The newly created Virtual Genealogical Society, already with more than 1,200 members in 18 countries, has decided to change its name to Virtual Genealogical Association after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from a lawyer detained by the Virginia Genealogical Society.
The virtual society was launched at the end of April as a “global organization serving family history enthusiasts,” and its board is composed of four Americans and one Canadian. Its logo sported the initials, VGS.
The initials, VGS, however, didn’t go over well with the Virginia society, which quickly filed “VGS” as its trademark. Soon after the filing, a lawyer in Richmond, Virginia sent a letter to Katherine R. Willson, president of the virtual society.
The letter stated, “For at least 45 years, Virginia Genealogical Society has used “VGS” in connection with its educational services. During this time, Virginia Genealogical Society has created in its VGS mark both name recognition and goodwill throughout the United States.”
The Virginia Genealogical Society expressed concern that genealogists will be confused with two VGS organizations.
The lawyer wrote, “Virtual Genealogical Society’s use of the term VGS to describe your genealogical services violates the trademark rights of our client and, if not discontinued immediately, will seriously diminish the value of its trademark and will tend to confuse and deceive the relevant consumer market.”
At the risk of causing problems for other genealogical societies, there are others who share the same initials with each other, but people seem to be able to figure out who is who.
It would like there being a Maryland Genealogical Society and a Massachusetts Genealogical Society. Both would have different full names, different website addresses, different mail addresses, and different meetings. What they would share, however, is an interest in family history research, non-profit status, limited funds to hire a lawyer — and the same initials, MGS.
In the end, unwilling to devote its limited resources to fighting the issue, the Virtual Genealogical Society decided to change its name.
Change your name, s’il vous plaît
The bilingual Québec Genealogical eSociety, launched in January 2018, experienced a similar problem with its French name, eSociété généalogique du Québec. A genealogical society in the province sent a letter to Johanne Gervais, the e-society’s founder and president, telling her to change the French name because it was too similar to theirs.
Rather than fight to keep their name, members at the annual general meeting in April voted to change the French name to replace eSociété with virtuelle. The new name will be Société généalogique virtuelle du Québec.
Changing the e-society’s French name, however, was not as easy as just changing a logo and website.
Since the society is a registered non-profit organization in Quebec, additional paperwork is required. The e-society must provide documentation regarding approval of the name change from its board meetings and annual general meeting, along with financial information, and more forms to complete.
After two months, they are still working on the name change.
Choose a difficult name to remember
Is there a lesson to be learned? There are probably several. But here’s one.
When starting a new society, give it a lengthy name and acronym that is hard to remember and almost impossible to duplicate — such as two that always cause me to double-check the words and use the backspace a couple of times — New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEHGS) and British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO).
I appreciate that BIFHSGO is unique but it is hard to remember.
Even when you get the name right, you still sometimes get the acronym wrong:
“New England Historic Genealogical Society (NEGHS)”
Should be NEHGS.
Another difficult example is SFBAJGS, San Francisco Bay Area Jewish Genealogical Society.
Good catch! I did get the NEHGS acronym wrong after all that. I have now corrected it in the blog post. Thanks!