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Jerry Falwell Claims Name is Trademarked
GigsVT writes: "The Lynchburg News And Advance of Virginia reports that Rev. Jerry Falwell is seeking a permanant injunction against the holder of www.jerryfalwell.com The catch is that he is arguing that his name is a valuable brand, in effect, he is arguing that he is selling religion. There are also some other interesting tidbits, such as the rules of jurisdiction, based on whether a site is interactive or not. Falwell has also sent lawyers to Geneva to appeal to the WIPO, their requests were denied."
Falwell is a bigot, plain and simple. Anyone with a perfunctory knowledge of copyright law knows that libel (which Falwell has engaged in liberally) takes precedence over name copyrights, especially in web domain name cases. The only thing I wonder is, is it possible that he will maintain a web site under another suffix (perhaps .org?)
Thoughts?
I think you meant to post "his" name, not "is" name.
-- Ken Kinder ken@_nospam_kenkinder.com http://kenkinder.com/
And someone also registered jerryfartwell.com
You'd think he'd know all about parody by now, what, but I guess some guys never learn.
The previous has been a secret message to my comrades.
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Typed Drawing
Word Mark LISTEN AMERICA WITH JERRY FALWELL
Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: Educational entertainment, namely a continuing show about morality, religion, politics, and business distributed over television and audio media. FIRST USE: 19980413. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 19980413
Mark Drawing Code (1) TYPED DRAWING
Serial Number 75673875
Filing Date April 2, 1999
Published for Opposition June 13, 2000
Registration Number 2382656
Registration Date September 5, 2000
Owner (REGISTRANT) Liberty Broadcasting Network, Inc. CORPORATION VIRGINIA 3805 Wards Road Lynchburg VIRGINIA 24502
Attorney of Record John W. Hazard, Jr.
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Other Data The name "JERRY FALWELL" identifies a living individual whose consent is of record.
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE
I have been pwned because my
Cause he never would have licensed the rights to these clowns!
This guy's claims have no merits. This case isn't going anywhere, not even with our over-zealous IP laws.
But don't expect J. Falwell do know that. Remember, this is the same guy that thinks the purple teletubby is gay. What an idiot.
Lets examine his ridiculous claims one by one.
Yea, sure. Nice try Reverend crack pot. Firstly, trademark claims are weak when there's no commercial element involved. This site is non-commercial. Secondly, using a trademarked is not in itself a violation. Certainly, using a trademarked word/name to criticize the trademark, its owner, or its associated product is never a violation.
Here, he's referring to the instance where Cohn said Falwell is the third false prophet forseen in the bible, and where he compared Fallwell to Koresh and Jones. This is not libelous. Libel has to deal with falsely claiming factual matters, not matters of opinion. No matter which way its stated, saying "Falwell is a false prophet," "Falwell is the anti-christ," or "Falwell is Satan," is a matter of opinion because its neither provable nor unprovable; thus, it is an opinion, and cannot be touched by libel. Furthermore, any statements made cannot be touched by libel if qualified with "I think".
Furthermore, we should note that Cohn is only doing to Falwell what Falwell has done so often to homosexuals and others who don't fit into his conception of "pious people". Falwell is hardly in a position to complain about being demonized.
How exactly is this Cohn competing with Falwell? He's not. Even if he were, how would this be unfair? After all, he's not pretending to be Fallwell; he's not being mis-representative.
What a crock of shit. Cybersquatting is where you register a domain name just to make money off of it from someone else who has an interest in that name. This is obviously not the case here, as Cohn is actually using this site, and going to court to ensure he keeps it. If he was a cyber-squatter, he would have sold it to Falwell a long time ago.
Now that we've dismissed Falwell's absurd legal claims, lets make fun of him a little bit.
Trips to Israel for profit? Gee, a real holy guy. Remember in the bible something about it being harder to stuff a camel's ass through the eye of a needle than getting a rich man into heaven?
Promoted credit cards? Are these the kind of credit cards that track for buying "deviant" items and then report this back to Christian Coalition central?
Insurance policies? Like what, if you die blowing up an abortion clinic, your family gets a free get out of hell card?
