Smith v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., Civil No. 06-526 (N.D.
Status: Summary judgment granted to plaintiff, 537 F.Supp.2d 1302 (March 21, 2008).
After Wal-Mart threatened to sue Charles Smith over his use of Wal-Mart’s name, logos and similar-looking logos on his web sites criticizing the company, (www.walocaust.com and www.walqaeda.com), Smith filed suit, seeking a declaratory judgment that his uses did not violate Wal-Mart’s copyrights. Both parties moved for summary judgment, and Wal-Mart sought transfer of the URLs to its control. The court granted summary judgment to Smith, and denied Wal-Mart’s motion, holding that Smith’s use of Wal-Mart’s trademarks were parodies, protected under the “fair use” copyright doctrine, and would not lead to confusion.
Links and Court Documents:
http://insidebusiness.freedomblogging.com/2008/03/21/wal-mart-as-bad-as-al-qaida/
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1206441810175
http://www.ajc.com/business/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/03/25/walmart_0326.html
Decision granting summary judgment: http://www.citizen.org/documents/WalmartDecision.pdf
Complaint and other court documents: http://www.citizen.org/litigation/forms/cases/CaseDetails.cfm?cID=206
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