From the Detroit Free Press a story of how one person prevailed against a company, and helped us define domain names as more than identifiers for business. They can also be speech. While this concept had been pretty much universal, it had been eroded over the past decade or so. Fortunately, the US 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has attempted to clarify things.
Canton woman wins Web free speech case
She used a nursery's name for site warning potential customers
March 6, 2004
BY JEFF BENNETT
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
Anyone who has thought about developing a Web site to gripe about a company owes Michelle Grosse some thanks.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled Friday that the Canton woman did not violate the law when she used the name of Lucas Nursery and Landscaping Inc. for a Web site she created to complain about the Canton nursery.
Paul Levy, staff attorney with the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, said the ruling bolsters the fight by consumer groups to stop corporations from snuffing out free speech on the Internet.
"This is a very important case," said Levy. "This is a mainstream circuit court that said using the Internet and the name of the company to criticize a company is perfectly legitimate."
Grosse, who has spent $20,000 defending herself and who faced paying $65,000 if she lost the case, said Friday she was going out to dinner with her father to celebrate.
"I would probably do it again," said Grosse. "I knew I was right, I didn't like getting stepped on by them and I wanted to warn people, and I did." Grosse took down the site, www.lucasnursery.com, two years ago and said she doesn't plan on putting it back up.
Critics said the court decision hurts businesses trying to protect their trademarks and names. Companies such as Panasonic and Hertz have had to pay huge sums to people who snap up Web addresses with company names and hold them hostage.
Kevin Bennett, a Plymouth attorney who represented Lucas Nursery, said he was disappointed.
"Instead of pursuing proper legal remedies that are available to everyone who actually has gotten the short end of the stick, Michelle Grosse took it upon herself to steal the Lucas name and use it in an attempt to tarnish the good will that the Lucas family name has built up over 27 years in the landscape business," Bennett said. Grosse's lawn saga began in March 2000 when, as a new home owner, she hired Lucas Nursery to fix a dip in her backyard, lay some sod and build a retaining wall.
What Grosse claims she got for her $8,100 was shoddy work that left her backyard a mess, the runaround from Lucas and a $5,400 bill from another company she had to hire to fix the problems.
In August 2000, three months after trying to get Lucas Nursery to acknowledge its mistakes, Grosse decided to vent her anger on the Internet.
She bought the Web address for $35 and posted a few pictures of her yard and a warning to stay away from Lucas.
The nursery sued, claiming that Grosse's use of its name made her a cybersquatter.
In April, U.S. District Court in Detroit dismissed the suit, saying that Grosse did not violate the law because she was not acting in bad faith or trying to generate a profit from the Web site.
The nursery appealed, but the appeals courtreaffirmed that Grosse did not act in bad faith; she was not attempting to deceive consumers, she wasn't selling any products and she never offered to sell the site to Lucas Nursery.
"I think the case has broader implications than Michelle Grosse," said Jeff Wilson, attorney with Southfield-based Raymond & Prokop, who defended Grosse. "This paves the way for other consumer advocates to use the Internet to publicize their dispute without fear of retaliation from the business."
However, Levy advises site creators to explain on the top of the page that the site is not sanctioned by the particular company. He also advises adding a link to the company's own Web page and to stay away from selling any products through the site.
Although she owns the site name until 2005, Grosse said she is done. "I am so broke right now defending myself. . . . I defended freedom of speech but I don't want to open that can of worms again."
Contact JEFF BENNETT at 313-222-8769 or jbennett@freepress.com