Goldman Sachs' Priority Disorder

Goldman Sachs is a 140-year old investment bank headquartered in lower Manhattan. Goldmansachs666.com is a web site established primarily to advance the anti-Goldman Sachs agenda.

Confused? Didn't think so. But that's not stopping Goldman Sachs from threatening to sue the man behind the anti-Goldman Sachs site for trademark infringement, as the Business Insider reported today.

Michael Morgan, the site's operator, has no intention to cease and desist, and he vows to fight the bank in court if necessary.

Why is this even a priority for Goldman's legal department? Here we are in the midst of the worst credit crisis in memory and the bank was forced to take bailout money from the government shortly after it was forced to change its structure from an investment bank to a bank holding company.

Really, Lloyd? Fighting Goldmansachs666.com is where you want to put your money right now?

As it turns out, Goldman has a history of being hypersensitive about its trademark and it's always had the legal muscle to fight. Three years ago, the bank made headlines when it filed a 500-page complaint with the National Arbitration Forum claiming that Goldmansex.com should be shuttered because it was confusing Goldman's clients.

It's worth noting that Goldman Sachs won that fight, and the Netherlands-based operator of Goldmansex.com was forced to close down his online directory of strip clubs. The arbitration panel concluded that he was "taking advantage of the confusing similarity between the goldmansex.com domain name and the Goldman Sachs mark."

Confusion no more.

This latest legal threat could get interesting, especially considering the amount of company Michael Morgan has on the web as the populist rage against the banking sector grows. Will TARP money be used to take down www.chase-sucks.com or www.bankofamericasucks.com?

The fact is that web "gripe sites," as they're known, have been around for almost as long as the trademarked company sites have been around pissing people off. (Take a look at www.ihatestarbucks.com or www.ticketmastersucks.com.) The legal precedent for such trademark cases is murky -- most end in settlement, with the outspoken customer eventually being forced to cry uncle to the deep-pocketed corporations and shut down.

There are mixed results from cases that have made it to court, with the First Amendment sometimes losing out to intellectual property laws and sometimes winning. The litigation group of Public Citizen has been defending gripe site owners for years with some success. And another advocacy site for gripers has been established to track legal kerfuffles.

How long Morgan will last in this legal battle with Goldman Sachs will likely depend on the generosity and effectiveness of his lawyers. But how long Goldman will last may well depend on the level of populist rage that fueled the very existence of Morgan's site in the first place.

by Megan Barnett