By: Sharon Urias, Esq.
CFA Properties, Inc., the parent company of Chick-fil-A, lost its fight to close down the parody website ChickfilaFoundation.com for trademark infringement. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) heard the case and ruled the parody website to be a legitimate criticism of the restaurant’s anti-gay stance.
Chick-fil-A was in the national spotlight earlier this year for owner Dan Cathy’s stance against gay marriage.
CFA filed a complaint in September against the owners of the parody website, Jason Selvig and Davram Stiefler, claiming the website’s domain name was too similar to the Chick-fil-A trademark, and was also registered and used in bad faith. Selvig and Stiefler contested all charges and retained attorneys to fight the allegations.
The two Brooklyn-based comedians and social commentators’ ChickfilaFoundation.com website, features parodies, written content and satirical videos that are aimed at critiquing the controversy surrounding Dan Cathy’s stance on gay marriage.
According to one attorney for Selvig and Stiefler, the domain name is a legitimate parody. He added that “Chick-fil-A’s trademark doesn’t mean they have a right to silence legitimate commentary about their brand.”
The parody website’s attorney went on to say that corporations cannot use trademark law to silence free speech that is made through parody and satire. This is an example of bullying in that a huge corporation is trying to silence those who speak out against its business practices.
WIPO agreed with ChickfilaFoundation.com in ruling against Chick-fil-A: “The Panel is not persuaded here that Respondent’s registration and use of the disputed domain name has been shown to be for purposes of capitalizing on Complainant’s trademark.”
(The original article is no longer on yahoo news.)
