Two years ago, on December 21st, 2021 I successfully registered the elements of our Universal Flag as a class 41 trademark with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). By law, you cannot trademark a flag, so this trademark was not defined or described as a flag in the USPTO application. This trademark defined, described, and included all of the elemental arrangements of our Universal Flag. This ensured that it could be trademarked not as a flag, while simultaneously protecting our flag in the public domain from any similar elemental arrangements that would infringe upon our registered trademark. In other words, this gave us legal protection/recourse to address any individual/company who was using our federally registered trademark without our licensed permission or any individual/company that wanted to create something similar to our trademark, such as a rainbow-colored emblem like ours with a #6 in the center. Some of our Nation members were/are under the false impression that simply claiming that we have been using the Universal Flag since the 1960s is enough to prove ownership in a court of law against an individual/company that actually owns its elemental arrangements as a federally registered trademark. This is sadly untrue, especially in the face of an individual/company with a financial war chest to legally protect their IP [Intellectual Property]. There is a difference between a common law trademark and a federally registered trademark. Old Xerox copies, Power Papers, and other materials with Universal Flags on them from back in the day are only considered common law. These materials are not federally registered trademarks that secure nationwide legal protection, nor can you use them to file a claim in federal court to sue for damages if someone infringes upon your common use. It is important to understand that common use is almost equivalent to no use at all in a litigious society, especially in federal court. Some Nation members shared with me that I was wrong for not presenting this initiative to them personally, or to the Five Percent Nation collectively, for their input before acquiring this IP. Yes, I considered that yet decided against it in the interest of time and to prompt an immediate plan of action and National response from our members. So, I made the proactive decision to financially secure it for us, and bring it back to our Nation to say, "Here, this is an invaluable asset that I acquired for us to advance our Nation." Some members appreciated the socioeconomic foresight of securing this IP, while others did not.
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| Email dated January, 2022 seeking to establish a Universal Flag Board |
Following the successful registration of this trademark I sent the above January 7th, 2022 Universal Flag Board email to various Five Percenters [men and women] in different regions. As stated in this email, “My reasoning for initiating that IP initiative was to put in place ‘legal safeguards’ for us to control our national narrative and maintain our cultural identity. Prior to this, anyone could use our Universal Flag and there was nothing we could legally do about it. Now that our Universal Flag is our registered trademark, no entity [entertainers, businesses, institutions, organizations or media sources, etc.] has the legal right to use it and can/will face legal consequences for misuse and abuse of it.” I emphasize the words “us”, “our”, and “we” in this email because this trademark was never for me. Because I initiated the trademark process, my name originally appeared on the application. As shown in the email, I sought out a diverse group of Five Percenters [men and women] to form a committee that the trademark ownership would be transferred to, and the committee would manage for our Nation. This never happened, and some of those who were contacted publicly/privately shared this correspondence, including the registered trademark that I attached to that email, on social media. What followed was a great deal of misinformation disseminated about me and the process. It should also be noted here that I still have not shared this federally registered trademark document on social media, understanding the intrinsic value of this IP.
When I finally had an opportunity to publicly address this initiative via Zoom with all of those
who were interested, some Nation members were for it, and some were against it. Ultimately,
no one could agree on what to do with this IP or what Nation members were trustworthy enough to manage it. Understandably, this never happened before in the history of our Nation and many people simply did not know what to do about it. The only consensus that I recognized was
that there was no consensus among us. Therefore, I shared that I would cancel
the trademark, and if Nation members wanted to revisit this at another time, they now know that I could do it for us. That trademark was canceled on July 26th, 2022.
