Wal-Mart Abusing Trademark Law

Wal-Mart Abusing Trademark Law To Try To Shut Down Union Website

The latest such story (lawsuits against so-called "gripes" sites) takes place up in Canada, and rather than a traditional disgruntled customer or ex-employee, the gripes site in question is from a union. Michael Scott points TechDirt to the news that Wal-Mart is trying to shut down a union website using quite a creative interpretation of trademark law, to suggest it blocks out all sorts of stuff it does not:

They want the court to order the union:
* to refrain from using the names Wal-Mart or Walmart as a trademark alone, or with other indicia, in any form or format
* not to use the expressions "Walmart Workers Canada" or "Union for Walmart Workers" in any form or format
* not to use the expression "Get respect. Live better." or any other expression which constitutes a play on Wal-Mart's trademarked slogan "Save money. Live better"
* not to use photos or images of WalMart employees or people purporting to be such employees
* not to use an oval, circular or semi-circular design similar to the Spark Design that includes spokes or figures in association with trademark Walmart in any form or format
* to take down the website www.walmartworkerscanada.ca

And in doing this, Wal-Mart draws alot more attention to the site and looks like a giant butthole in the process. Not to mention the fact that the website isn't violating any laws whatsoever, that Wal-Mart is using the threat of litigation to bully them and that union-busting is near and dear to the Wal-Mart Board (along with employee exploitation, supply chain strong-arming, sweat shop based clothing manufacturing, locality shifted medical expensing and likely dozens of other shifty, amoral and probably illegal business practices).