Gov. Brian Schweitzer plans to fight a Nevada businessman's effort to trademark the phrase "The Last Best Place," a description of Montana that Schweitzer says "belongs to the people of Montana."
"We'll defend that position vigorously," the governor said Tuesday. "This is something that we've come to identify ourselves with, and something that the people of Montana have spent a great deal of time, money and effort on to promote our state."
"The Last Best Place," coined by Missoula author William Kittredge in 1988 as the title of an anthology of work by Montana writers, has become a prevalent moniker, used not only by the state, but by a large number of businesses in promotional efforts.
Schweitzer said the state will formally oppose Lipson's applications before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. State officials will argue the phrase should remain in the public domain, Schweitzer said.
A soul that is reluctant to share does not as a rule have much of its own. Miserliness is here a symptom of meagerness. Eric Hoffer
">Last Best Place</a> blog - July 18 entry titled Trademark This! - Wulfgar suggested that MT bloggers all name their blogs "Last Best Place" for one day as a protest.