June 25, 2001
Church & Dwight Co., Inc.
VIA FEDERAL EXPRESS
Virginia Eubanks
Dear Ms. Eubanks:
We are the marketers of BRILLO® cleaning products and are the owners of a number of federal trademark registrations protecting BRILLO® logo as well as the various elements thereof. It is hardly necessary for us to point out the fame and extensive use of our trademarks.
It has come to our attention that your web-site, www.virago-net.com, uses our well-known trademark logo without authorization. [They are refering to this.]
Your unauthorized use of our trademark logo on your web-site gives an impression that your web-site may somehow be associated with Church & Dwight's BRILLO® cleaning products. Your wrongful misuse of our trademark logo is capable, without question, of causing confusion, mistake and deception to the purchasing public, as well as dilution of our famous trademarks, and will irreparably damage out company.
You web-site's advertisement of "Brillo...Cleaning Up the Web" is a clear attempt to capitalize on the popularity of our famous trademark logo for commercial gain. It is our opinion that your use represents a clear encroachment upon our rights under the Federal Trademark Act, the common law, and unfair competition [me, competing unfairly with a billion-dollar company...that one just kills me] as it may lead the public to believe that our company has endorsed, sponsored, or has in some way associated its trademarks with your endeavor.
For the foregoing reasons, we hereby demand that you:
If we do not receive immediate assurance of your compliance with the above demands, we will have no choice but to take appropriate legal action to protect our rights.
Very truly yours,
David W. Worrell
Associate General Counsel
July 4, 2001
David W. Worrell
Church & Dwight Co., Inc.
Dear Sir:
I am writing in response to your letter of June 25, 2001. My noncommercial use of the word brillo and modified BRILLO® logo are consistent with fair use and pose no threat to your corporate interests, for the following reasons:
First, you are mistaken in your claim that my magazine’s tagline "Brillo...Cleaning Up the Web" is an attempt to "capitalize on the popularity of [your] famous trademark logo for commercial gain." Brillo Magazine was never a commercial venture and never will be.
Second, no reasonable person, looking for information on Church & Dwight Co., Inc.’s cleaning supplies, could possibly be confused or mislead by a small, independent feminist publication.
Third, when the magazine began in 1996, it was quite popular and garnered praise and attention from Wired, USA Today, Ms., The Washington Post, Out, and other national publications. If your concern is trademark dilution, I’m wondering why you are contacting me now, when the magazine has been inactive for nearly five years.
Finally, my use of the significantly modified BRILLO® trademark logo (colors changed, circles removed, font altered) falls within the domain of fair use. It is a parody of the culture of feminine hygiene and the subordination of women into domestic roles sustained by corporations like Church & Dwight Co., Inc. in one hundred and fifty years of advertising. The use of the word brillo (in Spanish, "brightness") in our title is meant as a comment on the contradictory position women face in western culture as the guardians of social, familial, and personal hygiene, while simultaneously inhabiting suspiciously leaky, messy, and frightening female bodies.
I am willing to post a non-endorsement notice on my web-based materials. However, my noncommercial use of the word brillo and the modified BRILLO® logo are fully consistent with fair use and pose no threat to the market or trademark potency of Church & Dwight Co., Inc. Therefore, I will not remove or further modify the graphic.
Yours most sincerely,
Virginia Eubanks
Editor, Brillo Magazine
[Or, take a look at the originals...here's Church & Dwight's letter (page 1, page 2), and my response.]
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