WASHINGTON (AP)
Senate legislation would renew attempts to block a businessman’s efforts to trademark the Montana slogan “The Last Best Place.” Sen. Max Baucus, Dmont., added a provision to a Senate spending bill that would prevent Las Vegas businessman David E. Lipson, who owns the Resort at Paws Up in the Blackfoot Valley, from obtaining several trademarks of the phrase. The provision would cut off the funding needed to process his applications. Former Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., made similar efforts in the past, prompting the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to suspend all action on “The Last Best Place” trademarks. But Lipson’s Last Best Beef Co. Filed a civil lawsuit against the director of the trademark office and the trademark commissioner, and the court ruled that a single sentence in an annual spending bill act cannot override an entire body of well-established trademark law. Baucus’s provision, approved by a Senate committee Thursday, would try to get around that argument by stating the language was intended to override all other laws. “Like our outdoors, and public lands, this slogan should be open and available to everyone,” Baucus said. Lipson’s trademarks would cover a broad array of commercial uses, giving Lipson exclusive rights to use “The Last Best Place” to sell everything from cookware to clothing. “The Last Best Place” is a well-known Montana slogan first popularized as the title of a 1988 anthology co-edited by Missoula writers William Kittredge and Annick Smith. In the years since, it has seen unrestrained commercial use
