The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints noted in a court filing today that it is not trying to stop a podcaster who criticizes the faith from using the word "Mormon."
The church filed a lawsuit in April against "Mormon Stories" podcaster John Dehlin after mediation failed to resolve a dispute over whether his website illegally mimics church trademarks.
The filing argued that Dehlin has committed trademark law's cardinal sin by using similar marking and branding to confuse consumers, drawing many to his videos and podcasts under the ruse that they are official church products.
The church contends that Dehlin intentionally, willfully and knowingly created confusion by using logos similar to the church's and some of the church's copyrighted photographs. It calls those actions misleading.
The church also claimed that Mormon Stories misappropriated its Christus logo.
"Mr. Dehlin can criticize the church as he chooses, and he can use Mormon in connection with his podcast," the church's attorneys stated in the new filing, a response to Dehlin's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
"But Federal law prohibits (Dehlin and the Open Stories Foundation) from pilfering the church's copyrighted images or using its trademarks in ways that are likely to cause people to believe that defendants or their content are associated with the church," today's filing stated. "The First Amendment protects defendants' speech; it does not license them to appropriate the church's marks and images."
Even so, the church argued that Dehlin uses the term "Mormon Stories" as a trademark, even if he hasn't registered it. The church has a registered trademark for "Book of Mormon Stories."
Dehlin has conceded that he used some church photographs without permission and that some of his logos and marks were similar to the church's.
He told the Deseret News that "Mormon Stories" made changes after receiving a letter from the church's intellectual property manager in November. The Open Stories Foundation changed the color of the Mormon Stories logo to orange and altered its style, and it removed church-copyrighted images.
"We believe our use (of the images) qualifies as fair use," Dehlin told the Deseret News in an email. "Despite that, in response to their recent requests, we agreed to remove the images they identified from our website and podcast thumbnails."
Dehlin also said that Mormon Stories added the church's preferred disclaimer language to the podcast description on each of its platforms.
When the church asked Dehlin to place those disclaimers at the beginning of "Mormon Stories" videos and podcasts, he refused.
The church's filing today stated that the disclaimers are difficult to find. The disclaimer on the main Mormon Stories website is found at the bottom, "after scrolling the equivalent of four pages, the church argued.
On the YouTube and Spotify pages, the disclaimer is found only after clicking on a link to learn more about Mormon Stories.
"This case is not about silencing criticism," the church's attorneys stated in today's filing. "The church's claims do not target the content of defendants' speech at all. Nor is it about ownership or control of the word 'Mormon.' The church made this clear in its complaint. Rather, this case is about eliminating the confusion caused by defendants' mimicking the church's trademarks and using its copyrighted images without permission."
The attorneys asked the court to deny Dehlin's motion to dismiss.
The "cardinal sin" under the Lanham Act," they stated, quoting another court ruling, "is to 'confuse consumers about source — to make (some of) them think that one producer's products are another's.'"
The filing contended that Dehlin and Open Stories violated the law "not simply by identifying as 'Mormon Stories,' but also by using logos, fonts, color schemes, copyrighted images and other branding that misleadingly suggests affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints."
The court now will determine whether to grant Dehlin's motion to dismiss the case or deny it and allow the church's lawsuit to proceed.
Dehlin launched "Mormon Stories" in 2005. Local church leaders subsequently asked him to stop spreading what they called "false concepts," and he refused.
They excommunicated Dehlin in 2015, but the church did not seek to keep him from using the term "Mormon." Its lawsuit does not ask the court to do so, either.
The church's filing noted that a U.S. District Court set a precedent that "It is well established that religious institutions are entitled to the protection of the trademark laws ... to the same extent as commercial enterprises."
"Religious organizations rely on their names, symbols, and other trademarks to identify themselves and convey messages important to their missions," today's filing by the Church of Jesus Christ said.
Still, Dehlin has focused his responses to the church's trademark lawsuit, both in court filings and public comments, on the idea that the church is suing him over the word, "Mormon."
The church stated in the original lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of Utah, that Dehlin and "Mormon Stories" used the term "Mormon" together with a blue logo with fonts and design elements like light rays to imitate church logos and sow confusion. It stated that the confusion began in 2016.
The church regularly moves to enforce its trademarks. Most matters are resolved privately and amicably, the church stated in an April post on its official website.
The church pursues legal remedies when necessary, the post said. For example, it filed opposition with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office when Heather Gay of the TV show "The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City" applied for an official trademark for the term "Bad Mormon" in 2023. Gay withdrew her application in 2024 and the office entered a judgment against her.