post Tuesday July 3, 2012
The famous video made by the foundation invisible children, Kony 2012, captured the hearts of people all over the world when it was released earlier this year. It urged the people to spread the word and make Joseph Kony famous, in an attempts to get the U.S government to intervene in Uganda’s on going war and capture Joseph Kony.
Kony has allegedly abducted tens of thousands of kids and forced them to join his army or become sex slaves.
The organization behind the video, Invisible Children, has however been highly criticized and was the subject of several controversies. One of which was a video made of the founder running around the streets naked yelling at by-passers.
Now however they are once again facing criticisms not relating to their overall mission. The Invisible Children has threatened a website, Kickstriker.com, to sue for violations of its Kony 2012 and Invisible Children trade mark.
Kickstriker.com is a satirical website created by students at the NYU, aimed at making humorous, albeit dark, parodies of political issues. Kickstriker is a spoof of the actual website Kickstarter.com. The latter is a crowd funding website aimed at funding creative projects.
In an attempts to put the Kony 2012 parodies to a stop, Invisible Children has sent Kickstriker a cease-and-desist order.
Kickstriker on the other hand claims it has not undergone any copyright or trade mark violations as their use of “Kony 2012” and “Invisible Children” is marked by the fair use doctrine and hence does not qualify as a violation.
Hopefully the issue will be resolved and Invisible Children can go back to focus on the purpose it was created for.
source: SanDiegoTrademarkAttorney, BBCNewsAfrica: JosephKonyProfile
Image: Penn State
