UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

EASTERN DISTRICT OF VIRGINIA

ALEXANDRIA DIVISION 

DECLARATION OF DAVID R. BURTON

Pursuant to 28 U.S.C. §1746, I, David R. Burton, aver as follows:

1. I am a resident of Virginia, and one of the defendants in the above-captioned action.

2. I am an attorney admitted to practice in Maryland and the District of Columbia. I serve as co-counsel in the case filed against the American Unitarian Association ("AUA"), myself and Mr. Fisher, having been admitted pro hac vice. All my legal services are being provided pro bono publico.

3. I have been involved in various capacities with Unitarian Universalist churches for approximately ten years. Over the years, I have attended Unitarian Universalist services in many towns and cities. I was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota located in Sarasota, Florida, serving on the Board of Trustees and as Treasurer of this Church. It is my understanding that this was the largest UU church in Florida while I served on its Board and remains one of the largest in the South. For approximately one year, I attended the Towson Unitarian Universalist Church in Towson, Maryland. For approximately three years, prior to moving to Virginia, I was a member of the Sugarloaf Congregation of Unitarian Universalists in Germantown, Maryland.

4. Mr. Dean Fisher and I became acquainted through the web site of the Conservative Forum for Unitarian Universalists, which was operated by Mr. Fisher. The Conservative Forum for Unitarian Universalists is an "independent affiliate" of Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA).

5. Mr. Fisher and I discussed our belief in God, our experiences and the current situation within the UUA. We discovered that we shared a Unitarian approach to God and valued the Unitarian tradition. It had also been our mutual experience that the UUA and most congregations were poor stewards of the Unitarian tradition that we and many others value, and it is in danger of being entirely forgotten. We agreed that the dominance of atheists (also called humanists in UU circles) in many UU congregations had made it difficult for those who believe in God to have a valuable religious experience and that atheists and theists do not have enough in common religiously to be a part of the same "religious" organization, and that the name Unitarian, evoking a belief in God, was inconsistent with atheism. We agreed that the UUA's recent effort to embrace various polytheist traditions (including self-described pagans, Wiccans and others practicing "witchcraft") constituted a further repudiation of the Unitarian monotheist tradition. We agreed that it was ironic and a shame that many, if not most, UUs are hostile to Christianity and a belief in God in contradiction to the proclaimed tolerance of Unitarian Universalism, particularly given the fact that both the Unitarian side of Unitarian Universalism and the Universalist side of Unitarian Universalism were originally Christian religious movements.

6. On the basis of our shared concerns and beliefs outlined in the previous paragraph, Mr. Fisher and I decided to launch an organization to promote the Unitarian tradition and to honor the American Unitarian heritage. We decided to research whether the American Unitarian Association (AUA) name could be used for this organization. This was our preferred choice of name because the AUA promoted the Unitarian tradition in America for 136 years before the UUA formed its new faith and strayed so definitively from Unitarian roots during the last 40 years.

7. Since I am an attorney, I agreed to undertake the incorporation of the new organization. I began by making inquiries with appropriate state incorporation offices and determined that the American Unitarian Association corporate name was available in Massachusetts (the domicile of the Unitarian Universalist Association) and in Virginia.

8. I conducted a search of internet not-for-profit databases and determined that, according to these databases, no not-for-profit organization with the name American Unitarian Association existed or had tax-exempt tax status.

9. I conducted a search at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and determined that the name American Unitarian Association was not a registered trademark. I further determined that the Unitarian Universalist Association had filed for the following trademarks (with the following serial numbers and filing dates):

UU World (SN 76170595, November 21, 2000)

UU & Me (SN 75331939, July 28, 1997)

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (SN 74386541, May 3, 1993)

World Journal of Unitarian Universalist Association (SN 73662235, May 21,

1987)

Beacon (SN 73594212, April 18, 1986)

Unitarian Universalist (SN 73106267, November 11, 1976)

Concord Library (SN 74232036, December 20, 1991)

In addition, the UUA had filed for trademarks on various symbols.

