The Scouts and Boy Scouts are locked in a fight over recruitment, with the Girl Scouts accusing the Boy Scouts of robbing potential members.
The girls’ organization says that the Boy Scouts of America, or BSA, unfairly recruited girls into its ranks and in fact increased its membership base amid the shrinking number of enrollments in both groups, according to a lawsuit.
The Boy Scouts have allowed girls to join their programs since 2018, “after years of requests from families” for boys and girls to venture out and train together and give girls the opportunity to become Eagle Scouts – the highest honor award the organization.
But the Girl Scouts say that BSA’s new recruitment action has done a lot of damage to its own brand and that the “infringement” has caused a wave of confusion among parents who have incorrectly reported their daughters to the wrong organization.
Scouts’ dishonor?
In 2018, the Girl Scouts sued BSA over trademark infringement, alleging that the boys’ organization used Girl Scouts images and slogans – including the terms and phrases “scout”, “scouting” and “scout me in” in the ads.
“Because of the Boy Scouts’ violation, parents mistakenly enrolled their daughters in Boy Scouts and thought they were Girl Scouts,” Girl Scouts advocates said, adding that it was not a problem until 2018, when the change did not occur. made first.
Last month, the Boy Scouts called the charge “completely merciless” and asked a judge to drop it.
On Christmas Eve, the Girl Scouts submitted documents to the federal court to contest the move, saying BSA intends to create confusion about the organizations among recruits.
Boy Scouts have known for decades that their use of terms such as scouts or scouting would be confusing unless it clearly identified the sponsor of the services offered under these points, but it continued anyway and used these terms , “reads Thursday’s documentation. “The turbulent confusion and damage to the brand for girl seekers was the predicted and intended result.”
BSA issued a statement in response to this and told CBS News that young people join the organization for various reasons and usually do not accidentally choose to join.
‘To imply that confusion is a prevailing reason for their choice is not only inaccurate – without it being legally permissible in the case so far, but it is also repulsive to the decisions of more than 120,000 girls and young women. who joined. “Cub Scouts or Scouts BSA since the programs became available to them,” the BSA said.