NA
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY BULLETIN #5 REVISED
JUNE 1997
CONFLICT RESOLUTION WITHIN THE NA FELLOWSHIP
The procedure to be used if any conflicts arise relating to copyright
or trademark use by an individual NA member, group, or area or regional
service board or committee.
The conflict resolution policy described in this bulletin was developed
specifically to help address some issues that may arise in implementing
NA Intellectual Property Bulletin #1, Internal Use of NA Intellectual
Property, at the local level.
Before we proceed further, let’s define two terms we will use
in this bulletin. By “local” we mean the group, area, and
regional levels of the service structure of Narcotics Anonymous. The
term “registered” refers to those area and regional service
committees that have registered themselves with NA World Services for
the purpose of using NA’s trademarks and reprinting portions of
NA Fellowship-approved literature.
Once an area or regional service committee has registered with NAWS,
it is granted authority under IP Bulletin #1 to extend similar permission
to its subcommittees. As a condition to the exercise of such authority,
each area and regional service committee shall be held accountable for
its subcommittees’ use of NA’s intellectual property.
If a conflict should arise on the local level regarding the reprinting
of NA Fellowship-approved literature or the use of an NA Trademark,
the following is the process that will be used to resolve it:
- If
the conflict arises with an individual NA member or at the group level,
the conflict should be resolved at the group, the area, or, if necessary,
the regional level.
- If
the conflict arises at the area level, the conflict should be resolved
at the area or regional level.
- If
the conflict arises at the regional level, it should be resolved at
the regional level.
- If
it is not possible to resolve a conflict at the local level, NA World
Services should be contacted for assistance in resolving the conflict.
- Since
NA World Services is held legally accountable for safeguarding NA’s
intellectual property, it is also legally responsible to be the final
arbiter of such conflicts.
- If
the member, group, service board, or committee is not satisfied with
the decision made by NA World Services, it can request that the conflict
be resolved at the next biennial meeting of the World Service Conference.
This
document is published by NA World Services in accordance with its duties
as described in Article V, Section 1:1 of the Fellowship Intellectual
Property Trust Instrument and Article IV, Sections 4-7 of the Trust
Operational Rules, approved by the Fellowship of Narcotics Anonymous
as given voice by its groups through their regional service representatives
at the World Service Conference on 27 April 1993, and revised by the
regional service representatives at the World Service Conference on
30 April 1997 and 27 April 1998. This bulletin is subject to revision
at any time and supersedes any previous versions. For more information,
contact NA World Services, PO Box 9999, Van Nuys CA 91409 USA, Tel:
(818) 773-9999
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