Confused City Council Candidate Trademarks Local School’s Logo And Demands Licensing Fees

There is so much nuance to trademark law that it's not surprising when some in the public don't understand how it all works. This leads to all kinds of mistakes in terms of people thinking trademark law works in ways it does not. But the worst of these aren't mistakes, but instead when opportunists think that they can use trademark law as a gotcha" money-generating scheme.

Meet Kierstan Belle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Belle is currently running for a city council seat. For reasons I can't quite make out even when I squint at them, Belle claims she managed to trademark the logo for the Gettysburg Area School District and is now demanding a licensing arrangement be made with the school district and a company that sells school apparel locally.

Kierstan (Demps) Belle, who is running for a seat in the Gettysburg Borough First Ward, posted a screenshot Tuesday on Facebook of an email sent to GASD officials, where she requested a meeting to discuss the terms and conditions of our licensing fee."

Belle, a 2010 Gettysburg Area High School graduate, confirmed Wednesday she did take down the post, alleging her words were twisted and put on the Gettysburg Crimes" Facebook page. Belle, who serves on the Adams County Advisory Council to the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, claims she wanted to use her business to define what it truly means to be a Gettysburg warrior."

However, she was not forthcoming with that definition.

That's not all she failed to produce, based on several different reports of all this. She also apparently hasn't been able to show anyone thus far the paperwork for the trademark registration. Does she actually have a trademark? We don't currently know for sure, but given how confused Belle is regarding how the rest of trademark law works, I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't!

For instance, the idea here appeared to be something like: I got a trademark on the logo the district has been using for years so now you have to pay me money.

With this purchase of the trademark and redefining what it means to be a warrior," Belle said the district will have to uphold those values" to continue using the trademark.

Um, no. No for several reasons, actually. For starters, there is no evidence Belle or her company is currently using the mark in commerce. Nor does there appear to be any real plans to, beyond milking money via licensing agreements. That's a problem.

Also a problem is the fact that the district almost certainly has common law trademark rights to the logo at a bare minimum, having already been using it for, again, years.

GASD Board President Kenneth Hassinger confirmed Wednesday the district received correspondence from Belle that she either applied or is attempting to copyright or trademark the GASD logo.

I would anticipate Gettysburg Area School District would vigorously argue and fight for what we believe belongs to the district," Hassinger said. Warrior spirit is defined by the alumni, current students, staff and employees and can be defined to mean different things to different individuals."

But all of this isn't stopping Belle from demanding these licensing agreements from both the school district and Pel Athletic, which currently sells clothing and accessories depicting the logo in local storefronts. If all of this sounds like opportunistic extortion to you, or at the very least bilking taxpayer money for doing nothing at all productive, well, it isn't. Because... a community center!

Belle did not explain why she thought it was acceptable to try to force the school to give her taxpayers' money to use a logo that has been part of the school's heritage for years. Belle claimed she is planning to use the alleged licensing fee to give back to the community through her business, but claims she has not determined the cost of the fee yet.

I am looking at creating a community center," Belle claimed. There has always been a community need. Our children and families need a collective place to be. They need a home base. The fees would go toward creating that."

Even if Belle actually did manage to get this trademark approved, which I very much doubt, it won't matter. The school is on solid footing here and, assuming that it entered into an arrangement with Pel Athletic, the company is, too. Trademark law doesn't allow you to just trademark something another party has been using for years and then force them to pay you for it.

Also... this is someone that our friends in Gettysburg are really considering putting in government?