Posted on 02/10/2005 11:06:57 AM PST by holymoly
Microsoft Corp. and Pfizer Inc. on Thursday announced parallel lawsuits against two international spam rings pushing a variety of drugs, especially those purporting to be generic versions of Pfizer's Viagra product. The two companies filed a total of 17 lawsuits in courts in New York and Washington state.
According to the companies, Pfizer filed civil actions against CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct, alleging trademark infringement, "unfair competition under both federal and state law, as well as deceptive trade practices in violation of New York state law." They also allege that the companies are selling non-FDA approved sildenafil citrate, the chemical name for Viagra, in violation of U.S. law.
Pfizer also filed 10 actions against Web sites whose names violate the company's Viagra trademark.
Microsoft's legal actions were against two spamming groups that promote CanadianPharmacy and E-Pharmacy Direct. The software giant also filed three additional suits against spammers promoting three other online pharmacies. The suits were brought under the federal CAN-SPAM act and various state laws.
The defendants are listed as John Doe because the individuals controlling the online pharmacies and spamming groups are unknown. The plaintiffs plan to obtain the names of the controlling individuals through discovery from ISPs and other intermediaries. According to the companies, an investigation found that many of the dozens of Web sites that promote CanadianPharmacy are registered to uninvolved third parties who were unaware that their identities were being used to hide the true operators of the Web site.
Click here to read about more Microsoft lawsuits against spammers.
The actual product fulfillment involves an international organization. The customer, following links in spam messages, visits Web sites on computers in New York. The orders are forwarded to a call center in Canada and then to India. From there, the drugs are shipped to the United States by a U.S.-based air freight company.
I hope they wipe them out.
Yes, but will the evidence stand up in court?
The makers of C * I * A * L * I * S and C!AL!S should get in on this.
I get a thousand drug-pushing, erection-enhancing, porn, loan, mortgage, pirated-software emails a day. They all should be hung upon capture; no trials.
I'm getting about ten spams a day from Canadian Parmaceutical spammers, same ads but always with a different "from" name. It just started about a month ago. Good riddance to them.
It's not quite what Microsoft and Pfizer are doing... but I like the idea of a paired-lawsuit approach. On the one side, you get the ISP suing for spamming and false advertising, and on the other, you have the patent holder claiming infringment. There's no way the spammer can get out of both claims, since defense against one would involve arguing that they're doing the other...
I'm sure there will be a stiff penalty!
I love the one with the subject "Wanna bang like a horse?". The latest round of spam I receive is for horney housewives.
But will anything ever come of it?
"Yes, but will the evidence stand up in court?"
Who should they notify if the hearing last for more than 4 hours?
I doubt any of them are dumb enought to keep any assets in the country, so unless the drug companies are looking for a moral victory, I'm not sure I see the point.
That should stiffen the spammers' resolve...
I think that a rigid jury will be able to handle this.
Unless it's a hung jury, in which case it may be beneath them.
It's amazing how fast these threads degenerate into a litany of bad puns.
What will be needed is a real hands on jury that won't let it slip between their fingers. That will insure a conviction.
We're holding off on the good ones. Some people have a very low threshold of entertainment.
LOLOL! I got that batch last week, d.
Now, I'm getting 'horny young farm sluts shooting c** with their c****'. Just awful; hundreds of different ones each day.
I should have started saving these, long ago, as *.txt files to my HD, and made an albumn, for posterity.
I have friends and business associates who've had to change email addresses because they were so innundated with garbage.
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