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New developments on anti-free speech trademark revision bill
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 15:11:47 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Paul Levy <plevy () citizen org> Date: September 15, 2005 2:55:44 PM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: New developments on anti-free speech trademark revision billI recently learned that the Association of the Bar of the City of New York ("ABCNY"), a highly respected bar group whose members belong to some of New York's biggest private law firms, has joined Public Citizen, the ACLU, EFF and Public Knowledge in opposing the present form of HR 683. That bill would amend section 43(c) of the Lanham Act in ways that wuold drastically increase the exposure of consumers and small businesses to litigation from large national corporations for violating their trademarks based on purely npon-commercial commentary. The ABCNY conducted a detailed study of the provisions of the proposed legislation and issued a report last spring, but apparently they refrained from disseminating the report because they had no idea that other groups were also opposed.
So, although proponents of the change have portrayed the trademark bar as being united in favor of the bill, that claim is highly misleading.
The ABCNY's study, and their proposed changes in HR 683, can be found on the ABCNY web site at http://www.abcny.org/pdf/report/ nyc1-560488-6.pdf
Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
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- New developments on anti-free speech trademark revision bill David Farber (Sep 15)