Suing Red Cross over red cross

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: At first blush, it’s hard to imagine a crasser claim or a nervier lawsuit than the one against the American Red Cross over its rights to the red cross. Here we have a money-making corporation taking on a storied, humanitarian organisation over its world-famous symbol.

We are talking about the group Civil War nurse Clara Barton founded, a group that sends a million volunteers a year into ravaged areas to ease suffering wreaked by flood or hurricane, earthquake or fire.

“I am shocked that it came to this, absolutely shocked,” American Red Cross Chief Executive Officer Mark Everson said last week in an interview.

That he sounded like Captain Renault in the movie Casablanca is worth noting. Who would do such a thing to this life-saving band of volunteers?

Oddly, it is Johnson & Johnson, which is usually careful to tend its own public image for caring for the hurt and vulnerable. These are the folks who Band-Aid your children’s cuts, soothe your wounds and powder your baby’s bottom.

So when Johnson & Johnson filed suit last week against the American Red Cross for becoming too free-wheeling with that old red cross, you can imagine the shivers that went through the company’s public relations team.

The fact that Johnson & Johnson sued anyway shows how completely its lawyers and executives believed they needed to sue. “We were very reluctant to take this step,” says John Crisan, counsel for Johnson & Johnson’s consumer group.

First, let’s be clear. The company isn’t asking the Red Cross to eliminate its logo or change its name.

Johnson & Johnson only wants the organisation to stop selling use of the emblem to companies that are slapping it on products like nail clippers, humidifiers and first-aid kits.

Both the Red Cross and Johnson & Johnson can legally use the Red Cross trademark. By mutual understanding and government action, the two set certain boundaries a century ago as to which one of them can use it for what, according to the company.