Practice Management

Sometimes it is hard to understand why lawyers and big companies have a bad image generally -- until you read things like this.

Cannot anybody take a joke?  Since when is a parody, no matter how much you resent it, not protected speech?  I always heard it was the greatest form of flattery.

Anyway, as reported by Courthouse News Service, The North Face, a popular outdoor clothing manufacturer, has demanded that 18-year-old Jimmy Winklemann stop his The South Butt clothing line. The South Butt line is a parody of North Face, whose lawyer claims the South Butt line is confusingly similar.

Winklemann's attorney, Albert Watkins, finds the claim humorous.  "North Face has indicated as a matter of record that the public will somehow be confused by the South Butt product," Watkins said in a statement. "There appears to be little recognition, if any, that the savvy of consumers precludes anyone from confusing a face with a butt."

Winklemann is a freshman at the University of Missouri. He said he started the clothing line to help out his parents.  "The economy is tough," Winklemann said. "I know my parents are working hard to help me out with college, I took steps to contribute and now I am being bullied into submission."

Winkelmann's attorney said, "In the end, no pun intended, North Face has to understand that Jimmy may be bright and creative, but he is an 18-year-old college freshman with a total net worth which precludes him from buying beef for dinner.  Perhaps North Face and other mega-corporations should embrace his spirit and talents and not smack him across the butt with threats of litigation."