February 2, 2012 - The cancer-fighting corporation known by the name of a woman who died of breast cancer, the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation, familiar for its pink emblems, has shown its true colors: that of a corporation seeking to perpetuate itself, not of a group truly searching for a cure.
The same phenomenon struck the March of Dimes when Jonas Salk found a cure for polio: how to sustain itself? Komen Corporation has chosen litigation and money as tools to make sure it remains immortal.
Public outrage at Komen's cavalier act of ending its funding to Planned Parenthood filled Facebook pages and delivered - in about a day - the amount of contributions the pink organization had cancelled. Planned Parenthood provides abortions - the probable political lever at work here. It also does breast cancer screenings.
About this time last year NBC News reported that Komen was threatening another cancer fund raising entity with legal action. Brian Williams said:
"The Susan G. Komen name is well known…what you may not know... the tactics and the power behind the name and the lengths they go to, to keep their work and their slogan their own. Smaller charities with the same goal of combating breast cancer have been forced into legal combat over this very thing."
At issue was a dog-sledding breast cancer fund raiser "Mush for a Cure" in Grand Marais, Minn., one of 83 groups since 1996 that have faced pressure from Komen Corporation over use of the word "cure".
Komen has never actually brought this issue squarely before any court because a jury and/or judge would likely conclude that the term is, in fact, generic. So Komen threatens, bullies and frightens others into submission long before a court could decide the issue.
NBC News reporter Anne Thompson said in the broadcast piece, "Komen's attempts to gain exclusive rights over such common language reflect...an aggressive effort to monopolize the cure market and all things pink. According to trademark attorney Joe Gioconda the number of trademarks Komen has tried to claim is more than many large corporations."
That game, now flooded with the light of public scrutiny, may be over. It'll be hard for the Komen Corporation to run in all those upcoming races, having shot itself so severely in the foot.
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