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Military medals and ribbons stay out of private trademarks
The amendment would carve out Defense and Armed Forces awards from federal trademark rules. It also lets existing lawful users keep using a mark already in service.
Private companies would lose a route to trademark official military medals, ribbons and awards under a Senate amendment. The measure would keep those honors off the federal government's main trademark list, while letting Defense Department and military agencies register marks they control and letting current lawful users keep using them.
The idea is to treat symbols of military service differently from ordinary brands. If the controlling agency or department wants to register one of those marks, it could do so at its discretion, but the symbols would not be open to private ownership in the same way as a commercial logo.
Keeping the marks public
The amendment also tries to avoid collateral damage for people and groups already using a mark lawfully. Its savings clause says continued use can go on after enactment, including by a nonprofit organization, so long as the use was already lawful before that date.
What changes is who gets to claim the federal registration. After enactment, no person or entity other than the relevant government agency or department could register one of those marks on the principal register, the federal list that carries the most weight in trademark disputes.