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I find this to be tragically hilarious. 
As the leading breast-cancer charity, Susan G. Komen For the Cure helped make "for the cure" a staple of the fund-raising vernacular.
The slogan is so popular that dozens of groups have sought to trademark names incorporating the phrase. Among them are "Juggling for a Cure," "Bark for the Cure," and "Blondes for the Cure."
Komen sees this as imitation, and it's not flattered. Instead, it's launching a not-so-friendly legal battle against kite fliers, kayakers and dozens of other themed fund-raisers that it contends are poaching its name. And it's sternly warning charities against dabbling with pink, its signature hue.
"It is startling to us that Komen thinks they own pink," says Mary Ann Tighe, who tangled with the breast-cancer charity over the color for her "Kites for a Cure" lung-cancer fund-raiser. "We cannot allow ourselves to be bullied to no purpose."
Komen's general counsel, Jonathan Blum, said in an email: "We see it as responsible stewardship of our donor's funds."
Trademark turf battles characteristic of sharp-elbowed corporations are erupting across the typically amicable world of nonprofits. Charities raising money for the same cause are getting into dust-ups over fonts, logo designs and other branding minutia.
Nonprofits say the details are no small matter. Some groups contend they have lost sizeable donations when donors mistakenly wrote checks to another charity with a similar name.
Last year, Ms. Tighe's Uniting Against Lung Cancer got a letter from Komen requesting it change the name of the charity's "Kites for a Cure" fund-raiser, a beach event featuring hand-decorated kites, to "Kites for a Cause," or another name. Komen later warned her against any use of pink in conjunction with "cure."
Ms. Tighe dug in her heels. She refused to change her group's name or declare pink off limits even though, she says, her group hadn't used the color. "We don't want to be the color police," says Ms. Tighe, who didn't feel she was poaching Komen's slogan.
But as the legal battle ensued, her group agreed to a truce where it would limit the use of the event name to lung-cancer activities, and it promised to stay away from the pink ribbons made popular by Komen. Mr. Blum characterized the negotiations as "cordial and productive."
Ms. Tighe didn't see it the same way. "It's just silly," she says. Some charities, such as "Juggling for a Cure," say they weren't aware Komen used a similar slogan. Others, including "Kayak for a Cure," say they were aware of Komen's name.
"The days are probably over when nonprofits just said, 'We'll just get along with anybody who's a nonprofit because we're all trying to do good here,'" said Andrew Price, a trademark attorney at Venable LLP in Washington.
More than two years ago, Cheryl Colleluori set out to trademark "HEADstrong," the moniker of her blood-cancer charity. She says her son Nicholas, who had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, came up with the name before he died in 2006. His nickname was "Head."
Ms. Colleluori ran into trouble with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the advocacy group of the cyclist and cancer survivor. Its logo on its website is "LIVESTRONG," in black against a yellow background, with "strong" in bold.
In an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Armstrong's foundation told Ms. Colleluori's group that "strong" should never be bolded or colored differently to emphasize it vis-a-vis "head." It added that the color yellow shouldn't appear in connection with "HEADstrong."
"Your client's use of the color gold is of great concern to LAF because it appears to be very close to the color yellow," the Lance Armstrong Foundation wrote in an email to Ms. Colleluori's attorney.
Ms. Colleluori, who says the family was vaguely aware of Mr. Armstrong's brand when it dubbed its charity, is reluctantly considering a name change. "I just can't stand the stress and anxiety and the wasted effort," she says.
The slogan is so popular that dozens of groups have sought to trademark names incorporating the phrase. Among them are "Juggling for a Cure," "Bark for the Cure," and "Blondes for the Cure."
Komen sees this as imitation, and it's not flattered. Instead, it's launching a not-so-friendly legal battle against kite fliers, kayakers and dozens of other themed fund-raisers that it contends are poaching its name. And it's sternly warning charities against dabbling with pink, its signature hue.
"It is startling to us that Komen thinks they own pink," says Mary Ann Tighe, who tangled with the breast-cancer charity over the color for her "Kites for a Cure" lung-cancer fund-raiser. "We cannot allow ourselves to be bullied to no purpose."
Komen's general counsel, Jonathan Blum, said in an email: "We see it as responsible stewardship of our donor's funds."
Trademark turf battles characteristic of sharp-elbowed corporations are erupting across the typically amicable world of nonprofits. Charities raising money for the same cause are getting into dust-ups over fonts, logo designs and other branding minutia.
Nonprofits say the details are no small matter. Some groups contend they have lost sizeable donations when donors mistakenly wrote checks to another charity with a similar name.
Last year, Ms. Tighe's Uniting Against Lung Cancer got a letter from Komen requesting it change the name of the charity's "Kites for a Cure" fund-raiser, a beach event featuring hand-decorated kites, to "Kites for a Cause," or another name. Komen later warned her against any use of pink in conjunction with "cure."
Ms. Tighe dug in her heels. She refused to change her group's name or declare pink off limits even though, she says, her group hadn't used the color. "We don't want to be the color police," says Ms. Tighe, who didn't feel she was poaching Komen's slogan.
But as the legal battle ensued, her group agreed to a truce where it would limit the use of the event name to lung-cancer activities, and it promised to stay away from the pink ribbons made popular by Komen. Mr. Blum characterized the negotiations as "cordial and productive."
Ms. Tighe didn't see it the same way. "It's just silly," she says. Some charities, such as "Juggling for a Cure," say they weren't aware Komen used a similar slogan. Others, including "Kayak for a Cure," say they were aware of Komen's name.
"The days are probably over when nonprofits just said, 'We'll just get along with anybody who's a nonprofit because we're all trying to do good here,'" said Andrew Price, a trademark attorney at Venable LLP in Washington.
More than two years ago, Cheryl Colleluori set out to trademark "HEADstrong," the moniker of her blood-cancer charity. She says her son Nicholas, who had non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, came up with the name before he died in 2006. His nickname was "Head."
Ms. Colleluori ran into trouble with the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the advocacy group of the cyclist and cancer survivor. Its logo on its website is "LIVESTRONG," in black against a yellow background, with "strong" in bold.
In an email reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Armstrong's foundation told Ms. Colleluori's group that "strong" should never be bolded or colored differently to emphasize it vis-a-vis "head." It added that the color yellow shouldn't appear in connection with "HEADstrong."
"Your client's use of the color gold is of great concern to LAF because it appears to be very close to the color yellow," the Lance Armstrong Foundation wrote in an email to Ms. Colleluori's attorney.
Ms. Colleluori, who says the family was vaguely aware of Mr. Armstrong's brand when it dubbed its charity, is reluctantly considering a name change. "I just can't stand the stress and anxiety and the wasted effort," she says.
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