The ads banned by Google were placed by a firm working for Republican Sen. Susan Collins' re-election campaign. Collins is seeking her third term.
Earlier this week, Google told Lance Dutson, president of Maine Coast Designs, that the ads he placed for Collins had been removed and would not be allowed to resume because they violated Google's trademark policy. . . .
The banned advertisements said, "Susan Collins is MoveOn's primary target. Learn how you can help" and "Help Susan Collins stand up to the MoveOn.org money machine." The ads linked to Collins' campaign Web site with a headline reading "MoveOn.org has made Susan Collins their #1 target." The Collins Web site claims that MoveOn has contributed $250,000 to her likely Democratic opponent and has run nine ads against her costing nearly $1 million. The Web site also displays MoveOn.org's controversial "General Betray Us" ad.
It's not too surprising that the liberal advocacy group would be a mite touchy from all the blowback online [from its McCarthyite attack on Gen. David Petraeus], even though it should be used to the abuse by now. So touchy, in fact, that it's been sending out cease-and-desist letters to CafePress, a website that lets people offer custom-designed t-shirts, coffee mugs and the like for sale. Last week it demanded that the site remove eight items, arguing that they violated MoveOn's merchandising trademarks.
Trademark law doesn't confer monopoly rights over all uses of a registered phrase or symbol, however, and it wasn't created simply to protect the trademark owner's interests. Instead, it's designed to protect consumers against being misled or confused about brands. The courts have repeatedly ruled in favor of parodies and critiques; that's why www.famousbrandnamesucks.com doesn't violate famousbrandname's trademark. And most, if not all, of the items targeted by MoveOn were clearly designed to razz it, not to trick buyers into thinking they were the group's products.
Beyond that, it's amazing that MoveOn would try to squelch political speech. That's another clear purpose of the targeted items. Take, for example, this message on a t-shirt designed by a lifelong Democrat from Southern California:
General Petraeus has done more for this country than MoveOn.org. MoveOn.org, the worst friend a Democrat could have! Move Away from Move On!
To its credit, CafePress refused to take down five bumper stickers, and it reinstated a t-shirt that it had taken down briefly in response to MoveOn's initial request.
It's not amazing at all that MoveOn would try to squelch political speech. This effort is of a piece with its thuggish rhetoric about Petraeus and other figures not of the Angry Left. Thuggish rhetoric is of course protected by the First Amendment, and MoveOn is not above taking advantage of America's liberal ideals in order to undermine them.
