A friend of mine is taking on Wal-Mart - holy crap!!!!

[RubyDuby in GA]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart7mar07,1,5484361.story?coll=la-headlines-business&ctrack=1&cset=true

Wal-Mart Parodist Sues to Sell Products
The creator of slogans bashing the retailer says it's a free-speech issue. The company calls it a trademark violation.
By Abigail Goldman, Times Staff Writer
March 7, 2006


Computer store owner Charles Smith is the first to admit the T-shirts and mugs he designed to lampoon Wal-Mart Stores Inc. are in bad taste.

But Smith had wanted to make a point by comparing the giant retail company to the Nazis. So he created slogans playing off the Bentonville, Ark., firm's familiar logo, including "I {heart} WAL*OCAUST. They have family values and their alcohol, tobacco and firearms are 20% off."

Wal-Mart wasn't amused. The company launched a legal battle by writing a cease-and-desist demand that led Smith to file suit Monday in federal court in Atlanta — with the help of Ralph Nader's legal aid group, Public Citizen — for the right to continue selling the products.

At stake, Smith said, is his right to publicly criticize the world's largest retailer — or any other company.


On edit: Charlie is a great guy! I hope he wins!!!

[MADem]

1. Odds are good that he WILL win

"It's about free speech and the right to comment on corporations and their images and their trademarks," said Paul Alan Levy, the Public Citizen lawyer representing Smith. "Just because the trademark owner doesn't like doesn't mean it isn't a permissible use of language."

In his suit, Smith asks the court to rule that his products are protected by the 1st Amendment and do not infringe Wal-Mart's trademark because there is no likelihood someone might think they were sponsored by Wal-Mart.....The case is the latest to pit corporate trademark rights against free-speech rights. In a suit that ended in 2004, for example, El Segundo-based Mattel Inc. lost to an artist who used Barbie dolls in photographs parodying the iconic toys.

First Amendment rights may win out in Smith's case as well, one legal expert said.

"There's a pretty strong free-speech argument," said Neil Netanel, a UCLA law professor and an expert in copyright, intellectual property and 1st Amendment law. "If it's clear that what's happening is an effort to criticize and parody the trademark owner to make a point, then courts will generally side in favor of the parodist."

[RubyDuby in GA]

2. I hope so. If he loses, he has to pay all court costs and whatever

that evil bastard company gets awarded.

Charlie is a hardcore Dem. I truly hope it turns out well. He's supposed to be interviewed by Anderson Cooper sometime this week.

[MADem]

4. Ralph Nader should pay, it's his bunch doing the representing

And he's rich as Roosevelt.

But I doubt he will lose, and if he does, we can kiss the First Amendment goodbye.

I think the purpose of their threats to him were simply an exercise in frightening him, to make him cease and desist. Having Public Citizen defend him ups the ante. The WalCrap bunch have lawyers on payroll, so perhaps they are hoping that others might be constrained simply by this pending legal matter.

[RubyDuby in GA]

6. That's exactly it

He first got notified by their usual lawyers. Then Bob Greenwald passed his info on to Larry Lessig. When Wal-Mart found out Lessig was involved, they hired some very high-powered lawyers to go after him.

God I hate Wal-Mart.

[pitohui]

9. not necessarily true & i doubt your friend will have to pay these costs

i sued a large corporation and lost, i did not have to pay the court costs & "whatever," judges are generally aware that individuals could never make use of the court system if they were in danger of being forced to pay for a corporation's expensive attorney and court costs, a large corporation is expected to be able to pay its own legal bills as part of the cost of doing business

i was sorry to lose as i didn't get the award or the precedent i was seeking, but certainly i did not have to pay even one dime to the corporation in question


if it was a frivolous court case, then it might be different, and the judge might see fit to punish the plaintiff for bringing a silly case, but these days judges are more likely to simply refuse to hear silly cases in the first place

this is my experience based on my state, louisiana, and ea. state has different laws, but i just don't see a judge making the plaintiff pay the costs if he loses in this case, because there is clearly a serious difference of opinion, it is not a matter of your friend fell down in wal-mart and filed a nuisance slip and fall suit, he is in a situation where he legitimately requires a referee between himself and the corporation

[tularetom]

3. Hey! Tort reform

Why is wally world sniveling and running to a lawyer over this. I bet they'd talking out of the other side of their mouth if Mr. Smith was suing them after slipping on a wet spot in one of their dirty stores.

