Jennifer Laycock has sent word that she has been issued an apology.

An Update on the “Pigsteria” and the Mother’s Milk Bank Fundraiser

I have received an apology from Steve Murphy, the CEO of the National Pork Board and we are currently working toward a resolution.

I asked Jen how’s she’s doing with all this and she reports to be doing “great” and is totally focused on what’s really important.

Her children.

If I was a farmer making a living off my hogs, and I learned that the organization that represents my way of supporting myself and family finds that a breastfeeding t-shirt slogan is a threat, you can bet your sweet pork barrel politics that I’d resign my membership faster than it takes to microwave bacon.

Represent my interests and protect my integrity. That’s what my membership fees are for.

As a farmer who is used to getting her hands dirty and raising healthy stock to feed people, I would have no problem at all with a humorous t-shirt that raises money for a non-profit breast milk bank for hungry babies with a slogan like “The other white milk.”

I’ve never met a farmer yet who was afraid of breasts, or being associated with them. Most of the farm folk I know strongly support natural food sources and healthy lifestyles.

All are welcome and invited to donate to HMBANA.org.

For further information: A Call for Help - Mother’s Milk Bank of Ohio, by Jennifer Laycock, who is being sued by the National Pork Association.

One of the great things about the HMBANA milk banks is the fact that they are non-profit. They charge ONLY enough money to cover the processing and storage costs for the milk. While insurance often covers the cost of the milk, some insurance companies refuse to pay. In other situations, the parents of the baby simply don’t have insurance. Since HMBANA milk banks are committed to providing that milk for any baby that medically needs it, that means that they sometimes send out milk that they will never be reimbursed for. In fact, the average milk bank never receives payment for 15-20% of the milk that they ship. Here in Columbus, that percentage if even higher. Add in the fact that the milk bank is barely two years old (and thus hasn’t yet recouped enough costs to pay for all their equipment) and you’ve got a milk bank that’s really struggling to the point that every single dollar of donations REALLY counts.

Reference: National Pork Board Says: Breastfeeding Is A Viable Trademark Threat

Reference legal perspective: Copyright, Trademarks and Pork Milk?

There is a lot of difference between a copyright and a trademark. One difference is, you can’t have a copyright on a short sentence or phrase (like “The Other White Meat”) because it’s not long enough to have a significant amount of creativity to warrant it. It doesn’t matter if they had a team of professional marketers and spent a 100 million, or someone came up with it for free while half asleep after eating too many donuts during a meeting. It’s not long enough to be creative enough to fall under copyright law.

There is one other issue with Trademark law that is relatively new to the US (1995), and is the concept of dilution. Up until then, you’d have to show that there was a possibility of consumer confusion in order for trademark law to kick in.

She sold one t-shirt, for $8.

And now faces a lawsuit.

Just received word that KCCI TV is going to run Jennifer Laycock’s story on local TV, after 5pm, Iowa USA time. Cynthia A Fodor, anchor and reporter is on the story.

This should be interesting.

As an aside, we think it’s funny how we both wrote about Digg traffic and conversions, and both of our sites are presently getting bombarded with traffic because of her situation.

Wild karma.

In case you were bored and looking for something to do this weekend, here are some excellent blog posts that came out this week on accessibility. They are “how-to” oriented, not too technical and perfect learning experiences.

The first are written by Joe Dolson.

Designing With Accessibility In Mind. This one has code examples. (Okay, this one wasn’t written this week, but it’s too good to ignore.)

Creating Accessible Navigation.

The principle behind accessible navigation is about providing access to content - not necessarily about creating a menu which can be used by people with disabilities. It’s critical to provide access to your content - but not to make a visually impaired visitor use the same method to get there as a sighted user.

The next one is by Mads Kristensen.

Making Accessible Menus In HTML. This one also contains snippets of code.

Lastly, I leave you with an inspirational piece by Matt Bailey, called Accessibility Testing Labs

I had the privilege of attending accessibility testing for an enterprise-level software application and found some interesting issues that are not typical to many projects. Actual user testing is strange like that – dealing with humans brings out all of the random factors.

This is so wrong it screams to be talked about. Jennifer Laycock has been threatened with a lawsuit for using the phrase, “the other white milk” on a t-shirt. She has a variety of T’s that she sells at CafePress, promoting breastfeeding and issues surrounding it, like the right to breastfeed babies in public.

Who is feeling threatened by a mother who has helped raise awareness for breastfeeding and whose blog and t-shirts help raise revenue for a milk bank for infants?

The USA pork industry.

As per her blog entry, Overzealous Big Pork Stomps on Breastfeeding Blogger, Jen quotes parts of the letter she received from The National Pork Board.

“In addition, your use of this slogan also tarnishes the good reputation of the National Pork Board’s mark in light of your apparent attempt to promote the use of breast milk beyond merely for infant consumption, such as with the following slogans on your website in close proximity to the slogan “The Other White Milk.” “Dairy Diva,” “Nursing, Nature’s Own Breast Enhancement,” “Eat at Mom’s, fast-fresh-from the breast,” and “My Milk is the Breast.”

Since when is it okay for a law firm, representing Mr. Big Shot, to come down on a work from home mother with two small children who volunteers to raise awareness and funds for a segment in society that goes largely ignored?

They obviously have no clue that millions of infants are malnourished. Many don’t have mothers who are healthy enough to nurse them and can’t afford to buy formula. There are a zillion reasons why women breastfeed, nor not.

The other night, on USA TV, Diane Sawyer ran a special on children and poverty, featuring a city in New Jersey. One man was left alone to care his family. The wife “ran out” on him, leaving a bunch of kids, two of them still being bottlefed. He had no money for food for these babies.

No formula. No breastmilk bank like what Jennifer supports. No one dropping off formula for these babies. What did he do? He and his oldest son got dairy creamer packets from a resturant, tore them open and filled the bottles with the creamer. These babies drank coffee creamer.

This is what people do in America to survive.

I breastfed two kids because I could and wanted to. Many adoptive parents want to breastfeed their babies rather than give them formula. They turn to milk banks if one is nearby. Nursing moms in many countries and in many traditions nurse other mother’s children. It’s accepted practice and growing here in the USA because breast milk has antibodies and nutrients not found in formula. Some hospitals have mom’s come in to nurse newborns who are not their own children.

Babies born to addicted mothers deserve the chance to benefit from breast millk banks.

And let’s not forget that not all babies accept bottles. Many refuse plastic nipples, no matter how many ways they’re made. My son was one of them. He refused bottles, no matter what it was and what was inside it.

Now what I don’t get is how something like a meat trademark and supposed confusion between their “the other white meat” slogan and her “the other white milk” is something worth chasing a young mother after.

There was never a polite letter. Never a discussion. She was issued the threat from the start, with a letter presenting a long list of demands and insinuations that her t-shirts are porn related (read her post for more on this.)

For a t-shirt that has so far earned a total of $8 in revenue.

This is very wrong.

As a big boob momma who had no problem popping out a jug for a hungry kid in public and suffered the stares from people who think breasts are only for men’s magazines and Victoria Secret models, this just smacks of corporate bullying.

And for what?

Exactly how much damage was a t-shirt that earned $8, from a lactivist website that targets mostly women with babies who have no teeth to chew meat with yet, going to do to the pork industry?

How much money would a simple, polite, professional, respectful phone call to Jen have cost?

You’re welcome to join in or view the discussion at Cre8asiteforums - Jennifer Laycock Threatened With Lawsuit