According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Father Luke Strand (center) has been driving a black Volkswagon Beetle with 'God Sqaud' stickers on the doors since he was a seminarian. Unfortunately, he may not be driving it in it's current state for very much longer. Fr. Strand has received a letter from Best Buy's lawyers claiming it violates the trademarked logo of their well known 'Geek Sqaud' tech support team.
A friend of Fr. Strand said the vehicle was just a little fun, intended to incite discussion in the community.
"There was never any kind of formal God Squad group or organization. Father Luke and some friends simply decided to design a car that would act as a cool and fun way to bring our faith into the public. It's just a conversation starter," Janasik told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
"It's obviously not a Best Buy vehicle. When people see the car in public they usually laugh, and then it leads into lots of great conversations with strangers about faith and God."
A senior Best Buy PR representative confirmed that they had made contact with Strand regarding a trademark infringement and elaborated that sending the cease-and-desist order was a hard decision to come to.
"This was a really difficult thing for us to do because we appreciate what Father Strand is trying to accomplish with his mission. But at the end of the day, it's bad precedent to let some groups violate our trademark while pursuing others," Paula Baldwin, senior manager for public relations at Best Buy told the Journal.
Best Buy is said working with Strand to come up with a new logo.
