SC - Kosher symbols

[Margo Hablutzel]

Phillipa, just because a mark cannot be copyrighted, or registered as a
trademark, does NOT mean that it cannot be used as a certification mark.
Actually, whether or not it can be registered for copyright is irrelevant,
as you would want it to be a trademark (symbol of origin, like heraldry) to
use it as a significator of "kosher-ness."  If you go to the webpage for the
Orthodox Union (try http://www.ou.org/kosher/default.htm
<http://www.ou.org/kosher/default.htm>  for the Kashruth Department) they
explain that "THE OU EMBLEM <cannot reproduce> is the registered trademark
(U.S. Patent Office #636,593 and #1,087891) of the Kashruth Division of the
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America - The Orthodox Union."
Other symbols used (I have not checked whether all are registered as a
trademark) are:  "Vaad HaKashruth of The Capital District - the Vaad's
Certificate of Kashruth is prominently displayed or the Vaad's symbol (A
'Star-of-David' with the letters VH written diagnally within it) appears on
product packaging."  [http://www.cs.rpi.edu/~mandels/Local/VaadKosher.html ]
and the list at http://www.lss.org/kashrut.html
<http://www.lss.org/kashrut.html>  provides all the ones in Manhattan.

Sindara, as for the article I posted on Jell-O, it was taken whole off of
the webpage to which I referred.  I agree with you that "K" is not
significant, but I have not looked at it.  As for the others, they all had
the webpages and you can go through them to ask the rabbis in question.
Without knowing to which of the items you were referring, I cannot give you
more of an answer than that.

Different rabbinic councils have their own symbols.  The Kashrus Magazine
(main webpage at http://www.kosherinfo.com/ <http://www.kosherinfo.com/> )
publishes a directory of symbols; the current issue has 345 different
symbols!  Here is some of what they say about it (and Ras, they answer about
the "K" alone as an indicator; as my sisteren pointed out, you are incorrect
about U being "kosher-for-Passover" at least in the USA):

This is our 19th year providing the most complete listing of
kosher-certifying agencies, their symbols, and information about their
organizations. We offer this in a non-judgmental way. Readers must make
their own determinations. 

Two suggestions for how you can determine the relative acceptability of a
rabbi or kashrus agency.  One way is to network, using this guide to contact
those rabbis or agencies which you or your rabbi consider acceptable.  The
second tip is that this guide makes a tremendous tool for planning a
vacation or when invited to an affair out of your area.

At the behest of readers who wished to know who stood behind the many
symbols which we had not been listing, we have included non-orthodox kashrus
agencies in our list (Conservative and Traditional). We do this so that the
Guide will be as complete as possible.

To the kosher consumer, a symbol conjures up the image of a huge kashrus
organization dedicated to round-the-clock supervision of kosher products. In
reality, however, the "organization" symbolized, may be only an individual
who works alone and whose supervision may not be up to the level of the
"American Standard of Kashrus." 

 	On the other hand, an extremely reliable group of people might be
using only a "K" to represent their product. It is important to remember,
however, that there has been a terrible abuse of the letter "K".   The
letter "K" is an unregistered symbol which can be used by anyone, even by a
non-Jewish owner of a food company, to claim that his products are kosher. 

This listing is a copyrighted directory (copyright 1998, Yeshiva Birkas
Reuven, Brooklyn, NY) and may not be copied or reproduced in any form,
stored in a retrieval file, or placed on the Internet without express
permission of the publisher. To request rights to reprint this directory or
to report violation of this copyright, please contact KASHRUS Magazine, POB
204, Brooklyn, NY 11204.

	---= Margo Lynn (the Jewish persona with Web access)


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	                      Morgan Cain * Steppes, Ansteorra


	                     May God have mercy on my enemies
	                     For they shall certainly need it.

	      For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.

                I intend to live forever -- so far, so good!

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