The Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church filed a trademark infringement suit against SDA Kinship in a federal district court in California. SDA Kinship is an independent support organization for gay and lesbian SDAs. The suit omitted any reference to sexual orientation, alleging only that by using “SDA” in its name, Kinship was confusing the public and thereby receiving moneys from contributors who thought they were donating to an official church entity—as if strangers to any organization ever donate in the first place! Several of us, as Kinship officers, were deposed in preparation for the trial.

On October 3, 1991, the district judge ruled that Kinship’s use of “SDA” and “Seventh-day Adventist” did not infringe on the mother church's rights, and the public would not be confused, because Kinship is not a church. “Seventh-day Adventist” was generic as used by Kinship in that it merely identified the religious persuasion of the persons for whom the organization existed. Thus Kinship prevailed and could continue to use the identifying name. The Church was required to pay Kinship’s out-of-pocket expenses incurred in its defense.

The Church did not appeal the decision.

Although the decision in this case has not been published, a complete transcript of it is available upon request from SDA Kinship International, Inc.

At about the time of this case, there was a flurry of lawsuits and appeals related to the question of how much the Seventh-day Adventist Church could restrict use of the monikers in question (typically involving breakaway congregations). The Kinship

decision was cited in some of those, including this one, for example. To quickly find the relevant citation in this example, search for “Kinship” in the document itself (not in the Google search field).

                                                                       - LH