AMORC enters the Golden Dawn Wars

The venerable Rosicrucian Order AMORC appears to have entered the Golden Dawn wars by opening a trademark dispute with David Griffin’s Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Outer Order of the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega.

At issue was the use of the words and logo on Griffin’s own trademark. The words involved were the “Rosicrucian Order” which AMORC felt were too similar to its own trademark.

Griffin said he had trademarked the term the Rosicrucian Order in Europe and anyway, it was generic.

“The fact that AMORC is only one of many Rosicrucian orders is further made evident by the Wikipedia article on Rosicrucianism. Rosicrucianism is a school of thought, a school of thought with a corresponding body of tenets and beliefs, in the same way that capitalism, socialism, anarchism,” Griffin’s brief wrote.

Griffin also said that the Griffin was granted sole and exclusive ownership to the name “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Outer Order of the Rosicrucian Order of the Alpha et Omega by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.”

He issued a counterclaim which asked that AMORC no longer be able to call itself “ORDO ROSAE CRUCIS.”

AMORC said that it had some prior art on the term and anyway Griffin could not prove he had a business presence in Europe. This will be news to many as Griffin claims his order has lots of groups operating in Europe.

Griffin is finding himself in the same position as Chic Cicero. Cicero took the trademark Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn mostly to prevent Griffin from trademarking it. There was a fear that Griffin would use the trademark to shut down other groups, specifically those run by Robert Zink, although it was felt that really anyone calling itself Golden Dawn could be shut down.

Griffin objected, and while most of the world felt that the name “Golden Dawn” was generic, it suddenly found that it was possible to trademark it. Griffin did not get control of the name, which is why there are still lots of different Golden Dawn groups out there.

This case is going to run and run, unless Griffin or AMORC backs down. According to the course list things are not going to be tied up at least until 2014.

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