- Home
- News Grid
- Local News
- Green Hawk
- Business
- Politics
- School Zone
- Nonprofits
- Missing Pets
- Multimedia
- Arts
- Movies
- Outdoors
- Sports
- News Releases
- Columnists
- Blogs
- Opinions
- Classifieds
- Advertise
- Donate
- Partners
Jim Hightower: Corporate Monster vs. The Vermonster
Where are those lawsuit abuse groups when you really need them?
Chance are that you’ve seen ads, letters to the editor, op-ed pieces and other materials put out by outfits with such civic-sounding names as Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse. By whatever name, the message is always the same, usually delivered in a sort of urgent, basso profundo voice saying something like this: “Bloodsucking lawyers are constantly filing frivolous lawsuits against beleaguered corporations. Stop these lawyers and their loser clients — demand that your lawmakers cut them off from the courthouse.”
Hmmmm. Stop consumers from bullying big business — now there’s an improbable populist cause if I ever heard one! Who are these “citizens” who’ve formed such noisy lawsuit abuse groups?
Well, they’re just neighbors, we’re told by the groups. Yeah, assuming you have a neighbor named Philip Morris. In the mid-‘90s, the tobacco giant was still fighting off class-action lawsuits from hundreds of thousands of Americans who’d been addicted to, sickened and killed by the corporation’s murderous products. Unable to win in court, Philip Morris and its corporate allies secretly launched a nationwide campaign to rig the rules of judicial access in their favor. Philip Morris itself put up $16 million in 1995 to hire a public-relations firm to create faux “grassroots” fronts in every state under the banner of Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse.
These CALA front groups — which continue to demonize consumer lawyers and fight for new laws to take away our fundamental right to seek legal redress against corporations that injure us — are funded and controlled through another corporate front named ATRA, or American Tort Reform Association. Its backers include a who’s who of big-business brand names, from Anheuser-Busch to Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
The lawsuit abuse groups are innately dishonest, not only because they deliberately hide their special-interest parentage from the public, but because they’re not really against abusive lawsuits. It’s only legal actions against big corporations that get their knickers in a knot. On the other hand, when those same corporations turn their powerhouse legal departments against the hoi polloi (consumers, small businesses, environmental groups, etc.), we never hear a peep of complaint from a CALA about abuse. Curiously inconsistent, huh?
For example, where is their outrage about Hansen Beverage Inc., the nationwide, billion-dollar marketer of Monster energy drinks? This Goliath has unleashed its legal hounds to go chasing clear across the continent to take a big bite out of a tiny David in Morrisville, Vt. There, Matt and Renee Nadeau have created a local business producing artisan beers. Their Rock Art Brewery employs seven people, and they make a terrific brew with the bodacious name of “The Vermonster.”
When this label hit the sensitive radar of Hansen Beverage, the corporate lawyers fired off a nuclear e-mail to the Nadeaus, demanding that they cease and desist from using the Vermonster name — or be sued. Sued for what? For infringing on Hansen’s “Monster” trademark, the cross-country lawyers barked, adding that Rock Art’s use of “Vermonster” would “undoubtedly create a likelihood of (consumer) confusion” between the two brands.
Uh, we make a beer not an energy drink, the Nadeaus replied — and our beer comes in a 22-ounce brown bottle that looks nothing like a Hansen product.
Commonsense, however, is not spoken by corporate lawyers, and the Hansen gang promptly shifted from frivolous to abusive, demanding the surrender of the label, plus compensation to cover Hansen’s high-priced legal fees.
Corporate executives and lawyers know that they can drag out cases like this for years. The time line takes no skin off the nose of billion-dollar outfits with their own legal staffs, but a protracted fight can quickly bankrupt a small business. Thus, even though the corporate power is in the wrong, it can usually bully the innocent into submission.
Maybe not this time, though. “Corporate America can’t be allowed to do this,” a defiant Matt Nadeau declared.
So the feisty couple has mounted an online campaign to rally consumers and others to push back against the abuse of the Hansen “monster.” They won’t get the support of the CALA frauds, but maybe they’ll get yours. Check out their revolt at www.rockartbrewery.com.
— Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker and author of Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow. Click here for more information, or click here to contact him.
Comments
Noozhawk's comments are moderated, but by posting here you accept your responsibility to follow our rules as part of Noozhawk's shared online community. Please keep your comments civil and helpful. Don't attack other readers personally, and do not use vulgar, abusive or discriminatory language. Use the "Report Abuse" link if a comment violates these standards or our Terms of Use.
» on 10.22.09 @ 07:01 AM
I just clicked on the beer website, and found this:
VICTORY !
America You have saved THE VERMONSTER !!
Your voice has caused corporate america to rethink its position. We can continue to brew our beer as we have since 2006!!
Yea!!! huge victory for the people!!
POWER to the PEOPLE
POWER belongs to the people
————
Nice!
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
More Local News »
Jim Hightower: Poppies Symbolize Growing U.S. Failure in Afghanistan
The West's strategy to eradicate opium production, and thus the Taliban, hasn't worked
Jim Hightower: Mediocre Candidates and Corporate Cash Storm Iowa
GOP race shows how Supreme Court ruling has mucked up America's democratic process
Jim Hightower: More People Choosing to Give Gifts That Matter
An old-fashioned concept takes on newfound popularity
Jim Hightower: America’s Leaders Are Small, But Americans Are Not
Our 'leaders' have given up on greatness because there's no greatness in them
Jim Hightower: The Deep Shallowness of Professor Gingrich
'Dr. Newt' channels his inner Scrooge with his condescending implication that poverty equals bad morals
Weather: Fair 47.0º
Search Noozhawk »
