Tort Bunnies: Pink

Tort Bunnies Two more bunnies!

Principal Case

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Tort Bunnies comic strip Transcript

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Notes

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February 06, 2012. In a way, I can understand why the Susan G. Komen Foundation didn't expect such a huge uproar over its decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding. There are lots of breast cancer groups out there that need funding. And if people prefer to give money to Planned Parenthood, they can (and did) do so directly, without going through the Komen Foundation.

After all, churches engage in charity all the time. There's some concern about co-mingling the charitable and the evangelical, but for the most part, it's not a big deal. If that bothers you, there are plenty of secular alternatives to religious charities.

But churches don't own poverty in the same way the Komen Foundation owns breast cancer. The search for a cure has been trademarked, branded, and monetized. It's ostensibly for a good cause. But by appointing itself guardian of the breast cancer narrative, the Komen Foundation has set itself up for backlash from those whom the Foundation has failed to speak for.

Food for legal thought: Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., Inc., 514 U.S. 159 (1995) (establishing that a color could be trademarked) and the breast cancer gene patents.

Shout-out to Lauren.

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