Wal-Mart threatens Quebec union
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- “Quebec unions have been a thorn in Wal-Mart’s side, and they’re gaining momentum,” emails p2pnet World headlines compiler Marc
Now, “Wal-Mart is clearly trying to shut them up any way possible,” he says, linking to Sam Trosow’s ‘Wal-Mart seeks to shut down Union website’.
In the post, “the company is asking the court to shut down a website maintained by the union at www.walmartworkerscanada.ca,” says Trosow.
“They want the court to order the union to stop using the trade names ‘Walmart’ or ‘Wal-Mart’ and to refrain from using the several expressions including ‘Union for Walmart Workers’ and ‘Get Respect. Live Better,’ a play on the company`s new slogan ‘Save Money. Live Better.’
“The company argues that the depictions presented by the union on its website constitute trademark infringement and passing off.”
p2pnet has had some of that from SOCAN, the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, and privacy invasion tech company Sandvine, both of whom tried to hoist trademark infringement charges.
What is it with big companies?
Oh. Wait. They’re loaded with cash and they know the legal system works only to the benefit of plaintiffs with deep pockets and legal resources on tap for instant application.
Or that was the way it used to be until the Net, the Great Equaliser, and People2People Power came along.
Says Trosow, who runs the Canadian Copyright: A Citizen’s Guide blog »»»
The company argues that the depictions presented by the union on its website constitute trademark infringement and passing off.
They allege that:
45. These uses of Wal-Mart`s rebranded indicia raises an inevitable and completely false implication that Wal-Mart has licensed its trademarks to the UFCW and is controlling the use of its trademarks, either directly or indirectly in order to assist the Defendant union in recruiting Wal-Mart workers with the approval of Wal-Mart Canada. This is false.
46. The use of Wal-Mart`s intellectual property on the UFCW`s website has created the sort of ambiguity which is the very essence of confusion and passing off;
The order sought by the company is very broad. 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
For its part, the Union is denying it infringed Wal-Mart’s trademarks and the website remains online. UFCW President Wayne Hanley said :
This injunction request is an over the top assault on effective freedom of speech. . . It`s a kneejerk response by Walmart to the idea of its employees trying to understand their options as workers, and trying to share experiences with other `associates`.
The Union is asking supporters to send a letter to the company and a FaceBook group has been launched to Save the Circle.
Al Norman’s piece in the Huffington Post describes Wal-Mart’s motivations for the suit:
Wal-Mart is trying to limit the use of circular and oval objects. Over the years, the giant retailer, in exercising its own brand of censorship, has forced recording artists to change lyrics, ’sanitize’ album covers, removed certain ‘objectionable’ magazines from its racks, and generally cultivated its own corporate sense of what the public should or shouldn’t see.
Now the retailer has developed a list of words and images that it doesn’t want its workers to read on a union website. In fact, it wants the entire union website destroyed.
Norman is quite right to assert that Wal-Mart’s conduct here is simply a continuation of an ongoing campaign of censorship. In seeking such broad relief, especialy in the context of a series of ongoing labour disputes, the company is going way beyond any legitimate purpose served by trademark laws. The purpose of trademark and passing off laws are to avoid the sort of confusion that could occur if marks, names and symbols used with respect to particular products or services were used by others offering similar products or services. While it protects the goodwill built up by a business with respect to its reputation inherent in the mark, it is also primarily aimed at protecting consumers from confusion.
It seems unlikely that the company will be able to actually prove the type of consumer confusion needed to support an action for trademark infringement.
“Go to the allegedly infringing website yourself and ask whether any reasonable consumer would be confused into thinking there was some sort of relationship between the Wal-Mart and the UFCW as alleged in the complaint,” Trosow suggests.
Meanwhile, “Walmart, the world’s largest corporation, reached a new low when it filed for a court injunction that would limit the effectiveness of a website dedicated to helping Canadian Walmart ‘associates’ understand and exercise their rights as workers,” says the union, continuing »»»
The injunction request, filed with the Québec Superior Court, concerns the popular and award-winning website www.walmartworkerscanada.ca , maintained by UFCW Canada, a trade union dedicated to helping Walmart workers for nearly a decade.
This injunction request is an over the top assault on effective freedom of speech, says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley. It’s a kneejerk response by Walmart to the idea of its employees trying to understand their options as workers, and trying to share experiences with other ‘associates’.
Walmart’s response to the success of www.walmartworkerscanada.ca is just another outrageous example of how the largest retailer in the history of the world will use its bottomless legal budget to manipulate the collective bargaining process and do just about anything to discourage its ‘associates’ from joining the union.
Despite several threatening letters from Walmart and the prospect of a legal battle, UFCW Canada refuses to be silenced and has launched a public awareness and popular action campaign in response the multinational’s threat.
On July 28, UFCW Canada launched a new campaign that calls on Canadians to contribute to the defence of their digital rights by challenging Walmart executives to demonstrate that they respect freedom of expression by immediately dropping the injunction request.
Activists can contribute to the campaign by visiting www.walmartworkerscanada.ca/freespeech and sending an email to Walmart executives.
Another way for UFCW Canada members to help protect digital rights is by spreading the word about the SAVE the CIRCLE! Facebook group.
“Walmart will make its case to Quebec’s top court in the coming weeks,” the union adds.
Stay tuned.
(Cheers, Marc)
Sam Trosow – Wal-Mart seeks to shut down Union website, August 7, 2009
SOCAN – SOCAN threatens p2pnet. Again, August 2, 2007
Sandvine – Sandvine â branded, May 23, 2008
Use free p2pnet newsfeeds for your site. It`s really easy!
Subscribe to p2pnet.net | | rss feed: http://p2pnet.net/p2p.rss | | Mobile – http://p2pnet.net/index-wml.php
Net access blocked by government restrictions? Use Psiphon from the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto. Go here for details.
August 9th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
I don’t know if these tactics will work in Canada. I mean by draining the Union financial resources through a long drawn out court case. Walmart position is weak on this threat, and is doing nothing but damage it image.
August 9th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
I’m thinking of starting my own Canadian Walmart website now which will feature freedom of speech and freedom of association for their employee’s and it will have lots of fair-use and parody on their logo and name… you know, the thing communist american walmart doesn’t like.
August 10th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Unions are the scum of the earth.
August 11th, 2009 at 1:55 am
Ah, you must be a minimum wage worker w/o benefits and are jealous of what others have, a quality of life under a union.