Inside the office defending Marine Corps emblems and slogans from AI knockoffs, profiteers

The “first to fight” ethos that has long defined the Marine Corps extends to the office that protects its most treasured symbols from unauthorized use. And that’s why, if you want to put the phrase “First to Fight” on a T-shirt and sell it, you’d better trademark it first – or face the consequences.

Since its creation in 2009, the Marine Corps Trademark and Licensing Office has been the Corps’ first line of defense against brand infringement. According to Jessica OHaver, who created the office and still runs it, the office has gotten hundreds of thousands of products removed from online marketplaces and store shelves in that time, all in the service of protecting the Corps’ treasured brand and institutional integrity. And, she says, the office is working to stay ahead of technology advances like generative AI that make it easier to spoof service imagery without permission.

OHaver, who managed the Air Force’s trademark and licensing program before moving to the Marine Corps, said there’s no other service that defends its symbolism and distinctive phrases as aggressively as the Corps does. And, according to her, there’s a reason for that.

“Marines are fiercely passionate about what we do,” OHaver told Sandboxx News in an interview. “No matter what your marching orders are, you’re going to fulfill them to the best of your capability. That’s how the Marine Corps operates. And so we are aggressive. We manage and protect the brand fiercely.”

The Marine Corps now has 780 trademarked slogans and emblems, including “Pain is weakness leaving the body;” “Oorah!” and “Oohrah!”; and “One mind, any weapon.” The Corps’ beloved camouflage utilities patterns, known as MARPAT, are also trademark-protected.

That means there’s plenty of potential infringement to monitor. OHaver said the service takes down some 1,500 infringing or unauthorized products every month. Through a partnership with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the office makes sure many unauthorized Marine Corps-branded products never enter the country.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers conduct passenger inspections at the Fort Street Point of Entry at the Ambassador Bridge, the busiest international crossing in North America connecting Detroit, Mich. and Windsor, Ont. August 24, 2022. (Photo by Charles Csavossy/U.S. Customs and Border Protection)

“Products coming in from overseas get scanned by customs agents, and that’s often a chokehold where … they’ll catch it right at the port,” she told Sandboxx News. “Customs has their own way of getting rid of that merchandise, and that’s basically to incinerate it. And so that’s one way to do it, where whoever that infringer is, they get hit in the pocketbook. It doesn’t even make it into the United States.”

Online infringers require their own enforcement process. Since 2022, OHaver said, her office has employed software that scans 40 or so major commerce sites for unauthorized content and automatically challenges it. Since the office started using the software, it has gotten 123,000 products worth about $16 million pulled off the internet this way, OHaver said.

“That’s basically our sledgehammer, as far as brand protection goes,” she added.

As far as physical products that have made it onto shelves in the U.S., the Trademark and Licensing Office has another secret weapon: Marines and their family members and loved ones.

Members of the Marine Corps community are “basically deputized” as trademark protectors, OHaver told Sandboxx News.

“So they see something at Walmart or on Facebook, or at a store somewhere, and they’ll report it to us,” she said, adding that the office has an email address set up for easy reporting. While eyewitness reporting doesn’t result in the kind of mass takedowns that the internet tools do, OHaver said these kinds of infringement reports come in daily.

“We’re very interactive with the public, and we always answer our email and read everything,” she said. “So if there’s a suspected infringement, we’ll follow it up. If it’s actionable, we’ll take action.”

Related: New Museum of the Marine Corps galleries engage multiple senses to simulate combat environments

An AI-designed Marine Corps sweater. (Marine Corps Trademark and Licensing Office)

With the maturation of generative AI, OHaver said, it’s easier than ever to appropriate Marine Corps emblems and display them on products, often without having to create the item itself until someone purchases it. She said the office is working to get “spun up” on AI and develop policies around how to police products that use it.

“How much AI can be used in a product design? Could you make the design from scratch, and at the very, very end, just have AI do a fine tuning … Is that okay? Or can you have it completely created by AI and still approve it? So that’s something that we’re navigating,” OHaver told Sandboxx News. “We haven’t figured it out completely yet. But in general, we try to stay away from something that’s 100% AI. That’s not for us.”

For trademark violators, penalties are mainly economic: their products get taken down and they must observe a waiting period before applying for a Marine Corps license. And, if they are selling through a major marketplace like Amazon, they’ll likely face seller penalties from the marketplace too, OHaver said.

She added that the office has a simple and inexpensive licensing process for makers of handmade products and hobbyists that can be completed online. For the office’s roughly 230 commercial licensees, including companies like Nike and UnderArmor, the process is more involved. The office works to embody Marine Corps values even with the licensing fees it generates: of the $40 million in royalties it has brought in since 2009, it has donated $14 million to Marine Corps Morale, Welfare and Recreation programs, OHaver specified.

The Marine Corps “is a brand we love, and that millions of people love, whether you’re a veteran or retiree or a family member or just have a friend who is in the Marine Corps,” OHaver said. “It’s such a beloved organization; the history is so rich that it deserves protection. And we’re honored to do that.”

To report suspected unauthorized use of Marine Corps slogans and emblems, send an email to trademark_legal@usmc.mil.

Feature Image: A Marine volunteer with Marine Aircraft Group 11 wears a shirt with the sixth annual MAG-11 Jane Wayne Day motto during the day-long event aboard Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, Calif., July 27. Marines volunteered to guide participants and answer any questions the spouses and children might have. (Photo by Cpl. Christopher Johns/Marine Corps Air Station Miramar)

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