© 1980 Urantia Foundation
On January 2 of this year, Urantia Foundation marked its 30th Anniversary.
Three decades ago, the initial duty of the original Trustees was to plan for the first printing of The Urantia Book. Books became available for the first time on October 12, 1955. The patience and dedication of the early believers had at last been rewarded. An era had begun. For the first time in 2,000 years, a new revelation of truth came to illuminate our beleaguered world much as the early sunlight heralds a new day. This most recent gift of the Universal Father was in a form that man could possess and study; become steeped in its soul saving truths.
Over these 30 years a gradual evolution in the activities of Urantia Foundation has taken place. New duties have come along, old ones have broadened and deepened. Less than 8,000 copies of the sixth printing remain; we are preparing for the seventh printing. The copyright in The Urantia Book has been validated by the courts and we have a program established to safeguard and encourage the use of our registered marks. The Trustees rights in these elements of the revelation benefit all readers.
The number of our fellow mortals who are active in the spread of these new teachings has grown steadily. Maturity and sophistication within our ranks has been enhanced by years of study and by earnest-thinking given to how best to interest our fellow mortals in these new truths. There is greater awareness of the role each of our organizations should play in the future spread of these supernal truths.
In the years ahead we want to maintain good two way communications with our expanding number of friends in Urantia Brotherhood and its Societies and study groups.
The Trustees and staff want to know and benefit from the thinking of our fellow believers. We hope to foster a greater understanding of our responsibilities and to answer your questions.
We will try to attend many of the regional conferences. If you want one or two of us to visit your group, we can arrange a mutually convenient time. Good communications lead to greater understanding by all.
We want to find new ways of being of service to our fellows. Even though we all rightly think of Urantia Brotherhood as the chief bearer of these epochal revelatory tidings, Urantia Foundation is charged with this duty as well. The Trustees are interested in carrying out their functions while making it as easy as possible for all of us to work together. We know we will be successful.
We welcome your questions and comments.
Within the next couple of weeks the Finance Committee of the Brotherhood will undertake a capital fund drive for the specific purpose of obtaining funds for the seventh printing of The Urantia Book, You will be hearing more about the drive as the plans unfold. This is the first time since the third printing that funds will be solicitied for a specific purpose. We urge you to give this your utmost consideration as the Finance Committee makes additional announcements in the near future. We know that all of you will continue to give us your financial support.
In the last few years, the number of conferences sponsored by Urantia Brotherhood, Societies, and study groups has rapidly increased.
As the pace of this activity began to quicken a few years ago, the Trustees searched for a way to provide as much liberty to speakers as possible and at the same time maintain protection of the copyright. We wanted to make it easy for speakers to use quotations if they wished.
We devised the advance permission forms with the help of legal counsel, permitting conference performers unlimited use of material from The Urantia Book in their presentations. Duplicate permission forms are sent to each person on the program along with an explanatory letter in advance of the conference. The speakers merely sign both copies, date them, and return them to Urantia Foundation. This is their permission to prepare and present their talk using material from The Urantia Book.
If a speaker also wishes to hand out written copies of the speech to those in attendance or send such copies out after the conference, this can be arranged. The speaker should send a written copy to Urantia Foundation for review and approval together with the number of copies desired, preferably six weeks in advance of the distribution date.
However, some speakers have raised the point that the quoting they expect to do in their presentation is fair use and that they therefore do not need permission and should not be required to sign advance permission forms or seek any other sort of approval. Fair use under copyright law permits limited use of copyrighted material if it is in accordance with the fair use guidelines mentioned in the copyright law. Perhaps a particular speaker’s presentation is a fair use; others on the same program may not be fair use.
The question of whether a work falls within the category of fair use depends on many factors. The Trustees have the duty to determine whether the proposed use of material, in each case, is fair use; and to do that, we would have to ask the speakers to send us written copies of their speeches prior to the conference so that we could check them against the guidelines. This would be impractical since most speakers tend to finalize their talks only shortly before the meeting.
We are not trying to prevent anyone tram doing what he or she has a legal right to do, but we are trying to make things easier for everyone by not having to make a “fair use” detennination in each and every instance and at the same time prevent violation of the copyright.
