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The Living Foods Lifestyle ® Trademark
The following paragraph is part of a letter written
to our students by Dr. Ann Wigmore. It can be found in our class text
book that is given to each student upon their arrival to our Institute.
"Heartfelt greetings to our students:
Welcome to our learn by doing, health-rebuilding
center. You will soon be introduced to a new lifestyle, probably quite
different from what you have been taught all your life by your former
teachers (family, friends and doctors). There are, in fact, so many
different notions regarding health that it can become quite confusing at
times, especially if you read many books on the subject. Even some of
my earlier books, like Why Suffer (which I wrote over 30 years ago) can
lead to confusion. At that time I was teaching the use of "raw" (rather
than "living") food, and I put a big emphasis on the use of wheatgrass
chlorophyll. Also, the level of disease in our society was not as bad
as it is now. Since that time, peoples' bodies have become so depleted
and polluted that I had to reformulate the program, and I am still
constantly refining this Living Foods Lifestyle (LFL) ®."
-Dr. Ann Wigmore, 1991
Hopefully, this will clarify some of your questions
and thoughts about the need to maintain the LFL® as a trademark and Dr.
Ann's feelings about the lifestyle. Many students, upon their first
encounter with our lifestyle, would ask for Celtic salt, pepper, garlic,
onions, herbs, Nama Shoyu, Bragg's Aminos, etc. Others wanted a
transitional program in lieu of our LFL® program to help them
"eventually" accept Dr. Ann's Living Foods Lifestyle®. In response,
Dr. Ann would firmly reply, "I CANNOT DILUTE MY LIFESTYLE"
Ann Wigmore's mission was to create and educate
people about a lifestyle that was healing and aligned with the laws of
nature. Dr. Ann followed Hippocrates' belief that food was our medicine
and medicine was our food. But she didn't stop with food. Her
lifestyle was a total approach to living in order to change one's
consciousness. She also knew this lifestyle was, and, continues to be,
a process. She trademarked Living Foods Lifestyle® in order to protect
the integrity of her work and the elements of the Living Foods
Lifestyle® which did/does not stop with food.
Her untimely death took many people by
surprise because Dr. Ann was the reflection of health. She died in an
electrical fire at the Ann Wigmore Foundation in Boston. Before she
passed, Dr. Ann worked very hard with Leola Brooks and Claudia Lalita
Salas to insure that they would promote the mission of the Living Foods
Lifestyle® as she had developed it towards the end of her life. Dr. Ann
wanted to know beyond any doubt that neither Leola Brooks nor Claudia
Lalita Salas would dilute her legacy.
Originally, the Ann Wigmore Foundation in Boston
owned the Living Foods Lifestyle trademark. After Dr. Ann's transition,
the Ann Wigmore Foundation relocated to New Mexico.
The new directors at the Ann Wigmore Foundation
discovered that the trademark had lapsed during the times following Ann
Wigmore's death. The directors for Puerto Rico and New Mexico
recognized that holding this trademark was essential as the guardians of
the Living Foods Lifestyle® affirming Dr. Ann's strong feelings about
having legal validation for her work.
There are reasons for trademark and copyright infringement laws. Ann
Wigmore trademarked the Living Foods Lifestyle (LFL) ® so that it would
represent the specific teachings that she developed. When someone uses
that term to represent things outside of Ann Wigmore's teachings, it
creates confusion about what the term means and represents. In part,
the term "living foods" is becoming more popular in the raw foods
community because of its association with Ann Wigmore and its promotion
by Ann Wigmore.
We are happy to know that different elements of the
Living Foods Lifestyle® are being used by other people. However, unless
you do the program exactly as Dr. Ann created it, it is not the Living
Foods Lifestyle® as she intended. Further, please remember, that this
lifestyle is about more than just food. As a result, even if you do the
food exactly as Dr. Ann prescribed, you will probably be missing other
elements of her protocol which went beyond food.
Because of the educational nature of the mission and the profound effect
Ann Wigmore has had on the philosophy of health and healing world wide,
there is a need to have some control over how Dr. Ann's name and
teachings are used. Minimally the Living Foods Lifestyle® trademark must
be protected and associated only with the complete program as designed
and developed by Dr. Ann.
Our intention is to protect the integrity of the
Living Foods Lifestyle® as developed by Dr. Ann Wigmore. There are many
people new to the raw foods community that have been confused by the
proliferation of the term living foods as used to describe various types
of raw foods preparation. Brand names are imbued with certain
attributes which assist in product differentiation. We believe that one
of the attributes of the term "Living Foods Lifestyle" is the pioneering
work of Dr. Ann Wigmore.
Please accept our sincere graditute for your
continued support of our mission to protect the Living Foods Lifestyle®
trademark and the essence it represents.
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