Posted on 03/28/2002 7:13:16 AM PST by gubamyster
Walgreens wants teen to change site name By Cass Cliatt Daily Herald Staff Writer Posted on March 26, 2002 The nation's No. 1 drugstore chain is mounting its forces against a Wheeling eighth-grader in a legal battle that began in cyberspace.
Walgreen Co. has filed a complaint against 13-year-old Michelle Cohn over the Web site she set up in January to protest the company's tobacco policies.
Michelle's site, Wallgreens.com, features a line of coffins and criticizes Walgreens for selling cigarettes, saying the drugstore wants its customers "Dead or Alive!"
Michelle last month removed pictures of a Walgreens store, the company's logo, and a link to the actual Walgreens Web site after published reports alerted the company to her site. Lawyers for the company had complained of trademark infringement and threatened legal action.
The complaint filed with the World Intellectual Property Organization, which oversees Internet disputes, shows the company also wants to strip Michelle of the Wallgreens.com name itself.
"We're not seeking to change the content," said Walgreen spokesman Michael Polzin of Michelle's Web site. "But the site itself and the way it's spelled we feel infringes on our domain name in that it's spelled virtually the same."
Walgreens has invested billions of dollars promoting its name and trademark, according to the complaint before the intellectual property organization's Arbitration and Mediation Center.
Walgreens makes more than $24 billion a year, with "tens of millions of dollars of sales" coming from the more than 13,000 prescription orders Walgreens takes daily at its Internet site, the complaint states.
"I don't know if there's been any negative effect on business or not, but that's not the issue," Polzin said. "The overall goal is protecting the trademark."
Three attorneys from a Chicago law firm are representing Walgreens in its quest to take over the domain name Michelle's father paid $35 to register in 1998. The drugstore chain is not seeking monetary damages.
Gary Cohn, known locally as a tree preservation activist, initially acquired the domain name to protest Walgreens' building practices in a construction matter that was later resolved.
"Now, it's kind of like a big company against just one person," Michelle said of the legal action against her. "I was definitely surprised."
Michelle's father said the family now has to find someone to donate legal help to assist his daughter.
The World Intellectual Property Organization requires a legal response to the complaint against Michelle within the next month before a panel reviews the issue and announces its findings.
"Michelle's not giving up, because this isn't just about the Web site for her," Gary Cohn said.
Michelle has teamed up with the American Lung Association to hang anti-smoking posters in her school.
"I just want people to know how bad it is to smoke," Michelle said.
Nonetheless, this is an omen of things to come: Smoking nazis pressuring stores to stop selling cigarettes.
That does it for me with the ALA; when they support activists like this on school time, paid for in part by the Federal Gov'ment, which means My Tax. Dollars! I wonder how her grades are coming and what other Politically Correct classes does she have......? Walgreen's should protest, this selfish teenager thought she could latch onto that name and use it for her site against them? This kid really doesn't understand honesty, but sure understands taking what isn't hers and apparently doesn't have a clue that this is wrong and possibly a crime. Some education our kids are getting.
As Bugs Bunny would say, "What a maroon".
BTW, Godwin's Law is in effect on this thread, you mentioned Nazi's first (g)
It's good practice, these days, to buy domains with common mispellings of your corporate name, as well as the .net, .org, etc. To prevent such "hijacking". . . .
The daughter of a Druid priest looking for free legal help [paid for by the taxpayer, who else] doesn't expect legal action against her [because she is so altruistically good]? Yeah. Right. This is a bitch in the making who will never cure cancer, produce food for the masses, or fight for liberty against tryants. She should get sued and rediculed as an udderly useless parasite.
More like an omen of what has always been. Temperance movements have a long storied history in America.
Hmmm...it would seem to me that this girl is enacting her First Amendment right...
The name is a little misleading and I can see the argument there, but if it's her private web site she can print anything she likes...
...well right up until CFR was signed...
That's the way I see it. And don't get me wrong. I am a smoker so I am already taking it up the wazoo from the non-smoking zealots.
However if Walgreen's was stupid enough to not register some alternative spellings to their company name, i.e. Wal-green.com, Walgren.com, Walgreens-sucks.com, then it looks like they have a problem they are going to have to live with.
On the other hand, they could offer to purchase the domain name from her since it currently is her property.
Yea, it's been a great success with pot and cocaine.
The site is set up with the specific intent of criticism of Walgreen's. It is similar to the pro-doper dare.org site and and peta.org (People Eating Tasty Animals) who used the trademarks of the established groups for their own agenda purposes. In both cases, internet authorities kicked the squatters off the URLs.
You shouldn't have been surprised, dearie. See if you can grasp this: You are much, much, larger than a mosquito. But when one lands on you, what do you do?
As for the teen -- good for her. I'm a smoker, and don't particularly like her message, but I don't see any problem with her site, per se. In fact, it's right in line with the new American credo -- if you don't like something, try and get it banned (which I'm NOT in favor of). The story is about Walgreens, but I'd bet she's in favor of making smokes illegal.
It's the new paternalist American Way. It's for your own good. It's for Public Safety. Your liberty is subservient to safety. Yada yada.
Anyone else creeped out by this? Sheesh.
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