Overzealous Big Pork Stomps on Breastfeeding Blogger
Thursday, February 01, 2007
UPDATE: If you've come via a direct link, make sure to read "An Update on the Pigsteria...UPDATE 2: It's over. Find out how it got resolved in Well Done, Pork.
Some day, when Emmitt is a little older and we look back on his first year of life, we'll fondly remember the lactivist causes that we fought for. The time we staged the Delta Nurse-in here in Columbus, the time we were filmed for the South Korean documentary, the fundraising that we've done for the Mother's Milk Bank, the times we were featured in The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle and a variety of other publications.
What we might not remember fondly is the time that the legal counsel for The National Pork Board sent us a threatening letter stating that they were prepared to sue us if we didn't bow to their demands.
Yep, you read that right. The Lactivist is being threatened with a lawsuit.
Why? Because I was selling a shirt that said "the other white milk."
First, a little background if you're new to the site. The Lactivist is a blog about breastfeeding and human milk banking. It's mostly a gathering place for breastfeeding moms to come and share their thoughts and experiences and to keep up to date on the latest issues in the fight for the rights of a child to eat in public. To help fund the site (and to raise money for the non-profit milk banks) I have a CafePress store that sells t-shirts with funny pro-breastfeeding slogans. Things like "Milk on Tap" and "That's my baby's lunch you're staring at."
Thus...the shirt that read "the other white milk."
I received a letter this morning from Jennifer Daniel Collins, an attorney at Faegre & Benson that represents The National Pork Board. It stated, for the most part, that my use of the phrase "the other white milk" violates their trademark on the phrase "the other white meat." As such, they've demanded that I remove the shirt, demanded that the image of the shirt be removed from any site I know of, demanded that I destroy any shirts that exist with the logo and demand that I not at any point in the future use the phrase in a commercially profitable way.
(Want to read ALL the demands? Download the C&D as a PDF file.)
Apparently the National Pork Board is worried that someone might come to my breastfeeding blog, check out the shirts and worry that when I say "white milk" what I really mean is "thick and juicy, straight from the hog PORK." Come on now, be honest...were you confused? Because I sort of thought I was comparing breastmilk (which just happens to be white) with the milk of a variety of other animals (cows? goats?) that happen to produce white milk (not kangaroos though, their milk is pink) and that often gets fed to infants INSTEAD of breast milk.
Wait, it gets better...
As best I can tell, the issue that REALLY has their panties in a wad is expressed in this quote from the cease and desist letter:
"In addition, your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board's mark in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption, such as with the following slogans on your website in close proximity to the slogan "The Other White Milk." "Dairy Diva," "Nursing, Nature's Own Breast Enhancement," "Eat at Mom's, fast-fresh-from the breast," and "My Milk is the Breast."
Go back and read that again. "apparent attempt to promote the use of breastmilk beyond merely for infant consumption."
Do they think I'm trying to an promote an adult breastfeeding fetish??!
Are you freaking kidding me?
Do you think they actually took two seconds to read the site, or do you think they just glanced and fired off a legal template with a few fill in the blank options?
So let's be clear about what we have here.
We've got a hobby site by a work-at-home mom that aims at helping to educate the public about breastfeeding and human milk banking. A site that has raised nearly $2000 (more than a third of its total profit over the last year) for the Mother's Milk Bank of Ohio. A site that has made a measly $8 dollars (count em, ONE-TWO-THREE-FOUR-FIVE-SIX-SEVEN-EIGHT dollars) off the sale of this shirt that is supposedly doing so much damage to people's desire to eat pork.
It's not like I'm selling a shirt that says "Breastfed babies don't grow up to be porkers" or something that might tarnish pork's good name. (It's also been suggested that I create shirts that read "The alternative white milk…" and "The auxiliary white milk…" would those get me sued too?)
I understand that Trademark law requires that a company "zealously" protect their trademark so that they can continue to hold on to it. Unfortunately, the ease of the Internet makes it really easy to fire off templated legalese emails at anyone and everyone that even comes CLOSE to the concept of the trademark. Big companies know that most bloggers have neither the time nor the resources to fight back, so even if the big company doesn't have a case, they win.
Now let me make one important point. I don't much care about selling the shirt. In fact, CafePress had removed it from the site before I ever even saw the letter from the law firm. It really doesn't matter to me if I ever sell it again. It's certainly not the cleverest slogan I've come up with so it's no big loss. What I'm ticked about is that rather than taking two seconds to send me a nice email to request that I remove it, they came in guns a blazin' with a lawyer crafted nasty gram that actually includes the phrase "We trust that after you have reviewed this matter, you will conclude that the better course is to promptly comply with National Pork Board's demands herein."