10. It was thus obvious to me that the UUA both was well aware of the requirements of trademark law and had taken steps to protect many "Unitarian Universalist" names and symbols. It was also clear that the UUA had never filed to protect the "American Unitarian Association" name or anything with the words "Unitarian" or "Universalist" standing alone.

11. I carefully perused the UUA web site and saw no indication that they were engaging in commerce in the name of the American Unitarian Association. The American Unitarian Association is mentioned in the preamble of the UUA By-Laws (more than 100 pages), which states in relevant part that "The name of this Association shall be Unitarian Universalist Association. It is the successor to the American Unitarian Association, which was founded in 1825 and incorporated in 1847, and the Universalist Church of America, which was founded in 1793 and incorporated in 1866."

12. In all of the years of my association with Unitarian Universalist churches and reading the Unitarian Universalist Association magazine (UU World), I have never once seen any product, service or message sold or delivered under the American Unitarian Association name.

13. I then researched trademark law and reached the conclusion that even if the UUA once had rights in the American Unitarian Association name, the American Unitarian Association name was legally available for use because the UUA had "abandoned" the AUA name under the terms and definitions of the Lanham Act, having not used it in commerce for four decades, since the 1961 formation of the UUA.

14. I incorporated the American Unitarian Association as a nonstock corporation organized for religious and charitable purposes in Virginia. I mailed the incorporation documents to the State Corporation Commission on or about September 20, 2000. The AUA was incorporated on September 28, 2000. I also filed for a federal trademark for the name American Unitarian Association on or about December 13, 2000 (serial number 78/039170).

15. Mr. Fisher obtained the domain name www.americanunitarian.org for the corporation. We launched the American Unitarian Association web site during the last part of December 2000.

16. Mr. Fisher and I decided to use the name American Unitarian Association for our new organization because the name is legally available and because we do not believe we are inventing a new religion in any sense, but are trying to recover and preserve the Unitarian religion that the UUA has largely repudiated and destroyed.

17. I would not have incorporated the American Unitarian Association or filed for a federal trademark unless I believed in good faith that I was entitled to do so under the law.

18. Under the AUA’s Articles of Incorporation, Mr. Fisher and I became the initial directors of the AUA. The Board of Directors named me as President and Mr. Fisher as Treasurer and Secretary.

19. The AUA has not and is not asking any person or congregation to leave the UUA. It is our expectation, as the directors and officers of the AUA, that most individuals and congregations that join the AUA will retain their affiliation with the UUA. Since the AUA will retain its independence from the UUA, we anticipate that some individuals and congregations may join the AUA without affiliating with the UUA.

20. On April 21-22, 2001, the American Unitarian Association held its organizational meeting in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

21. All of the actions that serve as the basis for the Complaint filed against me by the UUA in the above-captioned action I have taken solely in one of my capacities as incorporator, director or officer of the American Unitarian Association, and all of my actions were within the scope of my responsibilities.

22. I have received no salary, wages or remuneration of any kind for my services as an incorporator, officer or director of the AUA. I have received no compensation or payment of any kind from the AUA or from any other source for my work in connection with the AUA. I have not received any other thing of value in lieu of compensation for my services as an incorporator, officer or director of the AUA. All of my activities to date have been as a volunteer for a non-profit organization. For the future, I intend to continue to volunteer my services to the AUA, provided however, that I may be reimbursed for out-of-pocket expenses incurred by me on behalf on the AUA.

23. I am motivated to do this volunteer work for the AUA entirely by the desire to preserve and promote the Unitarian religious heritage and tradition of a belief in God for myself, my children and for others that may find it of value. My work for the AUA is a direct expression of my religious faith.

I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed: May 8, 2001 By:____________________________

David R. Burton

Alexandria, Virginia