Long distance services? Hmmm...I don't know about the credability of 1-800-GOD-TALK.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Oh Crap ....
As a (cute) gay nerd, I have to drop my two cents in.
Jerry Falwell is the best thing to ever happen to the gay rights movement. When people who are sitting on the fence see Jerry seething in public, I think it makes them think twice about their own reaction to gay issues. After all, not many 'godly' people can rationally justify hate.
Hate is not a family value.
Can't stand how people like him, who should be so thankful for the freedom of thought and opinion, could shun so many others for having that same freedom.
Question
http://www.ironfroggy.com/
This man has no real credibility left, outside his ultra-conservative cult. Fortunately for us, domain name resolutions are handled by an ultra-liberal cult. Yay!
Jerry must not be able to handle slander against himself very well. Yet he can dish it out against minorities and homosexuals. Tough shit on him I say.
No sig for you!!
This is an old story though, and a lot more media can be found in google.
I have a get-rich-quick plan: copyright your name, streak the Superbowl, get caught on purpose, and sue all the newspapers that use your name without permission when they report the story.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Jesus Christ is suing Jerry Faldwell for trademark violation. Counsel for the plaintiff say that Mr. Faldwell benefiting from what has become a valuable name. The defendent so far has refused to comment.
Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Jedi. - Yoda
Isn't there already a legal precedent that specifically allows one to make fun of Jerry Falwell?
If you don't have anything nice to say, shut up you stupid prick.
all your jerry falwell are belong to us
you are on the wave of destruction
send me 100 dollars or die
I am EXCITED!!!
He has to squeeze every dime he can to pay for his whores somehow, now, doesn't he?
I should have picked out the nickname Demosthenes!Tecumseh.
A win for common sense and free speech.
http://www.internetparodies.org/FalwellDecision
I noticed that at the end of "Gods and Monsters", Boris Karloff's name had a (tm) beside it.. i wonder if this has some sort of precedent behind it?
may the government tax it? Here I thought the spirit of religion was a humble love of mankind. I say grant the injunction but tax the bastard to hell and back.
If a new musician's birthname is Mick Jagger, they have every right to release an album under that name and own the domain. Same applies here and that damn Peter Frampton case last year.
I don't care how damn important or popular you think you are, you don't OWN the rights to your name.
...PFLAG is trademarking the words "homosexual" and "homosexuality" so they can sue Jerry Falwell the next time he tries to blame random ills of society on people who prefer same-sex companions.
Personally, I think Jerry should be able to own his name-- we can still refer to him as "that bible-thumping asshole" and be fairly certain people will know who we're talking about.
Common Rev, you teach us about love, forgivness, and honoring your common man. But this case is complete crap. Didn't it say in the bible to "turn the other cheek"? You wonder why people stopped going to church and trusting their religious leaders because they dont practice what they preach. Common Rev, think about "what would Jesus do?" I bet he has more sites hating him and making fun of him than you do. Do you think he would sue?
Who's this Jerry Falwell character? His name must not be that big of a trademarkable string if no one's heard of him. I think I'll trademark "John Smith".
Billy Joel has trademarked his name, too.
http://www.turnstiles.org/News/arc0-1998.html
[i]The catch is that he is arguing that his name is a [b]valuable[/b] brand...[/i]
If that's true,then I'm retiring on Enron stock.
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
fartwell wants us ded like hitler killed the j3ws
fartwell is a batman fan i think he is.
i speak for everyone that hate falwell.
i am gay and i desicrate batman and robin because they wer heters and i make them homos like me so i can hate falwell cuz i can. everyone and me hate falwell and wer all homos. thankyou god for making homos. i think there is no god and i am a homo.
I don't get it. How does getting thrown in jail and then losing a whole bunch of money on legal cases because you're an idiot who doesn't know the difference between trademarks and copyright make you rich?
The catch is that he is arguing that his name is a valuable brand, in effect, he is arguing that he is selling religion.
That's exactly what they do, don't be so naive. Ask any CPA if religious institutions are truly non-profit organizations.