"I was surprised Bernie’s campaign would have done that. He didn’t seem to be the type of candidate, the type of guy, who would do something like this."

Said Daniel McCall, whose company makes "Bernie is my comrade" T-shirts and things, after getting a cease-and-desist letter from Sanders campaign lawyers. The campaign is trying to enforce intellectual property rights, and the company, Liberty Maniacs, is trying to portray Bernie Sanders as a communist.

McCall's lawyer says that the asserted trademark right depends on whether "an ordinary and reasonably prudent consumer would tend to be confused about whether it is the Sanders campaign that is promoting Sanders’ candidacy by associated him with the 19th Century theoreticians of the communist movement as well as with three ruthless Communist Party dictators."

Here's the image:



Text from the company website: "With the lovable personality of a drowsy badger and the voice of a bullfrog, Bernie is your comrade in fighting the good fight against oligarchical imperialism, exploitative corporatism, economic logic, electoral probability, male pattern baldness, Clintonian coronation, and whatever other Sisyphean task you can shake your fist at. This shirt includes a pantheon of socialist paladins just to confuse, fascinate, and cause the finger-wagging nitpicking partisan to hilariously instruct upon the proper definition of socialism while everyone within a five foot radius rolls their eyes in aversion."

I note that the lawyer framed the issue as whether the consumer would be confused and the web site states an intent "to confuse" — albeit not to confuse the consumer. The consumer is in on the intent to cause confusion.