can be confused with other entities. The Seventh-day Adventist church is a worldwide entity, commnunicating a message in more than 800 languages. In many of those languages, the initials are different, leading to confusion....The Seventh-day Adventist official website states that the preferred shortening of Seventh-day Adventist is to the word "Adventist" for all official or public communication. They state, "the Church's identity should always be clear and accessible." unquote.

We sue any group that uses SDA, or Seventh-day Adventist, that is not under the conference/General Conference umbrella. ---Yet we are now ashamed of the name and wish to eliminate it in our "official" churches!!

A couple years after the Geneva Agreement, to eliminate "Seventh-day", the General Conference announced that we should no longer call ourselves "SDAs," but only "Adventists." That was made a big issue.

I also question the REAL reason the GC wants to get rid of SDA on this website name. When Calvin was asked to "kindly find another name for your website", that is (in my humble opinion) a warning to do so or face a lawsuit....if only all the money (millions and millions) that the GC has spent on lawsuits be used for the spreading of the Gospel, what an impact that could have had worldwide!




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[WillowRun]

Seems to me there is prior claim to Advent...from wikipedia...

"Advent (from the Latin Adventus, implicitly coupled with Redemptoris, "the coming of the Saviour") is a holy season of the Christian church, the period of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Christ, also known as the season of Christmas. It is the beginning of the Western Christian year and commences on Advent Sunday. (The Eastern churches begin the year on 1 September.)

Adventus is the Latin word for "coming", and is the exact Latin equivalent for the Greek word parousia, commonly used in reference to the Second Coming. Thus the season of Advent serves a dual reminder of the original waiting that was done by the Hebrews for the birth of their Messiah as well as the waiting that Christians today endure as they await the second coming of Jesus the Christ."

I don't think they can sue over the name adventist any more than various baptist denomations can sue over baptist.

There is also Advent financial and Advent Software and Advent Computers.

There are some sick individuals out there suing over the name...

This post has been edited by WillowRun: Aug 19 2007, 08:20 PM

[Whtz Happenin]

I googled *sda* and sda is all over the place - alone and in words with very little or no connection to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. How can they patent or trademark something that everybody else is already using and has been using. Especially when it is part of a word like blacksda. It is like trying to trademark "th" anytime you find it in a word.

A few that come up are:
SDA = Solution Deployment Affiliates www.sda.com
SDA = The Soap and Detergent Association www.cleaning101.com
SDA = Survey Documentation and Analysis http://sda.berkeley.edu/
SDA = Smart Digital Assistant
SDA = Small Dead Animals www.smalldeadanimals.com
SDA = Speed Demos Archive
SDA = Social Development Agency
SDA = Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association
SDA = Simple Dictionary Applications

There are a "few" listed at this web link: http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/SDA Will all of these organizations be sued?
SDA Baghdad-Saddam International Airport
SDA Saboraud Dextrose Agar (fungal media)
SDA Saint Dominic Academy (Jersey City, New Jersey)
SDA Samba de Amigo (game)
SDA Scalable Disk Array
SDA Schweizerische Depeschenagentur (Swiss National News Agency)
SDA Scottish Dairy Association
SDA Scottish Development Agency
SDA Scottish Draughts Association
SDA Screen Design Aid
SDA Scuola Di Direzione Aziendale (Graduate Business School of Bocconi University, Milan, Italy)
SDA Security Domain Authority
SDA Sélection Directe à l'Arrivée (French; telecommunications)
SDA Self Decrypting Archive
SDA Self-Directed IRA
SDA Senseless Desire to Acquire
SDA Serial Digital to Analogue
SDA Service Delivery Agreement (UK)
SDA Service Delivery Application (Sprint)
SDA Service Delivery Area
SDA Setoff Debt Act
SDA Seventh-day Adventist (church)
SDA Severe Disability Allowance (UK)
SDA Sex Discrimination Act (UK - Law)
SDA Shanghai Drug Administration
SDA Shaolin-Do Association
SDA Shift & Disturbance Allowance (obsolete)
SDA Ship Design Agent
SDA Ship's Destination Authority
SDA Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (Australia)
SDA Short Dipole Antenna
SDA Sialodacryoadenitis
SDA Siemens Domestic Appliances
SDA Signal Diagnostic Agent
SDA Signore Degli Anelli
SDA Simple Direct Attack
SDA Singapore Democratic Alliance
SDA Single Digit Adapter (telecommunications)
SDA Single Direct Attack
SDA Small Departments and Agencies
SDA Soap and Detergent Association
SDA Society of Design Administration
SDA Software Design Activity
SDA Software Design Automation
SDA Software Development Asset
SDA Software Disk Array
SDA Solar Diffuser Assembly
SDA Soledad Assassins (Unreal gaming clan)
SDA Some Dumb xxx
SDA Source Data Automation
SDA Southern Domestic Airspace
SDA Spark Discharge in Air (excitation used in optical emission spectrometry)
SDA Spatial Data Analysis
SDA Special Duty Assignment
SDA Specially Denatured Alcohol
SDA Specific Dynamic Action
SDA Specific Dynamic Activity
SDA Spectral Domain Analysis
SDA Speed Disable Adjustment
SDA Spray Dryer Absorber
SDA Staff Duty Analysis (Civil Air Patrol)
SDA Standard Default Assumption
SDA Standish Development Association (Standish, Michigan)
SDA Static Data Authentication
SDA Static Dissipater Additive (fuels)
SDA Stealth Digital Analyzer
SDA Steam Driven Alternator
SDA Steepest Descent Algorithm
SDA Stepper Dispatch Algorithm (scheduling rule)
SDA Strand Displacement Amplification
SDA Stranka Demokratske Akcije Hrvatske (Party of Democratic Action of Croatia)
SDA Strategic Defense Architecture
SDA Strategic Dialogues & Alliances
SDA Structural Damage Assessor (insurance)
SDA Student Dietetic Association
SDA Subsea Distribution Assembly
SDA Surface Design Association
SDA Survey Documentation and Analysis
SDA System Dependability Analysis
SDA System Design Alternative
SDA System Design Analysis
SDA System Design Architecture
SDA System Display Architecture