I don't have a lot of tolerance for bullies.
I still have a few days to decide what I'm going to do. Anyone know a good pro bono lawyer that's sympathetic to the breastfeeding cause?
How can you help?
Blog my friends…blog away. Share this post with discussion forums, social media sites, bloggers…anyone you can think of that will be as outraged about this as I am. Feel like shooting a few letters off to the marketing and PR departments of the National Pork Board (or your favorite reporters and journalists) to share your opinion of this type of bullying?
To note, I'm going to be keeping a list of all the places that this gets covered at the bottom of the post, so if you blog it or post it somewhere, drop me an email and let me know... (jennifer at thelactivist dot com)
Here are quick button links to some of my favorite social media sites.
Here's some contact information:
You can email the Pork Board directly. Or, you can contact the relevant folks in the marketing and PR departments.
Jeff Hartz - Director of Marketing Communications
(515) 223-2629 JHartz@pork.org
Joy Johnson - Vice President Marketing
(515) 223-2631 jjohnson@pork.org
Michael Wegner - Vice President Communications
(515) 223-2638 MWegner@pork.org
Teresa Roof - Public Relation Manager
(515) 223-2616 troof@pork.org
ETA: Stories are already popping up: (rats! Blogger seems to have a post limit and it's just dropped about 30 links off of this page. I'm headed to bed soon, will repost a NEW post tomorrow with links to all the coverage.)
It's been Dugg.
It's on Six Degrees of Bacon
It's on Mothering
It's on The Small Business Ideas forum.
It's on Marketing Pilgrim
It's on Traffick
It's on Breastfeeding 1-2-3
It's on Search Engine Land
It's on Shoemoney
It's on Search Engine Guide
It's on The Feeding Choices Board at BabyCenter
It's on I don't Know
It's on Cameron Olthuis' blog
It's at Apogee Weblog
It's at Work at Home in Progress
It's in SearchRank
It's at Ninety-Seventh Floor
It's at Ask Shane
It's at Babbly
It's at Breastfeeding Mums
Labels: All About the Site, Lactivism
You know you've got my support Jen!
It's really ridiculous that they are being so petty about this whole thing. I cannot quite believe that they are bullying you like this, nor how they can even compare the two phrases. You are selling a breastfeeding tee-shirt promoting breastfeeding, nothing to do with pork! Where is the connection?
I'll be blogging about it later this evening.
E gads, they have their nerve. It's not even close, who can't tell the difference between meat and milk! I hope you get a pit bull lawyer who will tell them to shove it. Not because you want to continue to sell the tee, which you said you don't, but because this is no way to treat honest, decent folks. Their accusations of promoting breast milk for reasons other than infant consumption makes me fighting mad (Italian temper). All the jokes and bad mouthing of lawyers are true, they suck! Well, maybe not all. Especially the one who's going to defend you. God speed, Jen, give 'em a run for their money. Sorry I don't have any resources for you, just passionate support.
I think I must be missing something here, Jen. Why is it a violation of their trademark? You didn't use their slogan. (This may have been answered in the C&D which I didn't read (sheepish grin).)
So nobody can ever use any phrase that states, "The other white [anything]?" Is that what they are claiming?
Karon T.
You'll have to read the full C&D to get their exact meaning, but what they're claiming is that I obviously did it to take away from their established good name, and that it actually damages them because it associates them with *gasp* breastfeeding! Oh the horror!!!
We wouldn't want pork associated with something as healthy as breastfeeding, now would we?
I assume that means they don't think it counts as parody. ;)
Blogged my support with the quick question: did the National Pork Board forget that pigs are mammals too?
http://www.breastfeeding123.com/did-the-national-pork-board-forget-that-piglets-breastfeed-too/
OK, let's try this again. As one of our dear friends stated so eloquently once, "Let's face it your just smarter than they are!" Bullies have big egoes and usually very little to back it up. Unfortunately, these bullies have big, expensive lawyers :( But it just goes to show that the "little man/woman" can still make a BIG difference. Don't worry, God tends to side w/ the underdogs ;0
Forever and ever, you've got my support, Jen.
I submitted a message to BoingBoing, lets see if they post it.
