Matt has another great post up about the Liberal Party’s use of a trademark name belonging to a Toronto company (Green Shift) owned by Jennifer Wright. Sandy broke the story yesterday and Matt ran with it. MSM then started picking it up.
Jennifer Wright is quite upset about this infringement on her trademark name, and rightly so. The Liberal Party called her before releasing The Green Shift, and arrogantly advised her that the hits on her website were going to dramatically increase. So they already knew there would be confusion. Jennifer asked them to use a different name. She didn’t want to be associated with the LPC. They ignored her and went ahead anyway.
Jennifer Wright comments at Matt’s blog:
Hi and thanks to those who left caring comments and signs of understanding. I cannot express enough how frustrating it is to hear anyone suggest that we should be happy to receive misdirected attention. We really do not have time for the garbage and for those who think we do, I wonder, do those people like spam …
…Anyway, our main point is that we are not affiliated with any one political party and to now have our name attached to one of them is a problem. Moreover, if there was ever any doubt that another environmental program, aimed to help some of the very issues that we too are trying to solve under this name, would create confusion and cause damages – we can 100% prove that the answer is absolutely yes and that is why we are left with no choice but to protect ourselves.
I’m sorry but the irony here is too much to contain. Here we have a plan masterminded by Stephane Dion, which is causing huge problems for this poor woman in Toronto who is trying to make a go of it in the green industry. She has worked hard to attain great credibility in the field, and then along comes the LPC and callously jeopardizes all her efforts. She can’t afford to fight the LPC.
Will you please help her by calling or writing to Stephane Dion and ask him to apologize and change the name of his plan? As Jason Kenney suggests, the name should be changed to reflect what it really is – "The Green Tax on Everything".
Jennifer Wright has been shafted enough. She doesn’t need any more Liberal shift.
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Update : H/T to Sammy in comments for this gem from the King of Arrogance himself:
"…So, to recap: The Liberal Green Shift domain name, www.thegreenshift.ca, was available and was registered. The for-profit Green Shift company was notified in advance. It got a ton of hits. It has received non-stop national publicity. Millions of people who never knew it existed, do now. This traffic, headlines, notoriety and attention cost the company nothing. To achieve this level brand recognition would have taken a marketing budget bigger than gross sales.
And now it wants to sue?
Maybe an enterprising journalist should ask the owner, Jennifer Wright, how she votes. I’m betting it ain’t Liberal…"
Unbelievable.
This story continues to evolve. Sandy received a comment from Jennifer Wright as well, where she gives us a sample of the type of abuse she is having to deal with over this problem that the Liberal party initiated.
Stephen Taylor tells us of a run-in of his own with the Liberal party.
Steve janke explains Why the Liberal Party must be sued over the Green Shift name.
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Totally unrelated: Check out Brass Balls Radio to find out who apparently has a crush on me!