With the life experience that I gained, I began to write/speak extensively on this litigious society being in an IP Era and the importance of preserving Allah School, protecting our cultural identity, and controlling our historical narrative in the public domain. Post-COVID, I have also written/spoken about the proliferation of USPTO trademark registrations and the exponential growth of streaming platforms harvesting content [IP] like organ harvesting. In fact, I have a couple of unsigned PBS contracts that were presented to me that I use to educate folks on how to protect their IP. So in addition to having knowledge of self and teaching for twenty-eight years, my professional experience has also given me a unique perspective on the topic of legally protecting our cultural identity in the public domain. I have been a formal educator with a focus on early childhood for twenty years. This led me to found my own early childhood learning center, the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters, which recently celebrated its 1-year-anniversary. I have authored twenty-three books, five of which are part of a curatorial activism archive in the British Library, and I assisted in the establishment of the first black institution in my city in thirty years where I presently serve as its Director of Community Engagement. I have co-produced and starred in several historical documentaries as a subject matter expert, including three award-winning international documentaries [Enslaved, Secret Agents of the Underground Railroad, and Two Wars: The Road to Integration], and I work in historic preservation; successfully assisting in the renovation of historic sites such as the Prophet Isaiah Second Coming House, and the establishment of historic markers both in my city and in Ontario, Canada. Lastly, I am a member of the United Nations International Civil Society Working Group for the Permanent Forum on People of African Descent, and I was featured in the United Nations International Day for People of African Descent on August 31st, 2o23. As a Five Percenter working in these diverse spaces of education, literacy, historic preservation, placemaking, and film & television, I am always intentional about representing who we are, literally in the name of Saladin “Allah.”
I am not sharing some of my experiences to seek acknowledgment or validation. My work as a public figure continues to be globally acknowledged and validated as the single largest digital footprint of any active Five Percenter in our Nation. This is not arrogance, EGO, or self-importance. This is a fact that I don’t take lightly, or for granted. I am sharing some of my experiences to provide some context for those to better understand the lens through which I view the world. This perspective has also come with its challenges. One of those challenges is confronting the narrow-mindedness, apathy, or unwillingness of some Nation members to actually do more than talk or robo-post thoughts on social media.
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| Email dated January, 2024 |
Following the cancellation of our registered trademark, it has been disheartening to see Nation members still struggling to solicit donations over the last two years to support Allah School initiatives while Showtime released the award-winning Supreme Team docuseries with our Universal Flag in it, and months later a San Francisco pop-culture design house produced a custom Rakim figure wearing a Universal Flag jacket. We were in the perfect position to secure licensing agreements for the use of our registered trademark which would have secured revenue for our Nation in perpetuity. These are just two examples, in addition to numerous examples that I shared of other corporations, who were and are still profiting from the IP we owned.
This also does not include the examples of media outlets, like the image above, that published images of our Universal Flag alongside disinformation that linked us to crimes. I strived to communicate to our Nation members that in the same way Nike, Burger King, Allstate, etc., could sue media outlets for defamation because those damaging statements harm one's reputation and financial well-being, we had the power to take the same legal course of action to sue media outlets for defamation; instead of reposting articles like this on social media with a complaining caption and comments that only monetizes that media content.
At one point during a Zoom presentation, I shared the above image of our Universal Flag being sold for $399.99 at Walmart. While one Nation member said that it didn’t matter because that company was not making much money from selling it, another Nation member suggested that the company owner be located and educated about who we are. The more I began to hear ideas like this, the more I began to realize, and accept, that what I strived to do for us was out of touch with where many of us were/are. It was clear that we had very different ideas about cultural continuity, historic preservation, the legal vulnerabilities of a litigious society in an IP Era, and our capacity to control our narrative in the public domain.
Building while hiking Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania
Despite some speculation shared about me and how I feel about that experience two years ago, I am doing excellent. I continue to digitally document the global work that I do via the internet so that anyone with a smart device can see it, and I keep my social media profiles public for that purpose. I still build with my brothers and sisters in our Nation whom I have a relationship with, and I continue to teach those who are seeking knowledge of self. What has changed of course is my time, based on the demands of my busy schedule as a public figure and the various things that I am doing. Looking towards 2024, there are already numerous global projects, programs, and initiatives that I am involved in, and I am excited to continue positively representing our Nation in those capacities. As always, for those who would like to contact me, I can be reached via email at: atlantisbuild@gmail.com. #AtlantisBuild
Peace,
Saladin
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