The LNC Executive Committee met:
- Came to order at 4:05 PM EST. All LNC Executive Committee members were present.
- The Executive Committee moved to go into Executive Session to discuss commencing legal action in Michigan.
- They returned not quite two hours later.
- There will be a motion to authorize the filing of a trademark action in Michigan using the remaining allocated funds for the legal opinion ($7000) plus an additional $5000 from a budget line.
- Debate was in executive session.
- Hagopian no. Others Yes.
- The vote is 5 – 1, the chair voting yes, one absent, then moved to adjourn, passed without objection just before 6PM.
The LNC’s trademark claim to the name “Libertarian Party” has always been fraudulent. That would be the case even if there was a place in libertarian ideology for the anti-concept of “intellectual property.” There isn’t.
This is a waste of money. The Ninth Circuit already rejected the Libertarian Party’s trademark lawsuit in 2012 in Washington State Republican Party v Washington State Grange, and there is no precedent that trademark can be used for this type of situation.