Over a thousand chiropractors around the world recently received a letter from the American Chiropractic Association stating:
"We recently noticed that you are not currently a member of the ACA. Perhaps you are not aware that the certification designation 'CCSP' and the name 'Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician' are trademarks of the ACA, and that an individual must be a member of both the ACA and the Council in order to use these trademark designations. These membership requirements must be enforced if the ACA is to retain these trademarks."There are currently 2,825 DCs (only 734 belong to the ACA's Sports Council) who have earned their CCSP certification. Of these, 1,144 (40%) are ACA members and 1,681 (60%) are not. This has caused a significant amount of concern for the 60% of CCSP holders who are not ACA members.
According to ACA legal council Thomas R. Daly, the ACA's position is as follows:
"The ACA clinical certification acronyms (CCSP, CACBT, DACBR, DABCO, DACAN, DABCN, DACBSP, DACBOH, DACNB, DACRB, DACBN, and DABCI), along with the full names of the acronyms, have been registered as collective marks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by the American Chiropractic Association. A collective mark is defined under law as 'a trademark or service mark used by members of a cooperative, an association, or other collective group or organization and includes marks used to indicate membership in a union, an association or other organization.'But even CCSP holders who are ACA members have their concerns. In a letter to the current president of the ACA Sports' Council, Margaret Karg, MS,DC,DACBSP, Philip Santiago, DC, DACBSP (the official chiropractor for the United States in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games) wrote:"The purpose of the collective marks is to protect public trust and confidence by identifying ACA certification as a source of quality professional care in the various chiropractic specialties. Public trust and confidence accrues both to the individual utilizing the collective mark as well as to the various ACA certification agencies. This public protection purpose requires the ACA to exercise control over the collective mark to assure that only members of the Association and related clinical councils utilize the collective marks.
"The ACA completed the process of trademark registration for all collective marks in the fall of 1996. The ACA is required by law to enforce membership requirements for anyone that chooses to use that mark or move to enjoin the use."
"I have spent considerable time reviewing the situation concerning the ACA and their desire to insist that any individual using the designation CCSP or DACBSP must be a member in good standing of the ACA.In her "President's Report," Dr. Karg made these comments:"First of all, I want to say that I am an ardent member and supporter of the ACA, and have been since my first year in practice. I will continue to do so as I believe that the ACA should be our standard bearer and reflect the pinnacle of excellence that is the hallmark of our profession.
"Over the past week I have received dozens of telephone calls from CCSPs and DACBSPs over the threat presented by the ACA due to this new regulation. Their concerns are many, particularly since this presents a "new tax" to allow them to continue doing what they have done for many years.
"My assumption is that the ACA is doing this to increase membership. I am, however, not convinced that it is for the protection of the credential. Our sports council's credentials have never been threatened in the past 18 years that I have been involved.
"Having been instrumental in development of the programs, there are a few historical points that I recall. I remember fighting vigorously with the ACA to allow a diplomate program to even exist. The ACA's involvement was adversarial in nature, if anything. They were not helpful in the development of the CCSP, and were opposed to the formation of the diplomate. As president of the academic board, I can say that the ACA, in no major way, assisted with the establishment, implementation, the setting of academic standards, course curriculums, nor the resting protocols.
"The sports council members spent numerous hours, personal expenses and tremendous effort to accomplish the above.
"We are now being commanded to give up our academic designation because the ACA unilaterally trademarked our CCSP and diplomate, and want to hold them ransom if we do not pay them for the right to use what we developed.
"This new ruling gives control of sports chiropractic to the ACA. That is especially true concerning the U.S. Olympic selection process. Possession of sports council credentials is very significant for consideration. I would have no problem with that, if the ACA was as committed to sports chiropractic as is the sports council. For that matter, are they committed to any specialty council? I fear not. How many delegates to the ACA are diplomates in anything? How can we expect them to fight for, recognize, and respect advanced education when they are not of the same standing?"
"During the last two weeks in February, our national office was working full-time fielding questions and complaints regarding the ACA's enforcement of membership requirements for individuals using ACA clinical certification titles and their acronyms. It must be noted that over the years, the ACA councils themselves, including the ACA Sports Council, have requested that the ACA obtain these trademarks. This was done in order to protect our certifications by preventing other organizations from duplicating our programs, which would ultimately undermine the value of our certifications. The fact is, this has been in the works for a very long time. Such a long time, in fact, that memories are short. It is almost impossible at this time to piece together the ACA Sports Council's hand in this process."Unfortunately, for the past year, the ACA Sports Council has undergone an incredible upheaval. We saved ourselves from almost certain bankruptcy, and frankly had little energy to apply elsewhere. We unfortunately lacked representation at the American Board of Chiropractic Specialties (ABCS) meeting where all of this was discussed over the past year. This is an issue for all of the CA specialty councils. We have not been singled out. After spending literally hours on the phone with the other council presidents, I found it the general consensus that this membership requirement is good for the councils and the profession at large. This requirement is generally more difficult for the more established councils, such as orthopedics and ourselves, because we have gone on so long without such requirement; it simply affects more people. The younger councils have already benefited by an increase in membership and have experienced much less of a revolt.
"We are all familiar with the concept that there is strength in numbers. It has been the constant goal of our executive board to increase our membership. While there are so many committed and energetic DCs who are highly involved with our council and are constantly sacrificing their time in supporting this organization, there will always be those who ride their coattails -- the least they can do is contribute with monetary support! It is frustrating that there are so many individuals who want to enjoy the privilege of being a CCSP or DACBSP, yet they don't support the organizations that made those programs possible.
"On the other hand, no one likes to be forced to do anything, especially if it costs money. It somehow doesn't seem right that when you took a course years ago and earned a degree, that it can be simply taken away because you chose not to join an organization. It seems that perhaps education should be apolitical, that our education boards, academies, etc., should be independent of political organizations. Also, managed care has hit our profession hard. There are many DCs leaving practice because they simply cannot survive in this managed care environment.
"I want to apologize to all of our members, all CCSPs, and all DACBSPs for the shock of all this. There has been a definite breakdown in communication between the ACA and the ACA Sports Council, which did not enable us to forewarn you that all of this was coming. For the time being, I encourage all of you to voice your position to the ACA. Get your questions answered and your concerns heard. And then, as always, I encourage all of you to send in your dues to the ACA Sports Council and the ACA -- not because you have to, but because you want to."
When sports chiropractors first appeared at the Olympic Games in the 1980s, it was alongside individual athletes who had experienced the benefits of chiropractic care in their training and recovery processes at home. Fast forward to Paris 2024, where chiropractic care was available in the polyclinic for all athletes, and the attitude has now evolved to recognize that “every athlete deserves access to sports chiropractic."
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