Fighting over M-22
From staff reports
Matt and Keegan Myers’ M-22 brand is back in the news, but for the wrong reasons.
The iconic logo, of course, graces t-shirts, hats, coffee cups, bumper stickers, wine, and other items sold at retail stores in Traverse City and in Glen Arbor. The Myers brothers, who live on Old Mission Peninsula and run the annual M-22 Challenge, have made a killing since trademarking the logo about a decade ago. Sales reached $2 million this year, reports the Wall Street Journal.
But the Journal ran a story this week, and Michigan Radio followed with this piece, about Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette’s opinion this spring that: “Both federal and Michigan law support the conclusion that no entity may lawfully commandeer the Michigan route marker design as its exclusive trademark because the design is in the public domain.”
“They didn’t build it,” says Carolyn Sutherland, owner of the Good Hart General Store, who sought the ruling on behalf of her souvenir shop along Highway M-119 in Good Hart, Mich., using a familiar campaign refrain this year. Pointing at her store, she added: “I built that, and I should be able to sell my own address.”
M-22 winds up the scenic coast of northwest-lower Michigan, and through the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which was judged America’s “most beautiful place” last year by the ABC show Good Morning America. Indeed, M-22 may be among the most picturesque roads in the nation. The Myers brothers consider it more than a state highway; they consider it “a way of life”.
Wall Street Journal reporter Matt Dolan writes that cease and desist orders from the Myers brothers’ lawyer — Glen Arbor resident Enrico Schaefer — have stopped most other vendors from selling merchandise with a Michigan state highway sign logo, but Schuette’s ruling may have opened the door for these vendors.
“The US Trademark Office has guaranteed the right to trademark,” Schaefer told the Glen Arbor Sun. “So the Michigan Attorney General’s opinion has no basis in law. They say public domain items can’t be trademarked. But Ford Motor Company has a blue oval in its logo that comes out of public domain, and Liberty Mutual has the Statue of Liberty. The notion that the M-22 brand is stealing something from the public is ridiculous. The trademark has nothing to do with the public use of the roadside — the only limitation is that no one else can use it commercially as a brand.”
“No one has right to steal what M-22 has created, Schaefer added. “Similarly, should five Leelanau Coffee Roasters get to open in downtown Glen Arbor just because the original company uses the name ‘Leelanau’?”
What do you think? Should the Myers brothers continue to maintain their trademark on the brand they have marketed and developed, or is a state highway sign part of the public commons that belongs to us all? Your comments are welcome below …
