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From time to time, the pages of this newsletter have been employed as a means to communicate information about legal matters associated with the work of URANTIA Foundation such as discussions of the use of our registered marks and matters impinging upon the copyright in and to The URANTIA Book and its translations. On this occasion we wish to address the reasoning behind our registered marks, i.e., the word URANTIA and the Concentric Circles Symbol, and the copyright.
lt is true that the word URANTIA and the Concentric-Symbol found within URANTIA Foundation's publications are in The URANTIA Book. However, both the word URANTIA and the Symbol have through many years of continuous and exclusive use become well-established as badges of identifiication for the goods and services provided by URANTIA Fountlation and is licensees, URANTIA Brotherhood and its chartered URANTIA societies. Given the significance of the word URANTIA and the Symbol, and the identification function they have come to serve so well, they should be and are protected against misuse in some self-serving, commerical, or even degrading way by those not licensed to use them. For those licensed to use them, i.e., the Brotherhood and Its chartered Societies, a high degree of responsibility to use the marks in the best possible manner should be obvious because they are setting the example and tone of activities associated with the dissemination of the teachings of The URANTIA Book.
As ln the case with the word URANTIA, the use of the Concentric-Circles Symbol is restricted to URANTIA Foundation und its licensees, URANTIA Brotherhood and its Societies. The necessary Iimitations of the use of the Symbol by individuals or nonlicensed 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 supemal teachings and to our universe. Although each person's private use of the 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, ofcourse, for the pins bearing the Symbol which are available to members of URANTIA Brotherhood. lt is important to those organizations licensed to use the Symbol that the Symbol not become so commonly used that it would become lost to us as an identifier which could then be used by any group for whatever purposes, some consistent with the teachings of The URANTIA Book and some not.
Regarding the copyright, the reason for having it is quite simple. lt is to prevent individuals from claiming authorship of the book and to prevent them from mixing in their own ideas and creating new versions of the book. Having several versions of The URANTIA Book available would confuse new readers as to which one was authentic.
We truly appreciate the cooperative spirit you have shown regarding the use of the registered marks and the copyright and trust that we can contribute to build a solid foundation together that we can pass on to future generations.