I saw your plea on Shoemoney's site. This same crap happened to me when I owned a business. Fortunately, I may have found you a way out - you could probably claim the same thing as this guy.
thisistrue.com/hasbro.html - go to his parody link.
Your tshirt is a parody of the - the other white meat - so it should fall under the same protection. Good luck!
Why don't you eat a pork chop before breast feeding and then claim you're promoting, and enabling, the consumption of pork for the next generation?
Here's my post calling attention to it. People are such [redacted] sometimes.
Oops, it would help if I left the link. Sorry. http://lakelinesthoughts.com/?p=395
Start a new seo contest whoever gets ranked in the top positions for both Faegre & Benson and the National Pork Board gets a permanant link from the homepage of search engine guide to their seo blog?
Im sure the Law firms potential clients will love to see 9 out of the top 10 posts talking bad about the company. :)
It's on mothering.com, too: http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=607696>mothering.com
Give 'em hell! I hope you find a lawyer who rips them a new one!
I'm glad you made that pork tenderloin for me before they threatened to sue. Because man it was good!
They have turned a pork ally into an enemy.
This is probably one of the most ridiculous things I've seen so far this year. I'm not quite sure how they think it infringes on anything (although I can see how they think it's similar, it sort of is)
Did they sue the makers of Austin Powers because Fat Bastard used the line "Baby..The other other white meat" which definately would cause harm to their slogan, suggesting that babies are good for human consumption.. Gotta stop here, my eyes are rolling too far back into my head to see what I'm typing.
I got your back!
Well although they do have a trademark right to stop the use of it, it was really stupid how they approached it...
How about coming up with a shirt that has a picture of a sow on it with little piggies (or babies) all fighting to nurse...
The above caption could read
"Patience, I only have two!"
Might be good for those with triplets or more!!!
For what it's worth, I sent emails to the Ellen Degeneres show and Oprah describing your predicament and linking to your blog. I really hope someone with clout jumps on this and rocks their world. How AWFUL that babies should eat milk from their mothers, or that mothers and fathers should enjoy all the other aspects of breastfeeding! Gah!!
I think if they don't back off their idiotic approach, I like the idea of a shirt like "Breastfed babies don't grow up to be porkers". Unless they then hold the trademark for ever word that possibly contains the letters pork. ;)
Maybe a googlebomb is in order... maybe "bully" or "fetish" given their apparent ignorance with regards to the purpose of your site. I can't imagine the googlebomb filter is flawless yet. And then they could issue a C&D to Google for ranking them for fetish. Now that would be hilarious.
So do you still have any of those t-shirts? Now that their controversial and the subject of a threatened lawsuit I'll be they will sell like hotcakes! :-)
I can't even believe this is an issue. What a bunch of ignoramuses. I'll write about this on my brand spanking new blog tonight!
That's so stupid. I can't believe they would care about you selling a T-shirt from your website, especially something as tame as that.
I never liked pork anyway :P
Jennifer, this is incredible. I've emailed the pig board, most of my friends andposted about it at http://wellhuh.blogspot.com/2007/02/pork-board-bullies-breastfeeding.html
Is it any wonder why people don't like lawyers and big business?
I agree that they're being a bit frivelous. If they've the trademark, however, they do have grounds for legal action. I think you should keep running things as your conscience dictates. If you go to court, so be it. There's no need to let them bully you with just a letter. Let them back up their convictions just as you've already backed your own with action. I'm proud of your movement and wish you the best of luck.
Pork, the other white lie.
The C/D was pretty funny. I'll be emailing them about that ridiculous letter.
I don't like to see big businesses bullying the little guys. It's such a frivolous claim, but they have the $$$ to take it far.
Pork, the other white devil.
Boycott?
I love bacon, pork chops, ham, etc.
I think I'm may to have to give it up until this suit is dropped.
The National Pork Board is a federally created organization, in which members of the Pork industry are appointed to terms to spend a percentage of the sales of pork products to market the industry.
It was created under the Pork Promotion, Research, and Consumer Information Act of 1985 (pdf), and is overseen by the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service.
The trademark originally belonged to the National Pork Producers Council, but was purchased by the government organized board last year.
There's a blogger focusing upon US Food Policy who questions many of the aspects of the sale - interesting reading.
It might be worth sending some letters to some US Representatives and Senators about this, since this is a body that is formed and overseen by the US Government.
I recommend that you resist their demand to stop purveying your shirt. First of all, it definitely falls under the umbrella of parody! And since you're not a profit oriented enterprise, they can't claim you're stealing their "asset."
