Red Cross Emblem in Video Games
Via the Video Game Law Blog. Apparently the Canadian Red Cross has started a bit of a campaign to curb the use of the Red Cross emblem in video games.
In a January 30, 2006 letter addressed to Mr. Chris Bennett (one of the authors of the Video Game Law Blog), the Canadian Red Cross mentions that it is concerned about the use of the Red Cross emblem in video games to depict Red Cross facilities and vehicles in combat situations. The Canadian Red Cross feels that emblem displays in videos which contain strong language and violence directly conflicts with the Red Cross’s humanitarian principles. A pdf copy of the letter is posted on the Video Game Law Blog.
As mentioned in one of my previous posts, our Trade-marks Act currently legislates the Red Cross and the Red Crescent as prohibited marks. For example, section9(1)(f) reads:
9. (1) No person shall adopt in connection with a business, as a trade-mark or otherwise, any mark consisting of, or so nearly resembling as to be likely to be mistaken for,
(f) the emblem of the Red Cross on a white ground, formed by reversing the federal colours of Switzerland and retained by the Geneva Convention for the Protection of War Victims of 1949 as the emblem and distinctive sign of the Medical Service of armed forces and used by the Canadian Red Cross Society, or the expression “Red Cross” or “Geneva Cross”
The Canadian Red Cross, in their letter, takes the position that such adoption and use is unlawful (s. 11 provides the prohibition against “use”). However, being somewhat unfamiliar with video game law, I think that one of the more interesting issues now raised is whether the display of the Red Cross emblem inside a video game would even constitute adoption/use “in connection with a business”.
Maybe Mr. Bennett knows of some case law that is on point. But in the absence of such case law, I could see some video game developers trying to argue that use of the Red Cross Emblem inside a video game is not use of the mark in connection with a business; and that such use is therefore not prohibited by the Act.
That also leads me to the following scenario… what about showing actual Red Cross vehicles displaying the emblem as part of a TV news clip. This is done often by various TV news media. Would such a news clip also be an adoption in connection with a business? I suspect not, but again I don’t know the answer for sure.
Interesting little issue…