Parody of Wal-Mart Trumps Its Trademark

Computer store owner Charles Smith has won a two-year legal battle with Wal-Mart, which has demanded he stop making and selling T-shirts and other items with slogans such as "Wal-ocaust" and "Wal-Qaeda." U.S. District Judge Timothy C. Batten Sr. found that Smith's products qualified as protected noncommercial speech because his goal was to criticize Wal-Mart, not to make a profit from his products. The judge noted that Smith had sold only 62 T-shirts, including 15 to one of Wal-Mart's outside law firms.

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