Press Secretary
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn®
(EU Trademark Registration 000063925)
Our order, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn® (OHIM reg. 000063925) has fought a long and expensive legal campaign to protect diversity in the Golden Dawn community. This is the only reason there still exists a plethora of free and independent Golden Dawn orders today. We fought for freedom, we fought for diversity, and in the end we prevailed! Our victories have not come without sacrifice, however, and there have indeed been casualties.
The long dormant Golden Dawn trademark conflict raised its ugly head again earlier this month when our order's Facebook Page and Group was attacked and downed on May 5, 2104. Despite the face that our order is the sole and exclusive owner of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn® trademark in all 33 countries of the EU (OHIM reg. 000063925), a complaint to Facebook nonetheless alleged infringement of the American Golden Dawn trademark. The US trademark owner quickly attemtped to distance itself from this act of naked legal aggression - claiming the complaint was a forgery. This does not, however, relieve the Americans of responsibility for what is doen with their trademark, however. The fact remains that three weeks have come and gone and our order - even today - has still not received the simple "letter of consent" required by Facebook to restore our Facebook presence and to set to right an unparalleled act of legal agression.
Our order does not at all wish to see another Golden Dawn trademark war. We encourage peace and harmony in the Golden Dawn community. We will not, however, stand by idly while our order and its leaders are endlessly defamed on the Internet by parties attempting to foment schism in our order, and while ruse and deception are employed to legally attack our order's social media presence. We certainly do want peace, but we will defend ourselves in the face of such naked aggression.
Here is the message from our imperator that was censored in reply to the other party's PR spin message:
5/18/14
To whom it may concern,
My name is David Griffin. I am Imperator of The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega.
We are the sole and exclusive owners of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn® trademark in the European Union (reg. 000063925) and additionally own the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn International® trademark in Canada (CIPO Reg. TMA510387). In the United States, we operate by legal agreement adopted by the United States District Court as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, outer order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha et Omega.® We additionally own the R.R. et A.C. trademark of our Second Order, Ordo Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis® (CIPO Reg. TMA506051) and the Alpha et Omega trademark of our three order superstructure founded by S.L. Macgregor Mathers in 1906, Ordo Rosae Crucis, Alpha et Omega® (CIPO Reg. TMA508937)
As most people here in the esoteric community are already aware, on May 5, 2014 our order's entire Facebook presence was disabled as follows:
Facebook Notice Number: 736149206406882Facebook Page: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - Alpha OmegaFacebook Group: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn - Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega
Whether properly or improperly as alleged by the other party, infringement of the American Golden Dawn trademark was invoked as the reason for the request that these groups be disabled. Despite misleading statements published by the other party, until this matter is rectified and both our Facebook Page and Facebook Group fully restoerd, we are holding the other party responsible. Just in case the other party really does not understand as they pretends, below is an EXACT QUOTE of what Facebook states is required for the restoration of the above referenced groups:
"If an agreement is reached to restore the reported content, please have the complaining party email us with their consent and include the original reference number. We will not be able to restore this content to Facebook unless we receive explicit NOTICE OF CONSENT from the complaining party. Please note that the complaining party is not required to respond to your request."
Please note that this, contrary to misleading statements made by the other party, this is not at all a complicated matter to resolve - it is a SIMPLE matter - one that does not hinge on Facebook responsiveness as has been misleadingly alleged. The "notice of consent" required by Facebook for the restauration of the above groups needs to be properly filed with Facebook by the attorneys of either one of the parties. That is all.
The legal representatives of our order would be happy to properly file the required notice of consent with Facebook - assuming that there is indeed good faithe and that we promptly receive it. The properly prepared notice of consent may be sent to our order as a scanned document to admin@golden-dawn.eu.
FOR THE RECORD: Despite high public awareness of this matter and numerous excuses and other postings by relevant parties on identical venues, our order still has not received the notice of consent required by Facebook to restore the above referenced groups.
We are still waiting.
Sincerely,David J. GriffinImperator, Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawnouter order of the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega
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