County looking into trademarking seal

BONNERS FERRY — Boundary County commissioners are looking into trademarking the county seal.

Boundary County Watchman, a blog and social media site, was ordered to stop using Boundary County’s official seal as its image in January. The group’s Adrienne Norris told the commissioners the image was the county “flag” and was “waving it as a citizen who’s proud of my county and I just want to see transparency.”

Boundary County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Tevis Hull said that, while the image used by the Watchman may be an image of the county flag, which is the county seal with a blue background, the group’s cropping isolates the seal. That cropping makes the image look more like the county seal, he said.

Hull said the county seal can be trademarked under state law, noting the file process is simple and should cost around $30.

The Watchman has a disclaimer on their social media accounts stating they are not “endorsed, authorized, or sponsored by any entity or government agency.” However, Hull has said that in the context of being a “watchman” for the county, while having a disclaimer on the website, is still an improper use of the county seal. He added people typically don’t read disclaimers.

In 1989, the Boundary County seal was adopted. Being Idaho’s centennial then-Gov. Cecil Andrus encouraged counties to adopt seals as part of the celebration. The Boundary County’s seal, like many other counties, was never trademarked.

Hull said that he reached out to Canyon County on seal trademarking and was informed when they run into a similar situation of improper or unauthorized use of the county seal, they send out a cease and desist letter and the issue ends there.

On Feb. 17, Adrienne Norris responded to the county seal debate on the Boundary County Watchman Facebook page.

"Municipalities cannot trademark an insignia. Just like an American flag I proudly display the county flag where I live,” she wrote. “May God help them see this is my constitutional 1st Amendment right!