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The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn® |
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On February 11, 1997, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, Inc., a non-profit corporation based in Florida, was granted a registered trademark by the United States Patent and Trademark Office ( http://tarr.uspto.gov). Our organization has been and continues to be the Owner and Registrant of United States Trademark Registration No. 2034866. In August of 2003 fraudulent paperwork was submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, claiming that our corporation had "assigned the entire interest" of our mark over to another party, effectively transferring ownership of our mark over to themselves. This claim was false and amounted to a fraud perpetrated on the United States Patent and Trademark Office. After much time and considerable legal expense, our corporation was able to correct the fraudulent assignment, which was recorded by the USPTO on November 4, 2004. But this was not before the opposing party publicly stated that they were canceling licenses to use the name "Golden Dawn" (and privately threatening to cancel other licenses) given out by our organization to various groups and individuals—including some individuals whom we consider personal friends and contributing authors to our own "Golden Dawn Journal Series." One of the individuals threatened was a contributor to the fifth edition of Israel Regardie's seminal work "The Golden Dawn." On January 28, 2005 our corporation filed a civil suit against the opposing party for trademark infringement. There is a considerable amount of misinformation and malicious slander about the case being posted to the Internet by anonymous individuals and certain entities who want to "try the case in the media." We suggest that anyone who is interested in finding out the facts for themselves do so by reading the available public records. Information on how to do this is given below.
The two parties involved in this dispute met in northern California on Tuesday, June 6, 2006 for court-ordered mediation to try to resolve the issue. However, nothing was settled. Since that date, our organization's website at www.hermeticgoldendawn.org has been taken offline by hackers through a DOS (Denial of Service Attack). This has made it difficult for our friends and supporters to read about our upcoming workshops and events, find out the facts, and support our legal efforts. The FBI and local law enforcement have been contacted on this matter. If you would like to make a donation and help us cover our legal expenses, you may contribute to: The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn® Legal Fund (Cicero)
To read through the available public records on the civil proceedings, go to: http://pacer.psc.uscourts.gov Once there, you will need to sign up for a Pacer I.D. with the Administrative Office of the US Courts. You will need to provide them with a credit card number. The rate for downloading documents is 8 cents a page, but you will not be billed until you can accrued $20 in charges. (Key documents may cost nothing to download.) E-mailing the documents to a second e-mail address may save you from accruing multiple charges. After getting a Pacer I.D., go to the web site of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Click on the link for "ECF" (Electronic Case Filing"); and then select "View Documents"; and "Civil." Type in C05-432 and set the filing parameters at the beginning of 2005; the and select the San Francisco Bay area for the location. After the case comes up, click to download the case docket. Anyone in the esoteric community is welcome to view the public files and form their own opinions.
It was the late Dr. Israel Regardie's clear and undisputed desire that any and all spiritual seekers be able to draw upon the teachings of the Golden Dawn for personal evolution and growth, regardless of whether or not they are a member of any Golden Dawn Temple or Order.
We would like to thank all of our good friends in the greater Golden Dawn community *********** |