Yahoo! takes pot shot at marijuana look-a-like

Spliff merchants behind the pro-cannabis Web site Yahooka! have until today to provide written assurances that they will close down their site and hand over their domain names to Net portal Yahoo!. Washington DC legal firm Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Grrett & Dunner, sent the letter last week informing the potheads that their site infringed the Yahoo! trademark. It stated that Yahooka! was likely to cause the public to "mistakenly believe that the site is connected with, sponsored by, or approved in some way by Yahoo!". Unless written assurances were received today, the law firm said it would pursue the case which could carry "serious consequences, including the possibility of injunction relief and substantial monetary damages," the letter said. Yahooka! has launched a hazy defence and has even taken steps to distance itself from the portal by posting a disclaimer. "We feel that the likelihood of confusion, mistake, or deception is non-existent, man," said one Yahooka! smokesperson. "We feel that Yahoo! is unfairly targeting us and implying that our content would somehow tarnish Yahoo!'s "good" name. "The content on our site is neither shoddy, unwholesome or unsavoury but a site which stands for freedom of speech," he said. Right on, bro. The lawyer in charge of the case was unavailable for comment when The Register telephoned earlier today so it's still unclear whether Yahooka! has yielded to Yahoo!'s demands. But if Yahoo! is so keen to protect its status, perhaps someone can explain why Yahooka! is still listed under the portal's search engine? Surely, this would have been one of Yahoo!'s first actions to weed them out. ®