The 'porker' shirt should be used too. It's actually correct. And their consciousness is definitely in the gutter.
They give pork a bad name.
The publicity you could get, sympathy and contributions would all be worth a lawsuit.
I sent an email to one of the piggies at pork.org.
Alan
Jen, I submitted your story to several of the local televison stations here in DesMoines, Ia which just happens to be where the National Pork Boards headquarters are located. Hopefully they will blow this open and make this a mainstream issue.
www.kcci.com; www.whotv.com; and The DesMoines Register
This is just so silly. No matter what it is just silly. I posted something on my blog too, maybe they will hear us if we just keep talking about how silly it all is.
I think that the lawsuit is absolutely ridiculous and that noone would connect the two (even on the off chance that they know about porks copyrighted slogan). But, I think the shirts are gross. Of course I have no problem with breast-feeding, and I have no problem with women feeding in public when other accommodations are not available. But, when they are available, or when no blanket is being used it is probably inappropriate.
I also don't understand why mothers would want to bring attention to their breasts. Noone wants to be thinking about your breasts, and you probably shouldn't be wearing shirts that make us think about that. It's gross.
Regarding cafepress, I'm curious as to why they removed it without informing you first. It seems like a gray area to me.
Also, it seems like it would be similar to the "got milk?" phrase... so those who are just "guessing" if it's a violation please don't remark that they have a right, unless you know for a fact. Let's use facts, please! It's better to educate then to assume.
I think it's bogus and will be making my voice heard!
A fellow breastfeeding mother
I also forgot to mention that I would think that the Diary Board would have more of an issue then the Pork "guys". I mean, it's the other white MILK... go figure!
Fellow Breatfeeding Mother
I think you should replace that T-shirt with one that says "Boycott Pork". Maybe with a picture of a sow feeding it's piglets.
Posted at Build Your Own Arcade Controls -- I hate bullies.
Wow - they have some nerve. Of course the use of anything for satire is completely legit. But that said, I think there is no way anyone could confuse pork and milk...
It really astounds me to see such levels of stupidity... I wouldn't worry. Hopefully you have recieved enough publicity to help further your cause a little more.
Common sense and the law are on your side.
Even if I'mmore of the father side - I can only support you and the campaign you're moving. To the rest I just would like to say what a bunch of greesy HOgs they are just trying to be evenmore dirtier thznthe creztures they kill for money
Change the t-shirt to say "The Udder White Milk". Har!
You knowingly violated the Pork Board's rights. Then you got caught.
Grow up.
You don't appreciate the fact that they didn't send a nice, friendly note before justly defending their rights? Perhaps they didn't appreciate not receieving a friendly little note before having their rights trammeled upon.
Maybe if you had asked nicely, they would have been ok with it. But you didn't, and now we'll never know. Instead, you knowingly and flagrantly infringed upon their copyright and trademark, and did so in a surreptitious manner by not asking for permission to do so from the rights holder. So maybe the Pork Board decided it was YOU who started down the road to nasty town, and they just were following along.
What do you think this is, a game? For you its $8. For them, it is literally BILLIONS of dollars they have invested in that mark. With that much money invested, they are going to vociferously and vehemently defend it. Seriously, what did you expect?
Grow up. That's all I can really say.
LOL... Grow up? You mean grow up and realize that the phrase "the other white milk" is NOT trademarked by the National Pork Board?
Guess I don't see your point. It's not like I actually used their phrase, their logo or even their font. I simply used a phrase that occurs in English. Just because they use a few of those words in their trademark doesnt mean diddly.
dont worry Jen, they just dont have anything better to do. their just being "piggish" about breastfeeding humor.
Hey Chuckie, lemme guess, you're charles @ faegre.com? Go stuff some more bacon down your throat you dope.
Methinks that Charlie may have some ties with the pork board? GrAsshat...
I just found out that they recently paid $60 Million for that trademark. And now they are making it look bad. Dumb, Dumb, Dumb.
http://mcanerin.blogspot.com/2007/02/pork-porn-and-shirtless-moms.html
Here's the note I just sent off to the pigs:
We're banning pork and encouraging everyone we've ever met to do the same until the ridiculous bully of a pork board decides that the only thing tarnishing the good image of pork is the aforementioned pork board! You should be so lucky as to have pork associated with the wholesome, healthful habit of breastfeeding. Every breastfeeding group in the country is going to come down hard on pork, and you're going to be desperately sorry you messed with breastfeeding mommies. As the Public Relations Manager, don't you think you ought to switch tracks quickly?