The advance permission forms eliminate the need to determine fair use, make it unnecessary to submit talks in advance, allow maximum freedom to speakers and still provide protection for the copyright. This has proven to be an efficient, effective system. The Trustees appreciate the excellent co-operation we have enjoyed from conference speakers and organizers.
Although the Trustees have been directing much of their attention towards making a French translation of The Urantia Book available once again as soon as possible, the groundwork is being laid for the realization of a Spanish translation. The completion of the mechanics of the funding arrangements are in the process of being finalized with Urantia Brotherhood. Interested parties have already begun to contribute to the Spanish translation fund and you may do so by sending amounts to Urantia Foundation.
Work on the Finnish translation is still in progress.
While only the licensed Urantia organizations are entitled to use the word Urantia as a service mark and/or a trademark, (Urantia Brotherhood) or as a service mark and/or collective membership mark (Urantia Brotherhood and its member Societies) it is fairly common and totally proper to make written mention of the registered mark Urantia when referring to names of the organizations, such as Urantia Foundation, Urantia Brotherhood, a Urantia Society, or in mentioning the title of the book. This is often done in newsletters, written speeches, programs, and so forth. We are distinguishing here between two kinds of use:
It is in the best interest of Urantia Foundation and its licensees, Urantia Brotherhood, the various Urantia Societies, and Urantia Brotherhood Corporation (all of which are collectively referred to as the official Urantia organizations) that the word be shown in correct form. We have noted that some, in preparing written materials, are unclear regarding those instances in which the word represents the name of the planet and those wherein it is the registered mark, and whether to use the upper or lower case form in these various instances. The lower case, Urantia, should be used only to refer to the planet and then in such a manner that it cannot reasonably be construed as a registered mark usage. In such usage, we ask that the word “planet” or “world” be used whenever possible before the word “Urantia” because it makes it more clear that it is not being used as a registered mark. In any other instance, the upper case, URANTIA, should be used.
Perhaps the simplest rule to determine whether to write “Urantia” or “URANTIA” is that Urantia is always a referring to the planet. URANTIA is virtually always an adjective modifying a noun.
The following are correct and incorrect usages:
| Incorrect | Correct |
|---|---|
| I live on URANTIA | I live on the planet Urantia |
| the geography of URANTIA | the geography of our world Urantia |
The following are commonly used terms, all of which take the upper case form to denote the trademark or service mark URANTIA, or a trade name usage of Urantia in conjunction with another word:
| URANTIA Activities | URANTIA Foundation | URANTIA movement |
| URANTIA Service | URANTIA Brotherhood | URANTIA organizations |
| URANTIA Publications | First URANTIA Society | the URANTIA Papers |
| The URANTIA Book |
Also note that “The” is part of the title of The Urantia Book, When naming a study group, it is permissible to call it “North Pole Study Group of Students of The Urantia Book, but not “URANTIA Study Group of the North Pole.”
Similarly, the use of the Concentric-Circles Symbol is restricted to Urantia Foundation and licensed Urantia organizations. The rationale behind its adaptation is the same as the word URANTIA, i.e., it will identify activities of the official organizations should other groups try to pass themselves off as the source or an official part of the Urantia movement.
The necessary limitations of the use of this symbol by individuals or non-licensed groups is difficult for some to accept because the design of the symbol so easily lends itself to jewelry and other personal expressions of loyalty to these supernal teachings and to our universe. Although each person’s private use of this symbol is not something we could ever hope or even want to control, we do ask that you do not display publicly your personal use of the symbol, especially at large gatherings except, of course, for t e pins bearing the symbol which are available to members of Urantia Brotherhood. It is important to those organizations licensed to use this symbol that this symbol not become so commonly used that it would become lost to us as an identifier and then be used by any group for whatever purposes. We truly appreciate your co-operation regarding the use of this symbol and trust you realize that your restraint is helping to build the strong foundation that future generations will thank us for.
On June 27, Urantia Foundation filed suit against First Urantia Society of Houston, Inc., Kermit Laurent, W. Allen Brazell, Sue Via Brazell, Kathy Fusco, and John Charles for the infringement of the Foundation’s registered mark, URANTIA. First Urantia Society of Houston, Inc. is a recently incorporated Texas not-for-profit corporation which is not the First Urantia Society of Houston. Kermit Laurent, Sue Via Brazell, and Kathy Fusco are both officiers and incorporators of the corporation. W. Allen Brazell is the agent for the corporation and the person who initiated the incorporation process. John Charles is an officer of the corporation.
