As many USians have done or will do soon, I fulfilled my civic duty today. Since I vote in Washington State and have recently moved to New York City, I voted by absentee ballot.
Here's a (washed out) snapshot of the envelope that my ballot will be making its way across the country in:
You can tell, from the logo in the top middle of the envelope that it is Official Election Mail.
Here's a close up of that logo, reserved "for use by election officials" by the postal service to, as noted here, "enhance the identification and ensure proper handling of this important type of official communication." Here is a clearer shot of the logo:
You can tell, from the "TM" in the logo, that Official Election Mail is a trademark.
This is completely ridiculous. Trademark law is created to to keep consumers from being confused by manufacturers trying to unfairly capitalize off the goodwill created by one company; to allow consumers to associate a certain level of quality with a certain brand or company. There is hardly a market in Official Election Mail. As much as I would like to shop around for a better ballot when I find the choices on mine lacking, this is not the case.
I can think of any numbers of different legal ways to stop people from putting Official Election Mail logos on the top of their mail -- mail fraud and election tampering are simply the first two that come to mind. Trademarks (and every branch of IP for that matter) were created as limited and narrowly defined legal instruments to fulfill a particular purpose. They were not all-purpose ways to keep people from saying things you rather they not say. This is not a trademark issue and it doesn't need to be.
By asserting a trademark in a place where one is not necessary and where historically trademarks would not be used, it's a symptom and a reinforcement of the the "IP for everything" culture. It is an expansion and an abuse.
Trademarks still strike me as mostly pro-consumer and they're the arm of intellectual property law that I have the least significant problems with. This sort of thing makes me reconsider that position.
