LYNCHBURG, Va. (AP) — The Rev. Jerry Falwell claims a Web site that spoofs his views on the Bible and his fund-raising methods violates a trademark of his name.
Falwell filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization against the owner of the site which can be accessed at www.jerryfalwell.com and www.jerryfallwell.com.
Falwell and The Liberty Alliance — a nonprofit organization affiliated with Jerry Falwell Ministries — own the site www.falwell.com.
A section of the Web site called ``How to follow the Bible'' has an open letter to Falwell, referring to his citation of biblical passages that speak against homosexuality.
It asks Falwell to explain how other passages from the Bible should be followed: ``I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?''
The complaint, filed in November, says the parody site violates a ``common-law trademark'' of his name.
In a response filed last week, the site's owner, Gary Cohn of Highland Park, Ill., says Falwell's name isn't entitled to trademark protection since he hasn't used it ``to identify certain goods and services.''
Falwell ``is trying to shut down a noncommercial Internet site that makes fun of him for blaming the Sept. 11 bombing of American landmarks on the supposed moral decline of America, and quotes the Bible at Falwell in the exact same way that Falwell likes to quote it at other people,'' Cohen wrote.
The WIPO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, will appoint a three-person panel to decide the case.
In the 1980s, Falwell sued Hustler publisher Larry Flynt over an off-color parody in the magazine. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of Flynt, saying that even extreme forms of parody are protected by the First Amendment.
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