Guidelines Concerning the Use of the Registered Marks

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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:

  1. Use of the mark in a prominent way on the cover of a publication or the like as an identifier of a service or a product originating from Urantia Foundation, Urantia Brotherhood, or one of its chartered Societies, which is not allowed without license from Urantia Foundation. Such organizations may use the word Urantia as an adjective in their name, and in other ways specified by the licensing agreement. Uses not mentioned in the licensing agreement can be submitted to Urantia Foundation for possible approval.

  2. Simply referring to the registered mark URANTIA, as in the names of Urantia organizations, in an informative text of one kind or another--which is allowed.

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.

Foundation Info

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