The Girl Scouts organization accused the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) of “harmful” recruiting tactics after opening its core services to girls.
On Thursday, documents filed in federal court denouncing an attempt by lawyers for the BSA to challenge a trademark infringement case filed by the Girl Scouts in 2018.
The Girl Scouts of the United States of America allege that the BSA has unfairly recruited girls, according to legal documents, The Associated Press reported.
The Girl Scouts allege that the BSA’s use of the terms “scouts” and “scouting” infringes the organization’s trademarks.
However, Boy Scouts of America attorneys previously called the claims “utterly worthless.”
According to the documents filed in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday, the Girl Scouts claimed that the BSA’s marketing of its services to girls was “extraordinary and deeply harmful to Girl Scouts,” adding that it was an “explosion of confusion” caused.
“As a result of the Boy Scout violation, parents falsely registered their daughters with Boy Scouts, thinking they were Boy Scouts,” the lawyers said, adding that this never happened before 2018.
In the spring of 2018, the program for boys ages 11 to 17 announced that it would change its name to Scouts BSA to accommodate girls. The Boy Scouts of America, the parent organization, kept its name, including the name for its younger cohorts called Cub Scouts, according to the AP.
Scouts BSA started accepting girls in 2019.
The Girl Scouts claimed they could prove “ rampant instances of confusion and false associations between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, ” after a slew of marketing content the BSA released targeting girls and parents with recruiting communications they hadn’t used before, according to the news source.
The Girl Scouts filed documents from 19 of the 250 local Boy Scout councils that reportedly showed instances where the Boys Scouts had to reimburse registration fees to parents who mistook the organization for the Girl Scouts.
The organization claims the BSA attributed the confusion to everyone except itself, the wire service said.
The lawyers cited several examples from different chapters in states across the country. One account claimed that a Seattle Boy Scouts board had used the Girl Scouts trademark in social media recruiting materials.
The Hill contacted the BSA for comment.