Because he decided to set out into his own content creation, Eric July was the EDW Entrepreneur of the Year for 2022 for inventing a black superhero comic entitled Isom, after the protagonist, only to be accused of trademark violations by the International School of Ministry, a venture of Berin Gilfillan and his Good Shepherd Ministries. Gilfillan claims that the character/comic of Isom, who has a cross on his belt, creates “confusion” between their two brands.
Eric July, of Rippaverse LLC, attempted to speak with Gilfillan’s Good Shepherd Ministries to remedy the situation, which was in part driven by petty internet drama, which has also involved YouTubers Nick Rekeita and Dick Masterson. Taking to social media, Gilfillan issued the following statement:
In the past few days there has been a lot swirling in cyberspace about our (Good Shepherd’s) filed (but not served) lawsuit against Eric July and his LLC Rippaverse. Several important things have not been included in those postings.
Most importantly, our ministry (Good Shepherd) sincerely wishes that Mr. July had selected some OTHER name for his main character, instead of our trademark ISOM. We are not sure why he selected ISOM, but if he had selected another name, this situation would not have occurred.
Perhaps as importantly, what also has NOT been included in those postings was the letter we sent alongside the lawsuit. In that letter, we said we have no desire to serve the lawsuit and begin litigating, but that instead we are asking them to “Enter into expedited negotiations with Good Shepherd to try to resolve these issues in a discreet and amicable way that respects the objectives and needs of all parties.” Despite our request and invitation to discreetly negotiate, what has transpired in the past few days has been anything but discreet.
Some points in this whole matter need to be made clear:
•As noted above, we intentionally have NOT “served” our lawsuit, in hopes that the parties can negotiate a reasonable settlement.
•In the past few years Mr. July himself applied to register “Rippaverse” as a Trademark to protect against other people using it. In the same way, and for the same reason, we applied to register ISOM in 2006, and have been using it since as early as 1999. Like Mr. July, we are only trying to protect our ISOM Trademark. Mr. July apparently already has had to defend his Trademark against others using a confusing or conflicting trademark. We should not be criticised for similar actions, taking reasonable steps to defend our trademark ISOM.
•Mr. July has built a very impressive business and we have no desire to damage or destroy it. We do want to eliminate trademark confusion in the marketplace, and we have some practical ideas as to how to do that (which we hope to discuss if he calls us as we requested in our letter).
•As noted above, we would have been a lot happier if Mr. July had chosen another name than ISOM for his superhero.
•We have no idea whether the journalist letter sent to us (as mentioned in the lawsuit) was from a nefarious troll or not. It was sent to our intellectual property attorney. This topic is open for discussion if Mr. July communicates with us.
•ISOM stands for the International School of Ministry. We are not a church but a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. Our work was birthed while I was doing missions work for two years living with my family in Nigeria. We work now doing Christian ministry training across the denominational spectrum in 150 countries, including nearly every African nation and most nations of the world. We have worked very diligently and faithfully for nearly 25 years, to develop the deep goodwill associated with our efforts, under our trademark ISOM. Again, we simply wish to protect that goodwill and avoid confusion in the marketplace.
•Please don’t associate us with any political entity or agenda. This matter is strictly about clarifying Trademark boundaries and use.
Sincerely,
Berin Gilfillan – Good Shepherd and ISOM Founder
As is obvious to any literate person, it is highly improbable for a comic book character to be reasonably confused with a religious nonprofit. The confusion alluded to in the statement stemmed from what was likely an internet troll. Moreover, Isom is also a family name, according to July. Eric July took to YouTube to inform his subscribers that even though Gilfillan knew that the character was the name of a superhero, Good Shepherd Ministries sought a “perpetual profit off of his work.” In other words, they wanted money from July to withdraw their threat of a lawsuit, and not just a one-time donation, but a royalty.
What Eric July is likely unfamiliar to is that Berin Gilfillan and the International School of Ministry are apostate and that both are New Apostolic Reformation and Prosperity Gospel. On their website, they tout renown prosperity hacks like Joyce Meyer, Robert Morris, and John Bevere as “world class” teachers. There is even a women’s course featuring Bobbie Houston, formerly of Hillsong. In other words, they are one of the several fake schools that teach prosperity and hypercharismatic deceptions for profit and call it education, sort of like the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. They sell their catalog in tiers that resembled higher education degrees, like Associate, Bachelor, and Master, which consist of course requirements that one must complete, which for Americans starts at $55/semester for five semesters to obtain their “ISOM Core.” They teach an “Apostolic Prophetic Module,” “Supernatural Children’s Ministry,” and “Miracle Living,” to give a few examples of their content. They even claimed to have raised the dead in Haiti—on one of their fundraising posts.
Long story short, it is unsurprising that a prosperity preacher like Berin Gilfillan, who runs his scam school, would sue to protect his trademark from being “violated” by a successful comic book company. The use of lawfare is common with major prosperity scam artists, who care only about their bottom line. Joel Osteen is notorious for abusing YouTube’s copyright system to take down content that is critical of his false teaching, just ask Mike Winger. What Gilfillan is doing is just parr for the course. Prosperity preaching is also prevalent in the third world, which is seemingly Gilfillan’s target customer. The real problem is not that a consumer could confuse a comic book for a fake ministry, but that the world could confuse this fake ministry with actual Christianity.
