Stephane Dion and the Liberals ignored a cease-and-desist letter from Jennifer Wright of Green Shift Inc., over the use of the name "Green Shift" to describe the Liberal carbon tax.

As a result, the Liberals are about to get sued.  We don't know by how much, but it'll be over $2 million.

And this despite Garth Turner's veiled threat to dig around her private life if she went ahead with the lawsuit.

Liberals have always felt a sense of entitlement.  Apparently that includes the appropriation of commercial names in use by other people, names that the Liberals wish they had thought of themselves.

As a result, the Liberals named Stephane Dion's carbon tax plan the Green Shift.  Jennifer Wright's company Green Shift was already using the name. 

Too bad, as Garth Turner, Liberal MP and alleged communications guru, explained in a post entitled "The site that barked" (a not-so-subtle suggestion that Jennifer Wright is being bitchy about this name business):

Within minutes, the existing greenshift.ca site was located, and a strategy discussed for dealing with the commercial company operating it. They would be contacted in advance (which happened). I was in the meeting that dealt with this, as well as the raft of domain names which the party snapped up surrounding this name. All of them were legally registered, of course.

One obvious thought was that Green Shift, the company, which bills itself as a “facilitator of environmental stewardship” would suddenly see its web traffic mushroom from those who got the Dion site address wrong. And that happened. In fact, this message was put at the bottom of the Liberal site: “Disclaimer: This site is authorized by the Federal Liberal Agency of Canada, registered agent for the Liberal Party of Canada. It is not affiliated with Green Shift Incorporated. The following is a link to the Green Shift Incorporated website: www.greenshift.ca”

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 of brand recognition would have taken a marketing budget bigger than, I suspect, 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.

So to boil it down to the basic elements, as communicated by Garth Turner:

• Yes, the Liberals knew the name was in use.
• The Liberals told Jennifer Wright they were going to use the name regardless.
• Jennifer Wright ought to be thanking the Liberals for all the traffic that would then go to her site (presumably people looking for the Liberal Party site and who would spend no time at all at Jennifer Wright's site).
• If Jennifer Wright was a Liberal, she would have had no problems allowing the Liberal Party usurp the use of her company's name.
• Jennifer Wright's political affiliation ought to be put under public scrutiny because she is not acting in what Garth Turner believes is a rational manner by threatening a lawsuit to protect her property, establishing a link between rational behaviour (as defined by Garth Turner) and private political opinion (the sanctity of which is also defined by Garth Turner).

And yet, somehow, Jennifer Wright was not put off by Garth Turner's post.  I wonder if he indeed made things worse for Stephane Dion and the Liberals, because Jennifer Wright is going ahead with the lawsuit:

A Toronto company that helps business improve their environmental standards plans to sue the federal Liberals over the branding of leader Stephane Dion’s carbon-tax plan.

Jennifer Wright, the head of Green Shift Inc., told the Star Monday her lawyers are drawing up a lawsuit claiming that the Liberals have stolen her company’s trademarked name and damaged the firm’s reputation.

She said a similar trademark infringement on her company two years ago resulted in a $2-million lawsuit.

“We’re probably looking at a lot higher (this time),” Wright said in an interview, noting that more details will be released Wednesday.

Wright said the Liberal Party of Canada “ignored” her initial cease-and-desist letter, replying only last Friday afternoon in writing that they would get back to her this week. She said she would have preferred to resolve the matter without going to court, but feels she has no option.

So now, on Wednesday, the Liberals will be formally informed of a second multi-million dollar lawsuit.  The first one is, of course, the $3.5 million suit filed by Stephen Harper over allegations made by the Liberals on their website that Stephen Harper knew of, and condoned, criminal behaviour in regards to Chuck Cadman.

I wish Jennifer Wright luck, because it seems like Garth Turner believes that Jennifer Wright's privacy ought to be targeted by the Liberals working through the media, as if her voting preferences are relevant to whether the Liberals are using someone else's commercial property without permission.

That sort of veiled threat would unnerve a lot of people.  Jennifer Wright doesn't seem to be that sort of person.

Addendum: You might have noticed that in all my posts about Stephane Dion's carbon tax plan, I never call it by that other name.  In fact, I only use the phrase "Green Shift" in discussing this lawsuit.  That's for two reasons.  One is because I don't believe Stephane Dion's carbon tax is a shift related to anything green whatsoever, but just another tax to replace the GST and so fund Liberal Party spending.  But also, and this is the primary reason, I've made this my policy on the blog because I believe that Jennifer Wright's firm is being damaged by the Liberal Party, and I don't want to exacerbate that damage by linking the Liberal Party to her company's name.  I don't think it makes much difference one way or the other, but called it a principled stand. 

Posted by: Steve Janke at 12:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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