BNSF Railway Responds To Logo Woe’s

If you have not read our blog from yesterday, Legal Logo Woes then you should. We told you about a citizen who emailed the city and after publishing our blog, we heard from many residents who also emailed the city, and got the same stock answer.

The City of Frisco does not own the “Frisco” logo.  The BNSF Railway Company owns the rights to the logo and has granted a license to the City for the right to use the logo under certain circumstances.  The license agreement does not address use of the logo by candidates in City or other elections.  Whether a candidate may use the logo or not is a matter of federal trademark and/or copyright law.  The City does not have jurisdiction to enforce federal trademark or copyright law.”

The resident did not ask about the trademark of the logo it asked about the city’s rule posted on their website and in the candidate packet stating you could not use the Frisco Logo in campaigning. The city made that rule and published it so the city should be able to enforce it, especially with a sitting council member. Why publish it if you can’t, won’t, or don’t want to enforce it?

We emailed BNSF Railway to ask if the use of the city logo that they own, means and should be interpreted as they endorse John Keating and Angelia Pelham? They responded with we have forwarded this to our legal department. If the answer is no, they do not endorse these candidates, we plan to ask about Mayor Cheney’s use of the city logo in his campaign material in his 2023 election. We will let you know what we hear back!

1 Comment

  1. Jeffrey Gray

    If BNSF chooses to allow the unauthorized use and or alteration of its registered Trademark then it risks losing their federal trademark protection. The symbol would then be freely available to any uses by anyone.

    Reply

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