The LDS church is suing Mormon Stories for trademark and copyright infringement. We may have heard snippets from John Dehlin (which have largely since been deleted), from the LDS church or apologists, or from exmormons what the situation is, but I felt there was still a lot of ambiguity and nuance that hadn’t properly been explored in depth.
As a Reform Mormon, my initial reaction to hearing about the lawsuit was dread. The LDS church is valued at over $200 billion, so if they turned their sights on my little branch of Mormonism with ire at us using the term “Mormon”, we simply would not have the monetary resources or the power to fight for our right to identify as Mormons. So, because of the confusion and stakes, I decided to spend 12+ hours of my Saturday researching and writing this analysis out.
Table of Contents
1. High-level overview
2. Mediation
3. Why talks may have fallen apart
4. Why would the LDS church do this?
5. How is it being spun?
6. Conclusion: My thoughts
1. High-level overview
On November 14th, 2025 the LDS church emailed the Open Stories Foundation (aka “Mormon Stories”) regarding copyrights and trademarks that they believed Mormon Stories was violating, namely using images owned by the LDS church and using a similar visual identity.
Mormon Stories didn’t want to make these changes, so in early February 2026 they began mediation talks with the LDS church, where the church brough up a couple more issues, namely that Mormon Stories made no clarification that they aren’t affiliated with the LDS church and even a complaint that Mormon Stories was using the term “Mormon”.
During mediation, Mormon Stories did quite a bit of what the LDS church asked of them, but ultimately the mediation talks ended on March 26th, 2026 without a mutually-agreed upon resolution.
On April 17th, 2026 the LDS church filed Civil Action No. 2:26-CV-00321 which is a “Complaint for Trademark Infringement and Copyright Infringement” (aka a lawsuit) where they laid out their case as to how Mormon Stories had violated copyrights and trademarks and asked this this to be a trial by jury.
2. Mediation
Using images owned by the LDS church
Mormon Stories has used copyrighted images in the thumbnails of their videos for many years. In their youtube banner they even used the LDS church’s logo. This is a pretty cut-and-dry copyright violation, and Mormon Stories was in the wrong.
Mormon stories has been working on modifying old thumbnails and banner images to not use images owned by the LDS church.
It should be noted that both of these new images for the thumbnails were pulled from Salt Lake Tribune articles, meaning the new images definitely aren’t owned by the LDS church. Here is the article for the top-right thumbnail, and here is the article for the bottom-right thumbnail.
That being said, the LDS church has pointed out that the thumbnail for this video has a picture of the Ogden Temple’s sealing room – a picture that is owned by the LDS church. Removing copyrighted materials was nice, but it kinda falls flat when Mormon Stories then goes and uses more copyrighted materials during mediation.
Using a similar visual identity
The first Mormon Stories logo I could find was their beige one, and it had been in use since at least 2006.
In 2016 the LDS Church copyrighted this design, which when it was secured in 2020 they started using it heavily in promo and manual materials. The LDS church called this design “Light-Rays”.
In late 2022 Mormon Stories changed its logo to resemble “Light-Rays” and also use a blue color (which the LDS church has done since at least August 2000). This shift to more closely align with the visual identity of the LDS church is pretty apparent, and it immediately tied Mormon Stories to the LDS church’s brand. In the email to Mormon Stories the LDS church compared the Mormon Stories logo with LDS church apps and icons, and the brand confusion becomes quite apparent.
Even before mediation began, Mormon Stories saw that this logo crossed the line after the email the church sent. In late November 2025, Mormon Stories shifted to a new orange logo and they began to remove their blue logo from all the thumbnails in their videos since 2022. On February 28th, 2026 (well into the mediation time) Mormon Stories reverted back to their original logo, but with an orange tint, but just 4 days later they changed their logo again to just be plain orange. Presumably, the LDS church began to have a problem with Mormon Stories’ original visual identity (even though it pre-dated the LDS church’s current visual identity by more than a decade) because Mormon Stories went back to using a plain orange logo.
One thing I think is funny is that orange is a complementary (opposite) color to blue. Mormon stories literally changed their color to the least-blue color they could to avoid similarities with the LDS church.
It should be noted that while Mormon Stories is clearly making an effort to eliminate the use of their blue logo, as of the date of publishing this article (April 19th, 2026) the “favicon” on the Mormon Stories website is still their blue logo.
No Disclaimer
Considering Mormon Stories used a visual identity so similar to the LDS church’s for a period of time, the LDS church asked Mormon Stories to add a disclaimer to their website, which they did by February 2026 at the latest.
It seems as if this disclaimer also wasn’t enough for the LDS church, as it was once again updated in early March 2026.
Mormon stories also put this disclaimer in multiple other places, such as their Youtube channel description and spotify description. However, in some places, like Instagram, the disclaimer still isn’t there.
