Here's a really interesting item from The Motley Fool by Brian Orelli, Ph.D. that will probably send Johnson and Johnson PR people running for big bottles of Tylenol and cartons of Band-Aids. In essence, it is about the lawsuit Johnson & Johnson is mounting against the American Red Cross over a trademark J&J owns (the red cross on a white background) but has let the American Red Cross use for about 100 years.

On the one hand, it seems to me J&J has a legitimate gripe. Writes Mr. Orelli:

The shared symbol wasn't a problem… until the Red Cross started licensing it out to companies that make disaster preparedness supplies.

On the other hand, the J&J suit reads like it was prepared by a financial vampire. Returning to Mr. Orelli's report:

…Johnson & Johnson's suit asks that the charity do more than just stop using the symbol on products it sell. It wants the Red Cross to destroy its inventory, hand over any profits to Johnson and Johnson, and pay punitive damages, including legal fees.

That doesn't seem appropriate, especially for a company that according to this Wikipedia entry is ……known for its corporate responsibility and consistently ranks at the top of Harris Interactive's National Corporate Reputation Survey. It's inappropriate, too, because because the American Red Cross, which has crossed a line with its use of the trademark, is nevertheless a charitable organization. Clara Barton was a founder for crying out loud.

Seems to me there's no question that J&J would prevail in a suit that simply required the American Red Cross to stop licensing the trademark to others. For a Fortune 500 company that is a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average this is, indeed a PR disaster in the making.

If you're the VP of PR at J&J what would you advise the company to do? Conversely, if you were the VP of PR at the American Red Cross, how would you mount a response to this suit? I have my ideas, but I'd rather hear from you.

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