Posted on 03/08/2006 11:10:15 AM PST by Cagey
ATLANTA -- A Georgia man has filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart in federal district court in Atlanta in a fight over his T-shirts that compare the retailer's business practices to the Holocaust.
Charles Smith has been marketing shirts that read, "I (heart) Wal-ocaust" T-shirts. Wal-Mart filed a cease-and-desist order in an attempt to make him stop printing the shirts.
The company said Smith is engaging in trademark infringement. It has threatened to sue Smith if he continues to display the logos on his Web site and to print them on his products.
The 48-year-old Smith is a computer repairman and said he has no deep connection to the company. But he claims using the logos is a free speech issue.
Smith said he came up with his anti-Wal-Mart logo after conversations with a customer and an employee who both had bad experiences with the retailer.
He designed his first logo in July. One shirt -- with "Wal-ocaust" printed above an eagle and a smiley face sold on Nov. 16 and netted Smith $5.10.
He said if the court sides with him, he will use any profits to pay his legal fees and for continued production of the products.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark said Smith is infringing on the company's trademark and also "making an offensive association between Wal-Mart and one of the greatest tragedies of the past century."
I can see how paying people $9 an hour to work is just like trying to eradicate Jews and Gypsies in slave labor camps /sarcasm
Wal-Mart will probably lose. Trademark infringement only if peole would reasonably confuse the two...man is entitled to his stupid, leftist driven satire.
Free enterprise.
LOL.
I love your Logo.
I have no love for Wal-Mart, but this goes a little too far.
Of course, who is Wal-Mart to complain, after their book-burning ads?
This is sheer DEPRAVITY. Anyone who can make, wear, or defend such imbecilic t-shirts belongs in a home for the mentally incompetent (OK, that would apply to much of the Demagogic Party). Many comparisons to the Holocaust are ludicrous and offensive, but this one is so far beyond the bounds of reason that the loony left should finally be shamed into silence. This is like the guy in Florida awhile back who was protesting something trivial and declared to the press, "we won't go silently like the Jews to the gas chambers" or some such nonsense.
Wal-Mart Apologizes for Nazi Book-Burning Ad
Published: May 14, 2005 10:00 AM ET
PHOENIX (AP) Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is apologizing for a newspaper ad featuring a photo of a book-burning in Nazi-era Germany. The ad was published in a northern Arizona newspaper by a political action committee the company helped fund.
The company was writing an apology letter Friday to the Anti-Defamation League in Arizona and will run an apology ad this weekend in Flagstaff's Arizona Daily Sun, which carried the original ad, said Daphne Moore, director of community affairs for Wal-Mart.
"It was a terrible mistake and one that we sincerely regret," Moore said.
The ad ran as part of a campaign opposing an ordinance that would effectively prevent Wal-Mart from opening a supercenter in Flagstaff. The ordinance was passed by the Flagstaff City Council but voters are being asked to ratify it.
The ad showed a historic photo of people throwing books into a large fire. A swastika is clearly visible near the center of the photo.
The text below it reads: "Should we let government tell us what we can read?"
It says it was paid for by Protect Flagstaff's Future, the political action committee, with "major funding" by Wal-Mart.
Moore said the ad was prepared by an outside agency but reviewed and approved by Wal-Mart. "Whoever the individual who approved it was, was not aware of the historical context of the picture," she said.
The company apologized after receiving complaints from members of the public and the ADL.
HighGround Inc., the Phoenix company that prepared the ad, and the political action committee are also apologizing for the use of the photo, said HighGround President Charles Coughlin.
Bill Straus, Arizona regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, said the use of the image was clearly a mistake.
"I think all parties involved understand that a mistake was made," Straus said. "They understand the impact of it and they understand the importance of doing everything they can to follow up, and that includes an apology for any offense, although unintended, that was taken."
He won't need to spend a dime.
ACLU lawyers will be lining up for a chance to be in the Socialists' limelight.
I like it!
Some folks are just evil. Just what part of the Wal*Mart phenomenon compares to the Holocaust?
The guy belongs in an institution. He's a loon.
Oh, BUMP. What the heck. Their Sam's stores do make you feel like you are in the Gulag. First you check out. Then some idiot at the exit checks your buggy to make sure you aren't stealing anything. On top of that, you have to pay a fee to join the darn thing. I stopped shopping there a few years ago. I felt demeaned.
parsy, who has a teeny bit of pride.
Oh boy, I sure hope the fired the idiot that approved that Ad.
How did this moron not know the significants of the picture in the ad, is beyond me.
That was real bad PR for WAL-MART!
BTW,thanks for the link!
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