Girl Scouts in lawsuit claim Boy Scouts will ‘marginalize’ them by rebranding

The Girl Scouts of the United States of America filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to stop the Boy Scouts of America from rebranding its Boy Scouts program and referring to members simply as “Scouts.”

Bloomberg reported that the Girl Scouts alleged in a trademark lawsuit that the Boy Scouts of America will “marginalize” the female organization and “erode its core brand identity” by adopting the “scouts” moniker.

The Boy Scouts of America announced last year it would allow girls to join the organization and in May, revealed its plans to rebrand the Boy Scouts program as “Scouts BSA.”

{mosads}In Tuesday’s lawsuit, the Girl Scouts announced that the organization also has a recognized right to use “Scout,” “Scouts” and “Scouting,” and therefore the Boy Scouts should have to use an additional term to distinguish the two groups from one another, Bloomberg reported.

“We just became aware of the lawsuit filed in the Southern District Court of New York, and we are reviewing it carefully,” the Boy Scouts of America said in a statement.

“Our decision to expand our program offerings for girls came after years of requests from families who wanted the option of the BSA’s character- and leadership-development programs for their children — boys and girls. We believe that we owe it to our current and future members to offer families the options they want.”

The “Scouts BSA” name is set to go into effect in February. When the change was first announced, Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh said the organization had considered many possibilities before settling on the new branding.

—Updated at 6:08 p.m.