{"id":22577,"date":"2008-03-21T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-03-21T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/federal-court-rejects-wal-marts-trademark-claim-against-web-critic\/"},"modified":"2008-03-21T04:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-03-21T04:00:00","slug":"federal-court-rejects-wal-marts-trademark-claim-against-web-critic","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/news\/federal-court-rejects-wal-marts-trademark-claim-against-web-critic\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Court Rejects Wal-Mart\u2019s Trademark Claim Against Web Critic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>March 21, 2008<\/p>\n<p><b>Federal Court Rejects Wal-Mart\u2019s Trademark Claim Against Web Critic<\/b><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><b><i>Public Citizen Argued First Amendment Protects Parody of Company\u2019s Logos<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2013 A federal judge today upheld a Georgia man\u2019s First Amendment right to criticize Wal-Mart\u2019s business practices by using satire to compare its destructive effects on communities to both the Holocaust and al-Qaeda terrorists.<\/p>\n<p>In rejecting the company\u2019s claim of trademark infringement, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta found that Charles Smith\u2019s parody Web sites (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.walocaust.com\/\"><u>www.walocaust.com<\/u><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.walqaeda.com\/\"><u>www.walqaeda.com<\/u><\/a>) and related novelty merchandise were protected speech and that a reasonable person would not confuse their use with Wal-Mart\u2019s legitimate trademarks. The court also rejected Wal-Mart\u2019s claim that it has trademark rights in the \u201csmiley-face\u201d that Smith used in one of his parodies.<\/p>\n<p>Public Citizen and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia Foundation defended Smith after Wal-Mart sued the Conyers, Ga. man in 2006, claiming he infringed on its trademark by creating parody logos and Web sites built around the \u201cWalocaust\u201d and \u201cWal-Qaeda\u201d concepts, including the image of an eagle clutching a yellow smiley face, similar to the one Wal-Mart uses in advertising. Smith also put the design on T-shirts, bumper stickers and other items that he sold on CafePress.com.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr.\u2019s decision reaffirms an important point of trademark law \u2013 that even though a parody is placed on a T-shirt and sold, it nevertheless represents non-commercial speech that is fully protected by the First Amendment and, thus, is not a proper basis for a trademark action, said Paul Alan Levy, a Public Citizen attorney, who represented Smith along with Gerald Weber of Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis ruling shows that even the biggest company in America is subject to parody, and that trademark rights must yield to the right of free speech,\u201d Levy said. \u201cThis is a resounding victory for First Amendment rights and sends a clear message to big corporations that would try to use their deep pockets to intimidate and silence their critics.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although Wal-Mart spent more than $200,000 on an \u201cexpert\u201d witness to prove that consumers seeing these parody T-shirts were likely to be confused, the judge properly recognized that the expert\u2019s testimony was junk science and flew in the face of common sense.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/our-work\/litigation\/cases\/smith-v-wal-mart-stores-inc\">READ<\/a>\u00a0the decision.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citizen.org\/our-work\/litigation\/articles\/internet-free-speech\">LEARN<\/a>\u00a0more about Internet free speech.<\/p>\n<p>###<\/p>\n ","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-22577","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","tax_news-press"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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