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EFF: Law Firm Uses Bogus Trademark Claim in Attempt to Silence Online News Site
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:53:44 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: EFF Press <press () eff org> Date: September 19, 2008 4:33:22 PM EDT To: presslist () eff orgSubject: [E-B] EFF: Law Firm Uses Bogus Trademark Claim in Attempt to Silence Online News Site
Reply-To: press () eff org Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release For Immediate Release: Friday, September 19, 2008 Contact: Corynne McSherry Staff Attorney Electronic Frontier Foundation corynne () eff org +1 415 436-9333 x122 Paul Alan Levy Attorney Public Citizen Litigation Group plevy () citizen org +1 202 588-1000 Law Firm Uses Bogus Trademark Claim in Attempt to Silence Online News Site EFF Urges Judge to Dismiss Baseless Lawsuit San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and Public Citizen, joined by Public Knowledge and Citizen Media Law Project, urged a federal judge in Chicago Friday to dismiss a law firm's baseless trademark claims, which were apparently aimed at quashing speech by an online news site. The firm of Jones Day filed the lawsuit against the real estate news site Blockshopper.com, alleging that using its trademark "Jones Day" to refer to the firm in a headline and linking to the Jones Day website could lead to confusion over the sponsorship of the site. In its amicus brief, EFF and Public Citizen argue that these routine references to Jones Day are well-established fair uses of a trademark and clearly protected by the First Amendment. "The claims are absurd--Blockshopper was simply reporting accurately on the activities of two lawyers who happen to be Jones Day employees," said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. "That reporting is protected under trademark and free speech law, and Jones Day should know that. If Jones Day had its way, any trademark holder could use trademark claims to restrict news and commentary related to its business and any of its employees." "Jones Day alleges that the public could be confused by the references to its name and links, but Internet users know that websites generally link to other websites, independent of any official affiliation," said Paul Alan Levy, attorney with Public Citizen. "That's why it's called the World Wide Web." This amicus brief is part of EFF's No Downtime for Free Speech Campaign, which works to protect online expression in the face of baseless intellectual property claims. Robert Libman of Barnhill, Miner & Galland assisted in filing the brief. For the full amicus brief: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/JDvBlockshopper/JonesDayAmicusBrief.pdf For this release: http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/09/19 About EFF The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and government to support free expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported organization and maintains one of the most linked-to websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/ -end- _______________________________________________ presslist mailing list https://falcon.eff.org/mailman/listinfo/presslist ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- EFF: Law Firm Uses Bogus Trademark Claim in Attempt to Silence Online News Site David Farber (Sep 19)