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.