Be Prepared
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers a number of online courses related to Homeland Security and Civil Preparedness. Anyone with an interest in the National Response Plan, and the soon-to-be-mandatory-for-communities National Incident Management System (NIMS), can take self-paced courses online through FEMA's Emergency Management Institute. The courses are free, short (no more than two or three hours each), and passing the online final exam gets you a certificate with "Continuing Education Units" (CEUs).
I'm spending my evenings this week at the Anderson County Emergency Operations Center for their in-residence offering of "ICS-300" (Intermediate Level Incident Command System). It might be interesting to someday pursue formal "certification" in Emergency Management through the International Association of Emergency Managers.
On the topic of community preparedness and protection of "intellectual property" and symbols, there is an interesting legal battle brewing between the American Red Cross and Johnson & Johnson over the "red cross" symbol. On August 8th, Johnson & Johnson filed a civil complaint against American Red Cross over the licensing of products bearing the Red Cross symbol to third parties. Read the respective press releases here (Red Cross) and here (J&J). Personally, why an $11B (yep, that's a "B") company cares about a couple million dollars in retail sales by a predominantly volunteer and philanthropic organization is beyond me ...
posted by deichmans @ 18:38
5 Comments:
Very cool. Thanks for the heads up.
Doesn't the Red Cross predate Johnson and Johnson? Damn but that's a tad pathetic on the part of J and J given that the former is a non-profit organization.
Those courses on EM are intriguing, I'll have to look into that.
Soob,
So right you are -- I would expect an 830 year old General of the Hordes to know full well what was happening in the latter 19th century. :-) But never put it past a lawyer to find a way to argue "trademark infringement" (J&J is even claiming that their incorporation precedes ARC's charter, which is true -- but the formal charter came when the Red Cross was nearly 30 years old...).
On the EM classes: I recommend IS-100 (Intro to Incident Command System) and IS-700 (Intro to National Incident Management System) for starters. These lay the foundation for many of the others.
Personally, why an $11B (yep, that's a "B") company cares about a couple million dollars in retail sales by a predominantly volunteer and philanthropic organization is beyond me ...
Actually, there's a very good reason why they care: If they don't act to protect their intellectual property, they lose ownership of that intellectual property. If they let anyone else use their trademark, it's no longer their trademark. That's the way the legal system works.
isegoria, If it was J&J's wholly-owned intellectual property, then you'd have a valid point. But since it was *shared* IP, J&J was going out on a limb -- a limb that was recently cut by the Courts who dismissed a key element of their argument. THAT is the way the legal system works. :-)
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