The use of the term “Mormon”
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has a search tool, and when you search the term “Mormon”, there are 89 different trademarks. Unfortunately the search tool won’t let you link directly to a search, but you can conduct a search yourself here or I have everything exported to a spreadsheet here (and the LDS church highlighted yellow). According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the LDS church has only registered 21 trademarks, but only 14 are alive.
Buckle up, cause this is gonna get a bit legal.
First, it should be noted that the LDS church does not have a broad trademark on the word “Mormon”. The LDS church tried to get a broad trademark in 2002 but they were denied the broad trademark in 2005. The rationale behind the denial is that you can’t broadly trademark words like “Presbyterian”, “Seventh-day Adventist”, “Lutheran”, “Methodist”, “Judaism”, or “Christianity”, and there could only be trademarks for these terms within a limited capacity. The LDS church then applied for a limited use trademark. They filed under 2 International Classes, 041 and 042.
041 had a sub-class of 100 (miscellaneous), 101 (advertising and business), and 107 (education and entertainment). The LDS church claimed they wanted the trademark for “educational services, namely, providing classes, conferences, and institutes in the fields of history and religion”. 042 was defined as “Scientific and technological services and research and design relating thereto; industrial analysis, industrial research and industrial design services; quality control and authentication services; design and development of computer hardware and software”, which the LDS church claimed they wanted the trademark for “genealogy services”. So, in other words, when it comes to genealogy software, only the LDS church can use the word “Mormon”. When it comes to classes, conferences, and institutes of history or religion, that’s where the LDS church may have some legal footing regarding a trademark.
Mormon Stories didn’t budge on changing their name.
3. Why talks may have fallen apart
So, as I see it, the mediation talks may have fell apart for a couple of reasons:
1. The LDS church thinks that Mormon Stories is an “educational services, namely, providing classes, conferences, and institutes in the fields of history and religion”, and thus wants them to change their name.
Mormon Stories is a 20+ year old podcast (which existed before the LDS church had this trademark) that is prolific in the Mormon world. However, to call it an institute of history or religion is a bit of a stretch. In fact, the Mormon History Association would be a far more likely candidate for this lawsuit, but they have existed for 60 years now.
However, Mormon Stories HAS done classes and conferences, which opens them up to a lawsuit like this. Frankly, after writing this, I think this is the far less likely reason because it is not what was emphasized in the church’s press release.
The Reform Mormons have our General Conference twice a year, but this is essentially just us posting videos on youtube – no tickets or money exchanged whatsoever. Additionally, it would be laughable to confuse our Conference with the LDS church’s Conference. I think the Reform Mormons are safe.
2. The visual identity is still too close
Mormon Stories’ logo’s font is still a serif font and looks very similar to the LDS church’s logo’s font. The LDS church could be trying to pressure Mormon Stories to change its visual identity even more, but I don’t think this is the likely case either because Mormon Stories has already shown a willingness to change their visual identity.
3. Mormon Stories used a copyrighted image during mediation
Doing this doesn’t exactly inspire confidence that Mormon Stories will cease violating copyright in the future. The LDS church would have been well within their rights to be irritated or even walk away from mediation after this.
4. The LDS church wanted Mormon Stories to add more disclaimers.
Mormon Stories seemingly reasonably cooperated with adding disclaimers to their websites, social media platforms, and podcast platforms. However, in the LDS church’s newsroom article they said (emphasis mine):
“The primary issue is ongoing confusion about whether “Mormon Stories” is affiliated with the Church. To address that, the Church proposed a simple solution: a brief disclaimer that the podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is a common and straightforward way to help audiences understand the source of content. That step was not adopted. As a result, the likelihood of confusion remains, and the Church moved forward to protect its trademarks.”
Its possible that the LDS church wanted the 18-word disclaimer in the description of every episode. While this would be a large undertaking, it could easily be done within a couple of months – especially if you had a short-term employee or intern do it as their main task. If Mormon Stories refused to do this, this would have been foolish on their part.
The only way I can think of that Mormon Stories could not comply is if the LDS church wanted all 2,136+ podcast episodes modified to auditorily and/or visually include the disclaimer of 18 words. To do this would be an enormous undertaking, and Mormon Stories likely doesn’t have the resources for it. I think this is what the LDS church is legally pushing for.
4. Why would the LDS church do this?
In 2017 MormonLeaks published a 2015 powerpoint presentation that was leaked from a meeting of the quorum of the 12 apostles of the LDS church. In this, the LDS church identified the “issues and ideas leading people away from the gospel”.
As you can see, John Dehlin is one of 17 things/people identified. When this was leaked these were often called the “enemies of the church” and “threats to the church” by many different kinds of Mormons.
If the LDS church could somehow eliminate a substantial amount of the work John Dehlin has done, they would be thrilled. I think the LDS church found a way where they could try and force that while also slowing down or even stopping the future production of Mormon Stories.
I’m not that this is definitely the motivation that the LDS church has, but it is certainly plausible.
