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The Girl Scouts are in a “highly damaging” recruitment war with the Boy Scouts after the latter opened its core services to girls.

According to lawyers, the “infringement” meant many parents mistakenly signed their daughters up for Boy Scouts, thinking it was Girl Scouts.

In response, the Boy Scouts accused the Girl Scouts of starting a “ground war”.

The BSA dropped the word “boy” from its recruitment program, and opened up to female members, in 2018.

It said at the time that it was renaming the Boy Scouts program Scouts BSA as it prepared to allow girls to join.

But the Girl Scouts said the change would erode their brand, calling the move “uniquely damaging” to them, filing an initial lawsuit in November 2018 against trademark infringement.

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Last month, lawyers acting on behalf of the Boy Scouts asked a judge to throw out the lawsuit, which suggested it could not use “scouts” or “scouting” in its recruitment material for girls.

In the latest filing at the Manhattan federal court on Christmas Eve, the Girl Scouts described the new recruitment program as “highly damaging” to its organization, having caused an “explosion of confusion” among parents.

“As a result of Boy Scouts’ infringement… [there have been] rampant instances of confusion and mistaken instances of association between Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts,” the papers stated, adding that the organization could provide proof of such instances.

In a statement released on December 26, the Boy Scouts said this was “not only inaccurate – with no legally admissible instance of this offered to date in the case – but it is also dismissive of the decisions of more than 120,000 girls and young women who have joined Cub Scouts or Scouts BSA”.

In October 2017, the Boy Scouts’ board of directors voted unanimously to open the century-old club to all children.

The move triggered a fierce backlash online, with the Girl Scouts accusing the group of initiating a “covert campaign” to recruit girls into an organization that had a “well-documented” declining membership.

The Boy Scouts reportedly has close to 2.3 million members in the US, down by about a third since 2000, compared with about 1.7 million members for the Girl Scouts – excluding adult volunteers.

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Image source: BSA

The Boy Scouts of America has filed for bankruptcy protection following multiple abuse lawsuits.

The BSA says the move will allow it to build a compensation fund for abuse victims.

As a result of the move, all civil lawsuits against it are put on hold.

The BSA is struggling with declining membership as well as abuse claims.

Chief executive Roger Mosby said in a statement: “The BSA cares deeply about all victims of abuse and sincerely apologizes to anyone who was harmed during their time in scouting. We are outraged that there have been times when individuals took advantage of our programs to harm innocent children.”

Court papers filed in Delaware listed liabilities of up to $1 billion and assets of as much as $10 billion, reports say.

The filing was made under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code which allows the group to keep operating and pay its creditors over time.

The bankruptcy allows the BSA to bring all of the lawsuits into one court and try to negotiate a settlement, rather than using its funds to fight each case in court.

The group said it was setting up a trust fund to compensate victims.

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Roger Mosby said in a statement: “While we know nothing can undo the tragic abuse that victims suffered, we believe the Chapter 11 process – with the proposed trust structure – will provide equitable compensation to all victims while maintaining the BSA’s important mission.”

According to the Wall Street Journal, the BSA has 261 councils which operate local troops and own assets including land in many states. The bankruptcy move is designed to protect those councils, which hold about 70% of all BSA assets, the publication says.

In its statement, the BSA said the councils, which are legally separate and financially independent of the national organization, had not filed for bankruptcy.