ConFurence Group

From WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia.

The ConFurence Group was formed in 1999 to be the business entity behind ConFurence 11 and later events, after convention founder Mark Merlino stepped down as convention chairman and transferred the rights to the "ConFurence" name to longtime member and staffer Darrel Exline for $1. Merlino retained the rights and merchandise for all earlier events.

Darrel then created an umbrella company called the ConFurence Group to organize several furry conventions, including:

ConFurence (Burbank, California)
CritterConDiego (San Diego, California)
ZonieCon (Tucson, Arizona)

The ConFurence Group registered the term ConFurence and the paw-on-globe logo as service marks with the State of California in 1999. They later registered the term "ConFurence" as a service mark with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in January of 2002, and was issued the service mark registration in October of that same year.

The ConFurence Group intended to incorporate, but because this didn't happen prior to an obvious personal debt looming over the convention, incorporation would have been easily unveiled as an attempt by Darrel to escape personal financial liability. Therefore, The ConFurence Group remains a sole proprietorship of Darrel, who personally covered the $60,000 debt incurred by ConFurence 11 through ConFurence 2003.

With declining attendance and mounting costs, Darrel announced the end of operations after ConFurence 2003, though he has retained the name for the promotion of anthropomorphic fandom. In 2004, ConFurence co-founders Mark Merlino and Rod O'Riley would team up with Robert "AlohaWolf" Johnson Jr. to establish Califur as the new furry convention of Southern California.