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!
the Green Shaft is still available.
“the Green Shaft is still available.”
LOL Richard – that’s the best line I have heard in a long time!! Thanks for my wake up jolly.
is this what they mean when they say in the plan they will help small businesses- especially those who forward green thinking…?
It would seem that the owner does not want this type of help.
Check out the always arrogant Garth Turner’s post on this matter.he’s not being very ‘liberal-like’…he’s more or less blaming this poor woman,and says ’she most likely doesn’t vote Liberal’ Nice one Garth!
What callous arrogance…..As the “ti-gars” from Shawinigate once said” Liberals are entitled to their entitlements”……..To knowingly admit that you had previous knowledge that a small company already had been using the name “Green Shift” for 10 years and then to advise this company that their traffic would increase because of the Liberal Party infringement is nothing short of disrespect and arrogance.Like Prime Minister Harper said….the Green Shift plan will screw all canadians….here is but one example…The screwing has already started and the Liberal has not even been approved
WK thinks the Conservatives are losing on this and most people are in favor of the Liberals tax grab, Green Shift. Where are all the people in favor, I haven’t found one. Maybe I am just talking to the wrong people.
If this is an example of dion helping, we are in deep trouble. If he hits a green company right out of the starting gate, what will he do to non green companies.
AS for smiling babies and green trees, how about an ad showing bundled up babies freezing in their homes and snowbanks and iced over power lines.
Jennifer should go have a drink and drown her sorrows with the guy who owns utube.com.
http://mashable.com/2006/11/01/breaking-utube-sues-youtube/
It seems that all that extra traffic is exactly NOT what some companies want, no matter how pretty a picture Garth paints of it.
“She can’t afford to fight the LPC.”
Then maybe we should start a legal fund to raise money so that she can. I’d throw my hat into that ring.
Just think: a thoroughly discredited and destitute Liberal party, it’s members scattered to the four corners of the earth, never again to stretch out its greedy, soul-sucking tentacles across our fair Dominion.
Oh, happy, happy, happy, HAPPY day!
This company is in partnerdhip with an american one with a similar name. They make paper cups that will not harm the environment. Dion and Garth say this theft of name will not harm them. But, under the lip of the cup is Green Shift. But, one of the things dion says is, take a coffe mug for that morning coffee. Wouldn’t that cut into sales of the paper cup.
Telling the company on Wednesday that they will use their name, (and thinking they should be thanked for the increased hits, and sales, with thanks to the libs) did not give the company much time to put up a counter attack. Maybe they need a donate button on their site to help fight the lawsuit.
What else will the liberals steal to get this plan into place, other than the trust of canadians, when they discover it is a tax on everything.
The Liberals are being very mean-spirited and are bullies and too rigid on this matter(sound familiar??) Imagine if the Conservatives did this, we wouldn’t be hearing the end of it. Isn’t Dion supposed to want to help women? I never thought I’d see the day when amby-pamby feeble Dion would be so mean-spirited! Where’s the outcry from the usual hysterical progressive women? Aren’t you going to speak out against Dion’s bullying and help your fellow female??? Calling Marlene Jennings!
didn’t Kinsella rant against the carbon tax plan?
What’s changed. Is he now in favour because Dalton likes it?
She’s on Adler right now.
Gee! Ignorant Arrogant and foolish ! Dion and the Libranos! Who would have guessed? It’s NEVER happened before has it?
I truly hope that this Lady goes all the way with her action against them……
She’s on Adler right now.
Barbara, thanks for that. Just listening now.
Wow. Wish I had heard the whole thing. She is losing business over this.
Surely a lawyer would like to handle this simple copyright violation/trademark misappropriation case pro bono?
Just listened to Jennifer Wright on Adler — what an appalling way to be treated.
I guess one thing that puzzles me, she has obviously been involved with the environmental movemnent for years. So how come Mr. Environment had no idea who she was and didn’t know about her company ? I would have thought that the eco-business world was small enough that most people would know of each other at least. Surely it’s companies like hers that Dion should have been encouraging when he was environment minister, and even more so since he became Liberal leader. Or does he just talk to the Suzukis and Elizabeth Mays of the world ? What a phony.
By contacting her and warning of extra website hits the Liberal’s might have unwittingly bolstered her case if she chooses to pursue damages. Liberal’s have already admitted her company and the Liberal’s plan may be confusing to some.
I remember awhile back, Wal-Mart suing a little mon-and-pop store called Wool-Mart that sold knitting supplies, saying consumers might mistake one for the other. This store was roughly 600 square feet. Different name, different speelling.
But Liberal’s feel adding “the” on the beginning is all they need?
Looks like Cherniak had another brain cramp.
[...] company and Liberals ’share same values’: Mayer Jennifer Wright may be surprised to learn that her company "Green Shift" shares the same values as the [...]
Memo to CC. That was one of your weaker posts.
The truly tragic and appalling elements here are:
1.] Grit arrogance and inflated sense of entitlement.
2.] Turner’s insidious inclusion of the the moniker “for profit business” when he writes of Jennifer Wright’s enterprise. He, in typical Grit fashion, makes it sound as if “for profit” is a dirty orietation.
3.] As for Garth’s smarmy hints and innuendoes about Ms Wright’s voting habits? We’ve already had the Liberal shafting of a WWII vet, by a red-neck Toronto Liberal MP, who refused to help a constituent pensioner who had requested assistance for dealing with a specific issue for his wife.
The Evangelical lawyer MP [whose name does not warrant mention in polite society] had the Grit Gall to reply: “Why should I help you? I know that you did not vote for me in the last election…”
What sort of reprisals does Turner have in mind?
tj