Does the organization headquartered at 25 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn have some kind of exclusive rights to the name "Jehovah's witness?" I noticed some of the recent letters from them posted here are signed "Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses." What if I wanted to start my own "Christian congregation of Jehovah's witnesses" that had no affiliation whatsoever with 25 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn? Would I get in some kind of trouble for using the name? What if I went around calling myself a "Jehovah's witness" because I believed myself to be a witness of Jehovah but openly stated that I did not believe the things in the WT? I've seen people put a little (TM) after the name sometimes as a joke, but I was wondering if the org actually does have some kind of hold on the use of the name. The recent thread below, sheds some light on it, but is there more info available on the question? See
Exclusive use of the name "Jehovah's witness"
by InterestedOne 18 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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Band on the Run
I would think one could be a witness to Jehovah or Jehovah's witness. It would be wrong and maybe illegal to hold yourself out as "Jehovah's Witnesses.
Big Love on HBO shows a similar battle over the name Mormon between mainstream LDS and spin-offs. This area of law has always been murky for me. Jehovah is used, however, not just by the Witnesses but a handful of others. Great Jehovah, Jehovah jumping fat and others are usages. It was Jehovah a couple of centuries ago.This would make a good law review. Before you rely on answers, I'd check their legal credentials. Too much casual legal advice goes on here. Sorry I did not know more.
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InterestedOne
The thought occurred to me not because I have anything in the works for a spinoff group, although the Big Love treatment of the problem sounds interesting. I was generally thinking about how, with groups like Mormons & Watchtower, we assume they have exclusive use of words like "Church of Jesus Christ" or "Jehovah's witness" or even "Bible student." If I'm having a conversation with a Jehovah's Witness (TM) and tell them I don't want to be a Jehovah's Witness, those very words out of my mouth literally say I don't want to be a witness of Jehovah. I could very well want to be a witness of Jehovah but not subscribe to the ideas of a Jehovah's witness (TM). Plug in "Bible student" if I'm talking to a Bible Student (TM), and now it sounds like I'm saying I don't want to be a Bible student. The Bible Student (TM) can say, "that's ok, it's your choice if you don't want to be a Bible student." How aweful! I was just wondering if the WT has actually taken possession of the name "Jehovah's witness" legally, or if it's another one of those situations where we give the WT more power than they actually have by assuming they're the only ones who can call themselves "Jehovah's witnesses."
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dgp
I really don't know if they have exclusive rights to that name, or to the names they are known for elsewhere. However, if I were to start a different church, why call it with a name that people already use for an existing denomination?
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moshe
Just say, "I'm a Jehovah's Witness", and see what people think of you.
You might as well name your new people repellent after the JWs- at least people would know what they are getting.
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Satanus
Since it was invented by the catholic church, i don't see how the wt corp could legally get exclusivity for it.
S
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blondie
JEHOVAH'S CHRISTIAN WITNESSES
Duane Magnani of Witness, Inc. (born-again Christians) used this name to register a whole slew of telephone recorded message ministries years ago. I used to have a message that was registered with the phone company as "Jehovah's Christian Witnesses" because it came up first alphabetically in the phone book, causing Witnesses to think it might be actual active Jdubs. I did it too, and for over 10 years it was in the phone book that way! I got tired of Witnesses calling and asking directions to the Kingdom Hall, plus recorded messages have largely been superceded by the internet, so I closed the phone line down. As a business line it was expensive anyway, and yielded not good results. It WAS very helpful back in 1982 or 1983 when I had a plane fly over Dodger Stadium (this was 2 years after I left Bethel, and had already distributed 10,000 free copies of my tract, "What Happened at the World Headquarters of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Spring of 1980" all over the world. That's how my ministry got started.
Several people called the hotline. The banner on the plane said, "1980 Bethel Shakeup - 310-546-2937" and it had the 1980 message. By the way, the tract is here:
http://www.freeminds.org/history/whathapp.htm
This was out a year before Ray Franz did his book, and so it was the first published record of an ex-Bethelite documenting what happened during the Franz incident: http://www.freeminds.org/bethel/incident.htm
So there's a little history for ya! By the way, several families got out of the Jdubs from that airplane banner. They went to the bathroom and wrote down the number in secrecy. Over the next 1-6 years, some would call me and thank me for helping them get out. It had taken years for some of the seeds to work, or it just took them years to thank me. By the way, the Jdubs were really pissed, and they banned small planes from flying over Dodger Stadium! LOL
Not bad for a $400 investment.
I can see it now: Friends, PAY NO ATTENTION to the apostate plane flying overhead!!
Cracks me up.
Randy Watters
http://www.exjws.net http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/jw/friends/78640/1/Jehovahs-Christian-Witnesses
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OnTheWayOut
They probably have the names all registered legally where they can. They probably cannot keep total exclusivity, but combining their exact registered names in the countries they have registered them would be some kind of violation.
Toy R Us did some kind of nationwide blitz to register every last "R Us" names they could. They wanted to minimize use of that title by people totally unconnected to them. That's why there's no Mufflers R Us chain.
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dgp
LOL Moshe.
Why not have a game called "Escape from the Watchtower"?
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InterestedOne
I would be curious to see what names they have registered. Also, it just occurred to me that this kind of branding feels wrong to me. It seems almost as bad as if I created a group with the registered name "good persons." Then someone could not call him/herself a good person unless they were part of my group.