This link has information about a suit http://www.adventistreview.org/2001-1521/news.html

[ShellyofTexas]

Is The General Conference Afraid Of Blacksda?

YES! For the same reasons why some Korea School Children don’t get art books.

“Informed Reason” is suggesting anything other than the traditional structure is negative in the eyes of the leadership especially when it comes from a Black owned site.

This site also contains so much 3ABN information that is the fuel for fire PLUS....Even in the SDA denomination some want Black people, the history, and their culture hidden ……..because out in the open people might start thinking for themselves……and THAT is what is truly dangerous.

What would be accomplished by changing the name of BlackSDA's website?

Progress would be slowed but NOT haulted.

Does the General Conference have some reason to want to suppress this information?

The leadership in this denomination does not reflect (and in some cases represent) the majority of it members. Knowledge is power. If the knowledge represented on this site is taken away from search engines or the net itself……then they will retain undeserved power.

This is just my opinion……

[Artiste]

...
Millions and millions are being spent by the GC for these lawsuits (there are more than the above mentioned) while the growing trend in the denomination is to abandon our historic name!
...
The Texas Conference changed the name of three churches from "Seventh-day Adventist" to "Cross Points Adventist Fellowship" on all handbills, bulletins and PR/materials.
...

A church plant in California's Ventura County named itself "Moorpark Community Church" with the full support of the Southern California Conference.


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This post has been edited by Artiste: Aug 20 2007, 01:52 AM

[lurker]

Maybe the GC would object to the words Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Or maybe usda (United States Department of Agriculture.

It would seem that Club Adventist and others are o.k. They are very commercial in my opinion. Why pick on Blacksda?

[watchbird]

Maybe the GC would object to the words Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Or maybe usda (United States Department of Agriculture.

It would seem that Club Adventist and others are o.k. They are very commercial in my opinion. Why pick on Blacksda?

I suggest that the clue is in the fact that BSDA is the ONLY forum which has allowed the 3abn saga to unfold unimpeded.

I don't thing "the GC" is afraid of BSDA. I doubt that "the GC" even knows what is going on. I do, however, think that someone has given this particular GC lawyer reason to think that there is something here that should be squelched.

This post has been edited by watchbird: Aug 20 2007, 06:56 AM

[Observer]

I suggest that the clue is in the fact that BSDA is the ONLY forum which has allowed the 3abn saga to unfold unimpeded.

I don't thing "the GC" is afraid of BSDA. I doubt that "the GC" even knows what is going on. I do, however, think that someone has given this particular GC lawyer reason to think that there is something here that should be squelched.

FTI:

The General Conference inquired of MSDAOL several years ago. They granted permission to use trademarks after they determined that MSDAOL was affiliated with the Maritime Conference, and under the supervision of its President.

The General Conference has been in contact with Club Adventist on the same issue. This has not been resolved.

BSDA is not the only one.

This post has been edited by Observer: Aug 20 2007, 12:38 PM

[lurker]

So the GC picks on all groups equally. Are we able as individuals then to call ourselves SDAs or Seventh-day Adventists or do we need their permission to use the name?

[Observer]

FTI:

The General Conference inquired of MSDAOL several years ago. They granted permission to use trademarks after they determined that MSDAOL was affiliated with the Maritime Conference, and under the supervision of its President.

The General Conference has been in contact with Club Adventist on the same issue. This has not been resolved.

BSDA is not the only one.

Let us not get paranoid here.

Calvin is likely to be granted a liacense to use the General Conference trademarks.

The Office of General Council wants to know that Calvin is not profiting, or otherwise using BSDA for commercial purposes. As part of that, they want Calvin to assure them that any "banner advertisements" that may appear on this website are not as a result of him "renting" BSDA Space to their owners.

Once Calvin assures the Office of General Council that he is not using their trademarks in a commercial manner, they can be expected to grant him a license to use them.

This post has been edited by Observer: Aug 20 2007, 12:38 PM

[lurker]

We'll be watching for it.