I wonder where you got the idea for your slogan?
Blogged about it at blogschmog.net. Holy cow, that's hard to believe.
I'm in.
http://justiceday.blogspot.com/2007/02/pork-you.html
I think their claim is that you (or your cause) are profiting from their slogan. It's not the same words as their slogan, but it seems quite obvious that your phrase was inspired or intentionally made to be similar to it. Legally, you can't do that unless it's covered under fair use (parodies are covered). I guess they don't see it as a parody so they're suing. Bullying? Sure. Legal? Yes.
You KNOW that whoever owns that shirt (is there only one?) is one happy purchaser right now. There will probably be people lining up at the door to buy your other shirts as a result of this Jenn. And all thanks to the Pork Board. I might have thought their request was reasonable if people could easily confuse your parody with their catch-phrase and you were selling a related product. But there's no confusing the two. You are promoting a voluntary organization that contributes to the well-being of infants and moms and they are promoting the slaughter of innocent animals. Yet they take offence at YOU! It's priceless. Watch my blog.
It's on Hyena Cart Forums:
http://hyenacart.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=24115
Why Do You Think They Call Them PIGS!
The only thing they did is make you famous. I had never heard of this blog before, but I'm here now and I have to say that I'm supporting your site!
Support, you got it. Let's make this the "Shirt Heard 'Round the World" ... (can we say that?)
I'm speachless, this is downright silly.
http://www.shopforclothes.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289
Send a letter back to them and tell them that you will concede to their demands and instead will start selling t-shits with the slogans "pork industry hates motherhood" and "pork is for pigs" and "pork - cook it really well or it will kill you"
Pork is vile, and the pork industry is even more vile. It isn't a white meat (like chicken and turkey), it's a red meat that turns grey, not white when cooked. Their slogan erronously compares white fowl meats to pig meat implying that pork is equally as healty as fowl, which pork is not. "pork the other white lie"
You could start another section on your website "boycott pork"
Been there, done that, blogged it: http://www.searchenginecollege.com/2007/02/us-pork-board-offended-by-breastfeeding.html and bought the t-shirt.
Wow, Jenn, I am utterly shocked about this. I have nothing to add other than my support. Keep it up! Somehow they found you and the GOOD message you are sending with your blog is getting out!
Charlie, you grow up :) And get off your high horse.
Have you ever gone 1 mp/h over the speed limit? Better go hand yourself in then, given your obvious dedication to 'the law'.
a) they may not have a case
b) even if they do have a case, then I think they've over-reacted.
It's bullying behavior.
I think this deserves a nice new tshirt.
Boycott Pork at the top.. A picture of a pig with a red circle/slash and a link to this page.
Good luck.
Reg
I do think the Pork Board messed with the wrong person :-)
nice shirts..
cheers,
Agloco
Ironically, Faegre & Benson LLP claim to do a lot of Pro-Bono work themselves. Maybe lawyering works something like the 80:20 rule - you can be a prick 80% of the time if you do good things 20% of the time. Not that defending a client's property zealously is a bad thing of itself, but I don't see any dilution or confusion that would substantiate their claim. Of course, the system is set up to punish those who don't have the money to defend themselves, but from a common sense standpoint I agree 100% that you should be fine.
Good luck, and get the word out. When companies and their council get stupid and greedy, and abuse their power, that's when popular opinion needs to be used against them punitively.
Hey, it's LISmama from CBC. Just wanted to lend my support on here! Man, this makes me want to have another kid just so I can go nurse it in front of a pig farm.
I guess I can see how they may consider it a trademark infringement. However, it seems a bit, um, Goliath-like for them to come down on you like this and I found the suggestion that your shirt (and advocacy) would tarnish their image to be offensive.
I blogged about this at http://alimum.blogspot.com/2007/02/pigs.html
You should file a complaint with the state bar where ever those lawyers are located. Misuse of the legal system to harass people engaged in a lawful act such as your parody is in this way is a pretty serious ethics violation. You should ask that their law license(s) be suspended pending a formal investigation...
What absolute idiocy!
Clearly, what they are saying just isn't kosher!
spreading the word at
http://sareena99.livejournal.com
Apparently you aren't the only "other white milk" on cafepress.
http://www.cafepress.com/totrocket/1177665
Anyway, I blogged this on my law school blog.
http://kwimberly.wordpress.com/