<div><strong>Why we must act: The short version</strong>
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<div>Circling belongs to all of us. However, one company owns a U.S. trademark registration for “circling” and it could be used to restrict others’ use of the term for circling-related events.
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<div><strong>Context:</strong> The word "circling" is widely used to identify and describe a relational meditation practice, no more ownable than "yoga" or "meditation." Many people in many circling communities have invested significant time and resources to learning, developing, and sharing circling. Now a single company owns a federal registration that could create uncertainty for the smaller teachers and communities who built this practice, when they use “circling” to describe and promote their own events.
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<div><strong>Why we feel strongly about this:</strong> We love circling and believe the practice will flourish more fully if it grows the way it always has, through many teachers and communities, not through one gatekeeper deciding who gets to use its name.
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<div><strong>Who we are:</strong> A group of over 30 trained circling facilitators and community leaders who are supporting this petition to cancel the trademark.
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<div><strong>We have a strong case:</strong> In 2022 the U.S. Trademark Office issued a full refusal on a nearly identical application, ruling that "circling" is generic and "merely descriptive"—disqualifying the term from trademark protection. However, the current registration is still active, and so we are opposing it.
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<div><strong>But time is of the essence.</strong>
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<div>We had to file before this trademark hardened into a form that's far harder to challenge. Similar issues developed in Europe, and we are working to ensure the US registration is also properly challenged.
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<div><strong>Our initial goal:</strong> At least $7,500 by August 31st.
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<div>And good news: We have matching donors willing to match the first $10,000 we raise, here.
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<div>Please chip in to our legal fund today. Any amount helps. And if there is any money left when this is over, we’ll return it fairly among donors after covering basic platform and administrative costs.
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<div>We’re especially seeking larger donors willing to contribute $1,000–5,000. If we can get a few of those donations, we’ve hit our goal.
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<div><strong>Consider this question:</strong> How much is it worth to keep “circling” available to the communities that turned it into such a beloved practice?
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<div>If you can help by sharing this with your communities (WhatsApp groups, text threads, and email lists), please do.
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<div><strong>The background: Slightly longer version</strong>
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<div>As a relational meditation practice, circling has been developed by many individuals and taught by many organizations.
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<div>Through these organizations—The Integral Center, Circling Europe, and The Circling Institute, among others—many people have paid substantial sums and trained for months to become facilitators of the practice.
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<div>These facilitators undertook their training with the understanding that “circling” is a generic or descriptive term—akin to “yoga” or “meditation”—for a relational practice that improves with training but requires no formal legal regulation, trademarking, or licensure.
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<div>Circling has, instead, been capably represented by many community groups and organizations, small and large, around the globe.
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<div>Despite this, in 2019 the Circling Institute filed an application to register CIRCLING as a trademark, which can be used to prevent others from using the word.
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<div>As a result, dozens of circling organizations and communities around the world were plunged into uncertainty: Could they even use the word, to market their events? What would they be risking, if they did?
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<div>Some of the larger organizations have simply rebranded (Circling Europe became “Transformational Connection,” for example), to avoid the unknowns.
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<div>But the leaders of smaller organizations and community groups are left with uncertainty.
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<div>Having already invested significant time, resources, and effort to become facilitators, they're now often concerned about even using the word “circling” for marketing and community-building purposes.
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<div>After years of this uncertainty, the time for action has come.
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<div>Similar opposition has already been organized and filed in Europe.
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<div>Now we're doing the same in the United States.
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<div>Please support us today with your donation to our legal fund.
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<div><strong>OUR PLAN</strong>
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<div>We filed our opposition to the trademark last year, on July 3, 2025.
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<div>Jason Digges is the petitioner in our case. And more than 30 other circling trainers, facilitators, and community leaders listed below stand behind him with their moral, legal, and financial support.
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<div>Jason is an ideal plaintiff for the case. He has personally helped train hundreds of authentic relating and circling facilitators, first through the Integral Center and then through ART International.
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<div>We retained the services of a qualified IP lawyer, who filed our petition to cancel the registration with the Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.
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<div>To keep costs reasonable, we ourselves have been helping with the legwork and documentation required to support our case.
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<div><strong>WHY OUR CASE IS STRONG</strong>
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<div>Some things you may not know about the Circling Institute’s “circling” trademark efforts:
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<li><strong>Their first application was ultimately unopposed.</strong> The Circling Institute’s initial 2019 application was approved in July 2020 after several parties requested additional time to oppose the application, but ultimately did not commence an opposition proceeding. Many had withdrawn specifically because of the Circling Institute’s assurance that the trademark would be administered by a soon-to-be-formed “Circling Federation” that would include and represent all the major schools of circling.
