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Jerry Falwell Claims Name is Trademarked

Posted by timothy on from the have-a-nice-fall dept.

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."

4 of 61 comments (clear)

  1. hypo by ironfroggy · · Score: 2, Interesting

    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.

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    Question
    http://www.ironfroggy.com/
  2. Re:LOL, what a joke by 0x0d0a · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not only are the claims weak, they're weak for a reason. If you had any rights whatsoever to your given name, you'd see eight zillion collisions a year.

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    May we never see th
  3. Re:This is ridiculous by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    keep in mind that the many other Falwells in the world don't have their names copyrighted

    Keep in mind that Jerry Falwell doesn't have his name copyrighted either. It's a trademark. Such an obvious mistake only proves you have no clue what you're talking about.

    But, furthermore, Falwell is claiming he has "common law" trademark. As in "I never even attempted to register the trademark, nor have my trademark claims ever been tested in a court". So, in fact, this case is partially about whether or not he really DOES have a trademark on his name, and if so, how strong of a trademark it is.

    Whatever the case, it's certainly not strong enough to force every other Jerry Falwell to change their name, though you'd have to actually bring that case to court before it would be decided.

  4. Karloff by AnalogBoy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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?