Firm sues Liberals for trademark infringement

A Toronto firm is suing the federal Liberal party for more than $8 million and demanding it cease using the firm's name "Green Shift" for its carbon-tax plan.

Green Shift Inc. owner Jennifer Wright personally delivered a statement of claim at Liberal party headquarters today as she launched the lawsuit.

Wright told a news conference she was overwhelmed two weeks ago when a Liberal party official called to warn her it was using the term "Green Shift" for its plan to tax fossil fuels. She says the party ignored a later warning to drop the slogan.

"I suddenly just felt steamrolled," said Wright, who registered her company name in 2001 and first applied for a trademark in 2003.

Stéphane Dion's cross-country tour promoting his “green shift” hit a potentially embarrassing pothole Monday as a Toronto environmentalist took legal action over what she describes as “blatantly unethical” trademark infringement.

A firm already operating as Green Shift sent a cease and desist letter Monday afternoon to the Liberal Party and the company is considering whether to sue for damages.

The telephone call was a nice courtesy from the Liberals and I recognized that I may have been in error and I set out to create a different version of their logo to compliment the site. Here is the original:

and the changed version:

I even called the lawyer back to confirm that the logo was changed enough to satisfy their requirements. He assured me that the logo was different enough from the Liberal brand and thanked me for the cooperation. He joked that he even laughs and encourages his own team to do similar parodies of Conservatives when the opportunity arises.

Now, I read with great interest that the Liberal Party is in a trademark snafu of their own.

I have some free advice for Liberal leader Stéphane Dion and his party: rename the party platform “Red Shift”, and register the name theredshift.ca. I submit that this shift would be a good one for two reasons:

1. it will resolve the legal dispute with Green Shift Inc.; and
2. it will be a more apt metaphor for the Liberal carbon taxing platform.

My first point speaks for itself: different name, no dispute.

In support of my second point - that “Red Shift” is the more apt metaphor - I offer the following arguments.

1. Red, not green, is regarded as the Liberal Party of Canada’s party colour. For reasons that need not be stated, green is the regarded as the Green Party of Canada’s party colour. The Liberal Party’s tendancy for political cross-dressing notwithstanding, no harm will be done by rallying behind the party colour. “Red” Shift is the more Liberal term.
2. If you actually read the Liberal “Green Shift” platform, you will note that although it aims to cut income tax rates so as to make the introduction of new carbon taxes “revenue neutral”, the net effect of the plan is to make the income tax rate structure even more “progressive” (i.e., Robbin’ Hoodish) than it is already.