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<li><strong>But the Federation fell apart.</strong> All the other circling schools eventually withdrew from the Federation. Various concerns were aired, along the way. The Circling Institute was, for example, merely licensing the trademark to the Federation, rather than assigning it—leaving the Circling Institute in full control of the trademark and thus the Federation.
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<li><strong>Further, the Circling Institute attempted to develop a narrower definition of “circling”</strong>—identifying a type of “course” or “seminar,” rather than merely a kind of meditation—that did not and does not reflect how many practitioners and community members understand and use the term. And to maintain the trademark, Federation members’ marketing materials would have had to reflect that narrower definition.
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<li><strong>Their second application was roundly rejected by the USPTO.</strong> In 2021, the Circling Institute attempted to register “circling” for “coaching” in addition to “courses and seminars.” But when the trademark examiner reviewed the application, her disapproval was resounding.
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<div>From the Final Office Action for that 2021 application:
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<div>“In summary, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that "circling" is the name of a meditation activity featured in applicant's services. Thus, the proposed mark is merely descriptive, and the refusal of registration on the Principal Register under Section 2(e)(1) is now made FINAL. ... In addition to being merely descriptive, the applied-for mark appears to be generic in connection with the identified goods and/or services.”
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<div>These adjectives “merely descriptive” and “generic” are terms of art used in IP law to describe words that can be difficult or impossible to register and protect as trademarks . The examiner therefore issued a “FULL REFUSAL” to grant the trademark, and the application was abandoned.
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<div><strong>This is key:</strong> The current registration contains many of the same vulnerabilities as the now-abandoned application, including whether “circling” is eligible for, or even capable of, trademark protection.
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<div>What this history reveals is a serious weakness in the current circling trademark registration: whether “circling” is a generic and merely descriptive term. So we believe we have a strong case.
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<div><strong>HOW YOU CAN HELP</strong>
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<div>Two main ways you can help:
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<div>1. <strong>Make a donation here to our legal fund.</strong> Any amount will be helpful and appreciated. Any unused funds will be returned to you on a prorated basis, once our mission is complete.
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<div>2. <strong>Share this GoFundMe page</strong> with other circlers and circling facilitators you know, to help spread awareness. Time is of the essence, in our campaign.
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<div>Thank you for your support.
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<div><strong>SIGNED, IN SOLIDARITY</strong>
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<div>Marco Beneteau (Berlin, Germany)
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<div>Bea Benhalim (Dallas, Texas)
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<div>Peter Benjamin (Austin, Texas)
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<div>Damien Bohler (Byron Bay, Australia)
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<div>Mark Boughton (Austin, Texas)
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<div>Danny Burns (Driebergen, Netherlands)
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<div>Levi Chettle (San Diego, California)
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<div>Matt Davis (Grass Valley, California)
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<div>Alex Doll (Madison, Wisconsin)
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<div>Jeffrey Ladish (Oakland, California)
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<div>Lisa Lapan (Los Angeles, California)
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<div>Juliana Lewis (Tucson, Arizona)
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<div>Michael McAmmond (Victoria, British Colombia)
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<div>Heather McClellan (Austin, Texas)
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<div>Brad Mewhort (Snoqualmie, Washington)
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<div>Peter Munthe-Kaas (Copenhagen, Denmark)
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<div>Sara Ness (Asheville, North Carolina)
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<div>Tabita Gonzalez Parnow (San Diego, California)
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<div>Alex Perrone (Austin, Texas)
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<div>Alex Pfeiffer (Boulder, Colorado)
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<div>Dirk Plas (London, England)
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<div>Dakota Quackenbush / Elegance Block (San Francisco, California)
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<div>Thomas Radtke (Prescott, Arizona)
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<div>Duncan Sabien (San Francisco, California)
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<div>Ethan Sawyer (Pasadena, California)
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<div>Kedar Shashidhar (Oakland, California)
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<div>Alexis Shepperd (Oakland, California)
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<div>Liza Simonova (Lisbon, Portugal)
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<div>Stephen Torrence (Austin, Texas)
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<div>Joshua Zader (Tucson, Arizona)
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<div>Jason Zwolak (Miami Beach, Florida)
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Save “circling” from being controlled as a trademark

Save “circling” from being controlled as a trademark

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