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The Almighty Buck Your Rights Online

Jerry Falwell Claims Name is Trademarked 61

Posted by timothy 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."
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Jerry Falwell Claims Name is Trademarked More

Jerry Falwell Claims Name is Trademarked

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  • 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?
    • You have a good point, but unfortunately in these cases copyright law isn't enough. If one were to argue that if the "www." and ".com" were removed, and the resultant name were compared to Mr Falwell's, then they would be correct that it is similar.

      However, there are many Jerry Falwells in the world and to accuse all of them of libellous actions would take an enormous amount of time and effort.

      In short, he hasn't got a clue.
  • I think you meant to post "his" name, not "is" name.

  • Dang! (Score:3, Funny)

    by The FooMiester ( 466716 ) <goimir AT endlesshills DOT org> on Sunday July 07, 2002 @09:24PM (#3838954) Homepage Journal
    And someone also registered jerryfartwell.com [jerryfartwell.com]

    You'd think he'd know all about parody by now, what, but I guess some guys never learn.

  • Pretty easy to verify (Score:3, Informative)

    by ObviousGuy ( 578567 ) <ObviousGuy@hotmail.com> on Sunday July 07, 2002 @10:10PM (#3839173) Homepage Journal

    TESS was last updated on Sat Jul 6 04:10:47 EDT 2002

    Please logout when you are done to release system resources allocated for you.
    Record 1 out of 1

    (TARR contains current status, correspondence address and attorney of record for this mark. Use the "Back" button of the Internet Browser to return to TESS)
    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

  • LOL, what a joke (Score:4, Funny)

    by dh003i ( 203189 ) <`dh003i' `at' `gmail.com'> on Sunday July 07, 2002 @10:58PM (#3839392) Homepage Journal
    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.
    • I agree with you on every point but one. There have been cases where domain names were ordered transfered when the situation was even more cut and dry than this one. Remember the Brazilian soccer team, Corinthians, that sued to get the webpage of the same name from the guy who used it to post quotes from the bible? And won? Or PETA vs People Eating Tasty Animals?
      • Or PETA vs People Eating Tasty Animals?
        As far as I know, PETA is a registered trademark, Jerry Falwell is not.
        But of course, Falwell is a windbag. His head is so far up his ass he even played himself in The People Vs. Larry Flynt, when they re-created the lawsuit Falwell brought agains Flynt Publishing. I mean, how narcisistic can one person get?
        But, nothing this guy says can (or should) be taken seriously anyway... After all, this is the guy who said 9/11 was God's revenge on the US for its sins, just like Sodom & Gomorra (with nods of agreement from that other fartbrain Pat Robertson).
    • 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?

      From the article: "I have led 31 tours to Israel, and all the proceeds have gone to Liberty University because there was profit factor built in to benefit our school." (emphasis added)

      • Re:LOL, what a joke (Score:2, Informative)

        by GigsVT ( 208848 )
        And where do you think the proceeds from Liberty University go?

        Exactly.

        Since I live near Lynchburg I can attest to the way this guy is. Tune in almost any local station on Sunday morning to see him hawking "Save the Babies" credit cards, because God told him he needed to raise another 3 million dollars to build more stuff. This guy is in it for the money and power, period.
      • " 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?"

        For the sake of completeness:

        It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." They were even more astonished and said to Him, "Then who can be saved?"Looking at them, Jesus said," With people it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God." --Mark 10:23-27 NASV

    • Re:LOL, what a joke (Score:4, Interesting)

      by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Monday July 08, 2002 @12:18AM (#3839674) Journal
      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.
    • trademark claims are weak when there's no commercial element involved.

      Uh, have you seen the collection plates these guys rake in. There is a bigger commericial element in the typical fundamentalist sect than in most dot coms.

  • Trademarked? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jerry_Falwell ( 590956 ) on Sunday July 07, 2002 @11:02PM (#3839417)
    Oh Crap ....

  • He isn't that bad... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jdclucidly ( 520630 ) on Sunday July 07, 2002 @11:04PM (#3839432) Homepage
    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.

  • hypo (Score:2, Interesting)

    by ironfroggy ( 262096 )
    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.

  • I'm not worried. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gunner800 ( 142959 ) on Sunday July 07, 2002 @11:35PM (#3839538) Homepage
    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.
  • The link in the above story is dead, along with the entire /news part of that paper's website.

    This is an old story though, and a lot more media can be found in google. [google.com]

    • The poor news and advance. I should have warned them. You might find the same story on their TV affiliated site www.wsls.com.

  • Old idea. (Score:3, Funny)

    by Black Parrot ( 19622 ) on Monday July 08, 2002 @01:28AM (#3839891)

    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.

  • In other news (Score:5, Funny)

    by Jedi Creed ( 590140 ) on Monday July 08, 2002 @03:53AM (#3840273)
    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.

  • Wait a minute. (Score:2, Informative)

    by PastorOfMuppets ( 590944 )
    Isn't there already a legal precedent [findlaw.com] that specifically allows one to make fun of Jerry Falwell?
  • 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?

  • A win for common sense and free speech.

    http://www.internetparodies.org/FalwellDecision. pd f

  • Karloff (Score:3, Interesting)

    by AnalogBoy ( 51094 ) on Monday July 08, 2002 @08:49AM (#3840861) Journal
    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.
  • 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".
  • [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.
  • 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.

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