Need chapter & verse for Rx symbol

[ElyseC]

This is beyond stupid, but I'm dealing with people (Lions Club International) who don't know diddly squat about what's a trademark and what isn't. My sister is an incoming district governor and each governor gets to design their own lapel pin for everyone to wear that year. Sis is a pharmacist, so asked me to design her pin with a pharmacy theme and I did. One of the elements is, naturally, the Rx symbol, which I drew from reference (didn't have time to search out which font/s I know I would find it in). Now the idjits at Lions Club are shouting (to the pin manufacturer) that "Rx" is a trademark and cannot be used. What a load of BS.

What they're requiring is that I fax them chapter and verse proving that the Rx symbol is not trademarked. I fired off a rather grumpy email to the pin vendor already explaining that, if the symbol -- an ancient one from Greek and Roman times -- is someone's trademark, then why are there commercial (and free and shareware) fonts with that character? If it's trademarked, then every doctor and pharmacy is in BIG trouble, because it appears on every prescription blank and in advertising. The whole flippin' US Postal Service also needs to be hauled away to the hoosegow, because of the commemorative pharmacy stamp they did some years back!

Soooooo, anyone got chapter and verse (on the web, ideally) I can reference in this letter I have to make up and fax to these idjits? I've been Googling, but apparently not using the best search words and phrases. I know we've discussed things like this over the years, that individual symbols cannot be trademarked, only a particular rendering of them, but I don't remember enough detail to search up official info on the Web that I can cite.