Defense Department Settles Bible Verse Dog Tags Trademark Suit

The US Department of Defense and a seller of dog tags with engraved bible verses reached an agreement to settle the company’s lawsuit seeking a judgment it didn’t infringe Pentagon trademarks.

Shields of Strength and the Defense Department filed a joint notice of settlement Thursday in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. They requested a 30-day stay in the case to finalize the agreement and seek dismissal of the lawsuit.

Details of the agreement weren’t immediately available. Shields of Strength, its counsel, and the Justice Department and Pentagon didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case had been set to begin trial in February. But on Jan. 20—the day President Donald Trump was inaugurated—Shield of Strength said in a filing a deal would be more likely if Trump Defense and Justice Department transition team members with settlement authority could attend the final pretrial settlement conference. The official-capacity defendants requested on Jan. 21 the court postpone the upcoming trial, and the case was stayed three days later.

Shields of Strength obtained trademark licenses from the DOD to use military trademarks in 2011, according to its 2021 complaint. In 2019, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation submitted complaints about its products to Pentagon’s trademark licensing offices, and its bids to renew its licenses were later denied, the company said.

The suit demanded cancellation of Defense Department’s trademark registrations, invoked First Amendment protections, and challenged the rule banning the sale of religious-themed Pentagon-licensed products. In May 2023 Judge J. Campbell Barker denied an injunction aimed at requiring the government to grant licenses to Shield of Strength, finding the seller failed to show it’s likely to prevail.

Baker trimmed the lawsuit in June 2024 but let several claims move forward. After opening the door to a limited jury trial in a July finding of a limited waiver of sovereign immunity, he later ruled that the jury would decide two government breach of contract counterclaims and serve as an advisory jury on all other claims.

Fish & Richardson PC represents Shields of Strength. The US Justice Department represents the Pentagon.

The case is Shields of Strength v. US Department of Defense, E.D. Tex., No. 6:21-cv-00484, Notice of settlement 3/27/25.