5. How is it being spun?
Pro-LDS Church
The LDS church’s press release makes it seem like Mormon Stories didn’t do anything the LDS church asked them to. I feel like this is lying by omission at best, and at worst its purposefully lying to the public about how Mormon Stories conducted itself during mediation to gain more support and criticize detractors.
Moroni Channel (here and here) and Jasmin Rappleye are emphasizing that Mormon Stories wasn’t willing to change their brand identity, which again we can clearly see Mormon Stories was willing to do. However, Jasmin did suggest that Mormon Stories’ branding was a “parasitic relationship” with the LDS church, and I think its hard to argue with that since 2022.
Jasmin and Christopher Blythe took aim at the disclaimers not being enough. Jasmin mentioned how she has put a disclaimer in the description of her videos, and she has never had any trouble with her personal projects or the organizations she worked for, and implied that Mormon Stories wouldn’t have been sued if they did the same thing. However, she goes on to acknowledge that the wording of the LDS church’s lawsuit could imply that they wanted Mormon Stories to add in a disclaimer to the audio or in the video.
I hate to keep pointing to her, but I think Jasmin is going to set the tone for how pro-LDS Church folk will approach this lawsuit, in large part because Jasmin posted her video the same day the lawsuit was filed and she spoke on it for 33 minutes. Its been less than 48 hours and her video has over 36,000 views and 1,112 comments.
Jasmin (and the lawsuit) also suggested that the LDS church hasn’t abandoned the term “Mormon” and pointed to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as an example. I don’t feel like this is a good-faith argument since the Choir officially rebranded to be called “The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square” back in 2018 and is still called that today. Jasmin suggested that the problem the LDS church has is the “Mormon” in Mormon Stories, and suggested the podcast undergo a rebrand and remove “Mormon” from it altogether.
Pro-Mormon Stories
At the time of posting this, neither Open Stories, Mormon Stories, or John Dehlin have publicly responded to the lawsuit and how it is being portrayed.
Rebecca Bibliotheca, the ExMormon hostess of the Mormonish Podcast, posted here and here implying that Mormon Stories was fully compliant with the requests for disclaimers. Mormon Stories definitely made a push, but as I have mentioned I don’t think the LDS church thought it the efforts were enough.
/u/MissionPrez on /r/ExMormon suggested that the LDS church doesn’t want to let other people or organizations use the word “Mormon”. I’ve seen quite a few similar comments to this, and admittedly my kneejerk reaction was the same. I now think this is silly, because “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” has been a hit show, doesn’t exactly make the LDS church look good, and it may have helped push for sleeveless garments, and yet and this show continues using the word “Mormon” in its advertising.
/u/CaseyJones_EE on /r/ExMormon pointed that it is hypocritical that the LDS church is going after Mormon Stories for posting copyrighted images and mimicking a brand, when ChurchOfJesusChristTemples.org has hundreds of copyrighted photos and also uses a serif font like the LDS church but they aren’t asked to remove the content or rebrand. I think this is a fair criticism, and it makes it look like the LDS church really is only going after its critics and not enforcing its trademarks equally.
Many people are bringing up the “victory for Satan” rebranding of the term “Mormon” that happened under Russell M. Nelson’s tenure. While this has become a tired old meme in ExMormon circles, I do think its hypocritical that the LDS church is trying to pressure Mormon Stories to change its name now.
6. Conclusion: My thoughts
I don’t think little groups like the Reform Mormons have anything to worry about. We take no money and we clearly aren’t a part of the LDS church.
Mormon Stories clearly changed their visual identity in 2022 to make themselves look like an official LDS outlet. They should not have done this. However, Mormon Stories went back through 4 years of thumbnails to remove this branding, which shows me they were working in good-faith.
Mormon stories has used copyrighted images owned by the LDS church in their promotional materials. They should not have done this. Mormon Stories went through years worth of thumbnails and removed copyrighted images, but they also posted another copyrighted image after this during mediation with the LDS church. They should not have done this, and it makes their efforts look insincere and like they’re not taking the copyright violations seriously.
Mormon Stories didn’t have a disclaimer in its content. I don’t think that everything having to do with Mormonism should have a disclaimer that its not “affiliated with or endorsed by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” However, because Mormon Stories used the LDS church’s brand identity so heavily I think the disclaimer was warranted on the website and social medias. I think asking for the disclaimer to be added to the description of the videos is within reason as well.
However, I don’t think its reasonable to demand Mormon Stories to modify 2,000+ videos to add this disclaimer visually or auditorily, which I think is what the LDS church is pushing for.
The LDS church has not fairly portrayed the outcome of the mediation talks and efforts.
I think if Mormon Stories had just removed the images and rebranded back in November 2025 this didn’t need to be blown out of proportion. Now it is likely going to court, and the LDS church (for all intents and purposes) has unlimited money to litigate, which means Mormon Stories will likely lose in court.
I hope this article has been insightful, well cited, and charitable to both sides of this lawsuit! Keep in mind I’m not a lawyer and this isn’t legal advice; I am just some lady who likes Mormonism a lot.