Bernie Sanders may be a socialist, but his campaign’s lawyers have demanded that a libertarian vendor stop selling satirical merchandise that riffs on the presidential candidate.
Liberty Maniacs sells t-shirts, hoodies and coffee mugs depicting Sanders next to Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx and other socialists, complete with the slogan “Bernie is my comrade.”
So Sanders’ lawyers sent a letter to Liberty Maniacs, informing the company of the Sander’s campaign’s trademarks, copyrights and logos. It demands that in five days, Liberty Maniacs “cease and desist” selling the merchandise, and destroy it or at least take it offline.
“Hopefully you will see this as an opportunity to creatively and distinctly come up with something new and clever on your own,” Sanders’ lawyers suggest.
The Democratic socialist second-runner hasn’t always been so upbeat—not to mention fastidious—when it comes to the intellectual property of others, though. In February, the Sanders campaign admitted it had improperly borrowed the American Legion’s emblem, using it on campaign materials. It backtracked only after American Legion filed two cease-and-desist letters within three weeks, including one calling the Sanders’ campaign’s actions “totally illegal,” Politico reported.
As a Senator, Sanders has also unsuccessfully pushed for legislation that would dramatically reduce intellectual-property and patent protections for prescription medications, though the creation of a new drug requires significant investment.
Just call it selective socialism.
— Jillian Kay Melchior writes for Heat Street and is a fellow for the Independent Women’s Forum and the Steamboat Institute.
