Monday, April 17, 2006

That's Jerry With An L

Poor Jerry. Falwell, that is. Not Fallwell with two Ls, but Falwell with one L.

You see, Jerry is a – well, you all know perfectly well what Jerry is – and an enterprising fellow named Christopher Lamparello decided to call it like he sees it, on a website of his own making called www.fallwell.com. That's Fallwell with 2 Ls, not Falwell with 1 L (there's a parody of "Liza with a Z" in there somewhere, I'm sure of it!).

To be truthful, Lamparello doesn't really attack Jerry personally; just Jerry's views on homosexuality.

Well, Jerry-with-an-L dishes it out pretty good, but he can't take it. So, not appreciating the criticism, he sued Lamparello for trademark infringement.

A federal district court agreed with Jerry-With-An-L, and told Lamparello to cut it out or else.

Lamparello appealed and won at the circuit-court level. The appeals court found that www.fallwell didn’t violate the anticybersquatting provisions of federal trademark laws.

Anticybersquatting... Now there’s a visual.

Anyway, Jerry-with-an-L – not one to give up easily – appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The Court denied certiorari, which means that it’s not even going to give him a chance to make his argument, much less side in his favor. In other words, he's stuck with the appeals court decision and Lamparello gets to keep his website. You lost, buddy.

Want to know the best part? Both parties agreed that www.fallwell.com had minimal impact on Jerry-with-an-L, and they even stipulated the site only received around 200 visitors per day.

So if Jerry-with-an-L had kept his big mouth shut and ignored the site, hardly anybody would have seen it. But because Jerry is a – well, you all know perfectly well what Jerry is – anyway, because he is one, our friend Lamparello has probably had a whole lot more than 200 visitors per day lately.

I visited Jerry's website, by the way, to see if there was any response and -- well, whaddya know. No mention whatsoever of his defeat or of the lawsuit, at least not at first (and only) glance. Surprise, surprise. Too bad the horse's ass is already out of the barn.

Jerry, you’re such a – well, you know.

3 comments:

  1. I'll have to check that out. Too funny.

    I think I'll put that on isamericaburning. Good news is never out of place.


    Hope all are well down there.

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  2. It's so cute how *sensitive* they are, isn't it?

    snerkle

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