On Wednesday, July 16, 1980, a hearing was held in the courtroom of Judge McDonald in Houston, on the Foundation’s motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin First Urantia Society of Houston, Inc. from using the trademark Urantia in its name, or otherwise, pending a trial on the merits. The defendent corporation took the position that it (and not First Urantia Society of Houston) was the Society which had been chartered by Urantia Brotherhood and had the right to e the word Urantia in its name, despite the Brotherhood’s denial that such was the fact. The court, without making any ruling regarding the mark itself, viewed the matter as an internal controversy, and for that reason denied the preliminary injunction.
Urantia Foundation has requested an early trial on the merits of the case which will probably not occur until next February or March. In the meantime, Urantia Foundation and Urantia Brotherhood will co-operate towards the settlement of the internal controversy to the extent it is possible.
While we would wish that such unfortunate situations as above described would never arise, it would seem that this situation exemplifies the need for such a document as the Licensing Agreement. While Urantia Brotherhood is the body that must determine in any controversy when a group is an authorized Urantia Society, Urantia Foundation actually files and bears the expense of any suit that is required to fulfill its protection of the Brotherhood’s right to allow only those Societies the Brotherhood officially recognizes to use the word Urantia in the Societies’ titles. This mutually supportive relationship of Urantia Brotherhood using the registered mark Urantia and by so doing aiding in establishing and preserving the mark Urantia as a strong identifier of the organizations associated with the text of The Urantia Book as originally copyrighted and Urantia Foundation supporting the Brotherhood legally is firmly and formally established in the Licensing Agreement.
This newsletter often presents information concerning legal matters such as discussions of the use of our registered marks, copyright, or sometimes lawsuits which Urantia Foundation is compelled to undertake. And, while many readers of this newsletter have expressed an appreciation that we share this information, other readers have expressed a feeling that they are uncomfortable with such legal matters. We appreciate and understand these latter views; however, we believe that it is important that you be informed about such matters to the extent we are able to do so in such a brief format as a newsletter. We hope that inclusion of such articles in this newsletter does not eclipse an appreciation of the fact that we all mutually hold the same long range goals and that we continue to make progress toward these goals.
We continue to receive thousands of letters and hundreds of telephone calls and visitors who share with us the excitement of their discovery of The Urantia Book and its supernal teachings. The great objective and goal of Urantia Foundation is to encourage the study and dissemination of these marvelous truths. We, like you, are students of The Urantia Book and share with you the goal of the spiritual transformation of our world by acquainting our spiritual brethren with the ennobling truth that we are the beloved sons and daughters of our Universal Father and that we are all spiritual brothers and sisters who are challenged to lovingly serve one another. The problems we encounter are but a part of the process by which we are journeying from chaos to glory.
The following are some excerpts from some of the letters we have received:
“I have just finished looking through a carefully ‘hoarded’ Urantia Book over at a friend’s home. It was so expertly written, I could hardly put it down. Each sentence I read, I felt almost instantly enlightened.”
“I have been reading The Urantia Book for two years, and my enlightening awareness continues to grow. The true love expressed in The Urantia Book is the most wondrous experience anyone could hope for. It is bliss for me.”
“This incredible book has passed through my life now twice, and both times it has brought clarity and a deep satisfaction that I was unable to find anywhere else.”
“I have just discovered The Urantia Book and in doing so have read the most profound wisdom I have ever come across. Needless to say, I would like very much to discuss my feelings with members of your Brotherhood.”
“Teach all believers that those who enter the kingdom are not thereby rendered immune to the accidents of time or to the ordinary catastrophes of nature. Believing the gospel will not prevent getting into trouble, but it will insure that you shall be unafraid when trouble does overtake you. If you dare to believe in me and wholeheartedly proceed to follow after me, you shall most certainly by so doing enter upon the sure pathway to trouble. I do not promise· to deliver you from the waters of adversity, but I do promise to go with you through all of them.” UB 159:3.13
“Be not discouraged; human evolution is still in progress, and the revelation of God to the world, in and through Jesus, shall not fail.” UB 196:3.33