I will tell you what I know about the circle and triangle dispute
and its resolution. In the late 1980's AAWS decided to withdraw
all permission to use the AA logo that had been granted freely up
to that time. It use had been mainly by jewelry and trinket
manufacturers for making and marketing their products to AA
members. There were approximately 170 of these permits granted by
that time. AAWS notified all of these people of the withdrawal of
permission to use this trademark and asked them to discontinue
any current or future use of that symbol. All but two of these
companies agreed to stop or redesign their products to comply
with the AAWS request. After further negotiations with the two
who refused failed, it was decided by AAWS to bring suit against
the offenders. The General Service Conference was never
consulted, although there was no emergency of any kind existing
that made immediate action necessary. It was after some 180,000
dollars spent on legal fees, and it became apparent
 that AAWS was going to lose the lawsuit, AAWS agreed with the
defendants in this case to allow the circle and triangle to enter
the public domain. After this fiasco, AAWS decided to no longer
use the circle and triangle as an official logo on any AA
literature. However, they did state that AA members could
continue to use this logo if they so desired. This action was
also taken without consulting the Conference. This is what I know
about this matter. The rest is all history, except the Trustees
have repeatedly thwarted any attempts to put this issue on the
Conference Agenda to be discussed by the entire Fellowship. Such
discussions that have taken place, have been in a time and place
that the Trustees could control the outcome.