Frivolous Lawsuit?

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce wants a piece of the Yes Men movie’s profits.

The Chamber, which spent $4 million in the first half of 2009 lobbying against frivolous lawsuits, filed a federal lawsuit against the environmental pranksters Monday. The Yes Men got lots of attention a week ago when they pretended to be Chamber officials and announced the business organization had reversed its position against climate-change legislation.

The Chamber’s lawsuit accused Jacques Servin, Igor Vamos, and others of misappropriating the Chamber’s logo in a press release, creating a fraudulent website that was an exact copy of the Chamber’s actual site, and holding a fake press conference at the National Press Club.

Several news outlets, including CNBC and Reuters, were fooled into thinking the news announcement was real, and reported that the Chamber had endorsed a bill that would cap carbon emissions. The Chamber, in fact, opposes that bill, even though it agrees greenhouse-gas emissions need to be reduced.

The Chamber said it filed the lawsuit after the Yes Men refused to take down its fake Chamber website. It contends the environmentalists kept the site up in order to sell merchandise and tickets to their Yes Men Fix Their World movie.

“The Chamber is a strong proponent of free speech and encourages public debate on issues of the day,” said Steven Law, the Chamber’s chief legal officer and general counsel. “However, the law is clear that you can’t misappropriate others’ intellectual property for personal financial gain."

The Chamber’s lawsuit seeks an order forcing the Yes Men to take down its false Chamber website and refrain from distributing video or audio from its fake press conference. It also seeks some of the profits from the Yes Men movie as well as damages and attorneys’ fees.

The Electronic Freedom Foundation defended the fake Chamber site created by the Yes Men as an obvious parody.

“Parody is a well-established right, protected under copyright law and the First Amendment,” said EFF senior staff attorney Matt Zimmerman.

Law said the Chamber realizes its lawsuit will only generate more publicity for the Yes Men and their movie, but “these acts are nothing less than commercial identity theft masquerading as social activism and must be stopped.”