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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."
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
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.
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!
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
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?