The new, improved and “unlosable” Canadian poppy (Photo:author)
I am preparing for our annual Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11 at the Community and Fire Hall in our little community of Willis Point, some 20 kilometres north of Victoria, BC. The Volunteer Fire Department will control traffic on the road by the flagpole, and a local resident, who is a naval officer at the Base will, in his full-dress uniform, lay the wreath. There will be the usual reading from “In Flanders Fields”, the Last Post will be played, and after the solemn ceremony we will all repair into the Hall for coffee and hot chocolate (and sometimes something a bit stronger) and view a local resident’s military memorabilia. It will likely be raining. Everyone will be wearing a poppy.
If anything, this year it seems the poppy stands are more ubiquitous than ever, many beside cash counters in grocery and drug stores and in coffee shops, but some at the entrance to stores staffed by friendly Legionnaires. The Royal Canadian Legion is doing a good job of getting out the message. And every politician at every level of government will be sporting a poppy at all their public and media appearances. It seems to be the one thing that unites the country—and Lord knows we need more unifying symbols and behaviour.
Last year I commented on the uncanny ability of the poppy you have just bought to fall off your lapel in the parking lot while you walk to your car, necessitating buying another the next time you go shopping. The alternative is to walk in shame past the smiling Legionnaire by the door with his or her tray of fresh, new, pin-on poppies. I lamented there was no way to better secure them other than by a flimsy pin, but to my surprise, this year my Legionnaire offered me a choice of the standard “fall off” variety or one secured by a clip on the back. The black centre of the poppy has a pin that pierces your jacket and fits securely into the clamp. It is clearly Legion-approved. A long-overdue innovation. I will probably still buy more than one because I will forget to wear the jacket that has the poppy on it, and am unable to pass by those veterans at the door without the protection of my poppy. But it’s all in a good cause.
I notice there’s a lot of interest at this time of the year in a couple of the blog posts I wrote previously on the history of the poppy as a commemorative symbol, at the same time pointing out some of the intellectual property issues arising from its role as a registered trademark of both the Royal Canadian Legion and Royal British Legion. Despite the trademark protection for commemorative poppies in Canada and Britain, not to mention copyright protection of the designs of various products displayed on their websites, unauthorized versions proliferate at this time of year, marketed through online platforms. Veteran’s welfare organizations have to work just as hard as other rights-holders to protect their IP; the internet offers all sorts of creative new outlets for unauthorized commercial exploitation. Amazon has knock offs but also the real thing, as the Legion has done a deal with the web retail giant to sell Legion poppy products, apparently with some considerable success So if you are going to buy a poppy this year, buy it from your friendly local Legion representative or at least from the Legion’s website, the Poppy Store in Canada and the Poppy Shop in Britain–or even through Amazon. It’s probably too late this year anyway, bur remember for next year.
© Hugh Stephens, 2024
If you are not aware of the history of the poppy campaign and the challenges it has faced from unauthorized competition, here is my original Remembrance Day blog post in 2019, with a few updates.
Remembrance Day Poppies and Intellectual Property Controversies
At the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, the guns on the western front in Europe fell silent. An armistice was declared. Germany didn’t formally surrender although it soon collapsed, and the 1919 Treaty of Versailles treated it as a defeated country (with the results twenty years later that we all know about). Thus Armistice Day, now known as Remembrance Day in many countries including Canada, the UK and Australia, and Veteran’s Day in the US, was born.
Today, in particular in Canada and the UK, Remembrance Day is marked by the wearing of poppies. They spring up on the lapels of TV news broadcasters, politicians, and members of the public like mushrooms in autumn. In the US, although they are not so ubiquitous as north of the border or in Britain, they are more typically worn on Memorial Day, which is in May, and in Australia and New Zealand I am told that poppies generally blossom around Anzac Day, April 25. It is probably fairly well known (although with today’s young people it is perhaps wrong to make assumptions) that the wearing of the poppy is a memorial to the sacrifices made by those who fought and died, initially in WW1 for the Allied cause, today more generally extended as a memorial to all those who perished in wars. Poppies grew prolifically in the killing fields of Flanders in Belgium, and still cover the countryside today. The poppies were made famous by the poem “In Flanders Fields” written by Canadian military doctor John McCrae in 1915 after seeing poppies on the battlefield after the loss of his friend in the second battle of Ypres.
It was an American teacher, Moina Michael, who campaigned to make the poppy the international symbol for remembrance of Allied war veterans, and to use their sale for veteran’s welfare. (Another prominent campaigner was Anna Guérin, who took inspiration from Ms. Michael and actively promoted adoption of the poppy). Between 1920 and 1922 the poppy was adopted by veterans’ organizations in the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. In Britain an organization known as the “Poppy Factory”, which still exists today, was set up to manufacture the paper poppies for sale for the support of veterans causes. That leads us to the main point of this blog, the intellectual property (IP) controversies that have arisen around the sale of poppies and poppy-related memorabilia.
There is an important intellectual property angle as to who gets to produce and sell poppies, although it is more of a trademark than a copyright issue. There have been controversies in both Britain and Canada involving production and sale of the little red flower. In both countries (and possibly elsewhere) the poppy is trademarked, by the Royal Canadian Legion (RCL) and the Royal British Legion (RBL), respectively, both respected veterans organizations. The Royal Canadian Legion’s website notes that the trademark was conferred by Act of Parliament in 1948, and is limited to the use of the poppy in remembrance;
“The Canadian trademark for the Poppy includes both the Legion’s Poppy logo, as well as the Poppy symbol, as it relates to Remembrance. The trademark does not apply to the use of the actual Poppy flower, unless that usage is misrepresented as the Legion’s Poppy by associating it with remembrance or the raising of monies for a purpose other than the Poppy Campaign.”
However, the trademark extends to any colour or configuration of the poppy when used as a symbol of remembrance. This is increasingly relevant as various groups make their own versions available, from a white poppy symbolizing peace (some would say pacifism) to a rainbow-hued LBGTQ poppy that has caused some controversy.
Whether either of the Legions would take legal action against someone for producing and selling poppies of a colour other than red is an interesting question, but a few years ago in Britain a seller at an outdoor market pleaded guilty to selling red poppies that had no association with the RBL. In Canada a group of knitters who were knitting poppies for the price of a donation, which they say they intended to give to the RCL, were reminded that they were violating the Legion’s IP. In addition to its statement of trademark, the RCL has a very clear copyright warning on its website;
“The material on this site is covered by the provisions of the Copyright Act, by Canadian laws, policies, regulations and international agreements. Reproduction of materials on this site, in whole or in part, for the purposes of commercial redistribution is prohibited except with written permission from The Royal Canadian Legion…”
And what materials are marketed on the site? Just about anything that you can stick a poppy symbol on—playing cards, bags, baseball caps, pins, brooches, watches, T-shirts, magnets, umbrellas, scarves, toques, mittens, stuffed animals, even cellphone cases. You get the idea. And then there are digital versions of the poppy that you can purchase and use to embellish your Facebook page. All the proceeds go to the Legion and then on to its veterans’ welfare programs (although the Legion is not a registered charity).
Well, who knew that the innocuous looking poppy on people’s lapels on Remembrance Day carried such weighty IP concerns on its shoulders? When you drop your donation into the collection box, and pin your poppy on your jacket or shirt, remember…even the humble poppy can be controversial when it comes to trademark and copyright issues.
