Some local Boy Scouts groups used the phrase “Girl Scouting,” the filing said, further infringing on long-standing trademarks granted to the Girl Scouts by Congress. The Girl Scouts called the overtures “highly damaging.”“For the last century, the Girl Scouts trademark has become understood to designate the source of scouting services for girls,” the filing said. The shift in membership guidelines immediately caused tensions between the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts, with one Girl Scouts national executive saying that the organisation was “blindsided” by the announcement and that girls thrived in all-female groups. A little more than a year later, the Girl Scouts sued the Boy Scouts in federal court in Manhattan for trademark infringement, dilution, unfair competition, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage and deceptive business practices. In the lawsuit, the Girl Scouts said that parents had mistakenly signed girls up for new programs offered by the Boy Scouts instead of for Girl Scouts programs.

Source: bd News24 December 28, 2020 15:11 UTC