The institution
The Church Sues Over “Mormon”
In 2018 the Church asked the world to stop calling it the Mormon Church. In 2026 it sued the podcast Mormon Stories for trademark infringement. What the case is actually about, from the court filings.
The argument
Trademark law is real, and owners who do not defend their marks can lose them. A church that does not want people confused about what it has endorsed has a legitimate interest. This page starts there, and it uses the Church’s own filings to say what the case is and is not about.
In April 2026 the Church sued Mormon Stories, a podcast run by one of its most prominent critics, John Dehlin, for trademark infringement. Eight years earlier, President Russell M. Nelson had asked members and the media to stop using nicknames like “Mormon Church,” calling the removal of the Lord’s name from the Church “a major victory for Satan.” The Church says the suit is not about the word or about criticism. Free-speech groups say a critic is being sued over the name of his show.
1. The case
Intellectual Reserve, Inc. v. Open Stories Foundation was filed April 17, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for Utah. Intellectual Reserve is the company that holds the Church’s intellectual property. The complaint asserts a “family” of registered marks, including MORMON (U.S. registration 3,239,919), BOOK OF MORMON, MORMON CHANNEL and MORMON TABERNACLE CHOIR, along with the Church’s light-rays logo and an image of the Christus statue (complaint). It asks the court to bar the MORMON STORIES name and logos, and any other name or design confusingly similar to the Church’s marks, and to stop the podcast from using the Church’s copyrighted images.
2. The Church’s case, at full strength
- The logo. In or around December 2022, Mormon Stories began using a blue logo with a light-rays design that the complaint calls “virtually indistinguishable” from the Church’s. You can compare the images in the complaint.
- It asked first. The complaint says the defendants “refused to include a simple statement, either verbal or written, at the beginning of podcast episodes acknowledging that Mormon Stories is not affiliated with the Church,” and that they used a copyrighted temple image days after promising to stop.
- It says it is not targeting the content or the word. The complaint says the Church “does not seek, in any way, to influence the content of Defendants’ podcast,” and a later brief says Dehlin “can use Mormon in connection with his podcast.”
3. The other side
Dehlin has asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the First Amendment protects using a name to describe what a show is about, and that the Church waited too long: Mormon Stories began in 2005, about twenty years before the suit. In his answer he also asks the court to cancel the Church’s registrations, alleging fraud, abandonment, or that “Mormon” is generic. Those are his allegations, not findings. The ACLU of Utah and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed briefs supporting dismissal. As of October 2026 the court had not ruled on the motion to dismiss; a hearing was set for November 24, 2026.
4. What the Church taught about the name
President Russell M. Nelson, general conference, October 2018
To remove the Lord’s name from the Lord’s Church is a major victory for Satan.
He was speaking about nicknames such as “Mormon Church” that leave out the name of Jesus Christ. The Church’s style guide still asks that “the term ‘Mormons’ and ‘LDS’ not be used” for its members.
Read the talkThere is no strict contradiction in protecting a registered brand while asking people not to use it as a nickname. Companies retire names and still guard them. But the two positions sit uneasily together. Members were taught to set the word aside. A podcast that has used it since 2005 is now in federal court over how it uses it.
What is true on the other side
- Trademark owners must police their marks or risk losing them.
- The Church’s own filings disclaim control of the word itself, and say criticism is not the target.
- The logo claim is concrete, and anyone can compare the images.
The common rebuttals
“This is just about a logo.”
If it were only the logo, a new logo would end it. The complaint asks the court to bar the MORMON STORIES name itself, which the show has used since 2005. Whatever the court decides, that is the part worth watching.
What this means
The Church says this is about confusion, not criticism. A court will decide. Until then, the institution is suing a prominent critic over the name of his show.