[uppityperson]

5. more t-shirts from other places

[Solon]

7. And remember, we live in a...

[Pacifist Patriot]

16. Oooo, that one's good. I hadn't seen it before.

[Solon]

18. Can't take credit, found it somewhere on the Internet.

I thought it fit our farce of a Democracy perfectly.

[MADem]

8. That's funny as hell! n/t

[bvar22]

10. Did you know?

MONEY SPENT AT WAL-MART KILLS
GOD'S UNBORN CHILDREN!!!

Get some of those bloody posters that the Anti-Choice crowd uses to picket Planned Parenthood, and use them to picket Wally World.
I’m absolutely PRO-CHOICE, but think the Fundies need to face this hypocrisy.

Wal-Mart supports
COMMUNIST DICTATORS!!!

Will the Republicans stand on Moral Values when their wallet is threatened?
Only immoral people (Communist abortion lovers) shop at Wal-Mart!

[salin]

11. Good luck, Charlie!

[Just Me]

12. OH! MAN!!! I HOPE HE PREVAILS!!!!

:applause: GOOOOO CHARLIE!!! :applause:

[Canuckistanian]

13. Go, Charlie!

K&R.

[phusion]

14. We should all try to buy his tshirts

and mugs to show our support!

[Lisa0825]

15. Where can we buy his shirts?

Or did I somehow miss that tidbit of info?

[Miss Chybil]

17. Free speech good, but it's a bit much to compare WalMart to the Holocaust.

There, I exercised my free speech. I sure wouldn't buy the shirts, but he has the right to make them.

[meganmonkey]

19. Do you have a link to his stuff?

I'd love to see it!

I think trademark violation suits are partly determined on how much the parody logo looks like theirs...

[RubyDuby in GA]

20. I've emailed him for a link to his new website.

As soon as I get it I will post it in here.

He's playing media darling right now and it's taking him a while to respond to emails :)

[meganmonkey]

21. I hope he takes his '15 minutes' and runs with it!

:patriot:

[pitohui]

22. looks like cafe press took him down

i too would like to see the work in question

[BEZERKO]

23. Is Charlie

a member in the DU? Knowing Charlie, I think he would like it.

Hey sweetie, I'm off to work! :-(

[RubyDuby in GA]

24. No he's not, but I told him I posted this here

And fear not pitohui, you don't have a secret admirer. Mr. RubyDuby responded in the wrong spot :)

[BEZERKO]

25. OOPS

[mcscajun]

26. Cafe Press takes stuff down fast...Wal-Mart didn't even have to ask 'em

I posted this image on Cafe Press once, and it didn't last five minutes.



They won't allow any trespass on copyrights or trademarks.

[tavalon]

27. That's really good

It's a shame about Cafe Press.

[mcscajun]

28. Thanks. Inspiration just struck one afternoon here at DU

Haven't done anything with the image since Cafe Press knocked it off, though.

[RubyDuby in GA]

33. www.walocaust.com

Here's his site.

[DarkTirade]

29. Last time I checked,

wasn't satire legally okay? Or has that changed when it comes to big companies now?

[meganmonkey]

31. Satire is okay, but if you are selling a product

with a logo that looks a lot like an existing company's logo, it is not always okay due to trademark laws. I think that is probably where potential for legal problems is coming into this guy's situation.

[DarkTirade]

34. Kind of a grey area though.

[xchrom]

30. i give this a woohoo and a k & r

:woohoo:

[Brewman_Jax]

32. A herculean task

to even fight Walmart is no small task. I hope that this isn't the case of if he wins, he loses because the court battle required massive resources.

I hope that he wins--Walmart sux!

[otohara]

35. I Took On Clear Channel

they had the meanest attorney and everyone I worked with pretty much lied so they wouldn't lose their jobs.

[EVDebs]

36. When will Wal-Mart go into the hospital/healthcare business ?

They're everywhere else. Low cost medical care with Drs imported from India etc, will drive down costs for everyone ! What a great business model.

The 'whithering away of the state' isn't just for Marxists anymore but Capitalists as well ! We've come full circle here folks. Time for freepers to wake up and smell the coffee, they're drowning government in the bathtub with the baby and the bathwater they're throwing out as well. (Sorry for the mixed Norquist metaphors).

[stepnw1f]

37. He Better Win (nt)