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Wyoming Complains!
Wyoming Secretary of State Joe Meyer says the upcoming Greetings From Montana stamp violates his state's trademark rights, shown at right.The Montana stamp in the Greetings From America series, to be issued April 4, and already printed, shows a cowboy on a bucking bronco.
The state trademarked the logo in the 1970s, but it was first used in 1918 and has been on Wyoming's license plates since 1936. It's also the logo of the University of Wyoming.
Meyer has written USPS Inspector General Karla Corcoran to protest.
Wyoming Secretary of State Joe Meyer says he doesn't want the Postal Service to scrap the stamp, nor does he want the logo swapped to Wyoming's stamp, reports the Associated Press.
He wants money! In particular, the same 7.5% royalty that is charged others for use of the state logo on their products.
"It isn't the same symbol," USPS western regional spokesman Al DeSarro, said. "It's just a similar image."
As for the Postal Service paying a royalty to Wyoming: "I don't think so," he said Tuesday.
A spokeswoman for Montana's secretary of state says if her state had been consulted, it would have pointed out that strong association of the bucking bronco with Wyoming. But USPS chief designer Terry McCaffrey told the Virtual Stamp Club last month that state governors specifically were not consulted on the designs, or the sheet of 50 would have been unworkable.
Meyer said that state officials asked the Postal Service several times to use the bucking horse and rider for Wyoming's stamp but never heard back from the agency.
A Postal Service source, however, tells Virtual Stamp Club the agency never received any requests to use the Wyoming state "logo" in the design of the Greetings from Wyoming stamp.
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(Click on the stamp design for a larger version.)