LAW OFFICES
SUGHRUE, MION, ZINN, MACPEAK & SEAS, PLLC
2100 PENNSYLVANIA AVENUE. N.W.
WASHINGTON, DC 20037-3213
TELEPHONE (202) 293-7060
FACSIMILE (202) 293-7860
July 16, 1999
VIA COURIER
Joan Crosby Tibbetts
7716 Lafayette Forest Drive #2
Annandale, VA 22003
Re: SKIPPY.COM WEBSITE
Dear Mrs. Tibbetts:
Our client, Bestfoods, has become aware of the SKIPPY.COM website containing 17 pages of material devoted, in part, to your view of the history of Skippy peanut butter and, in part, to your view of the history of Percy Crosby.
You are entitled to express your view of the history of Percy Crosby. However, you are not entitled to present your factually inaccurate views of the development of the SKIPPY brand for peanut butter, particularly when those views violate the order of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia to which you and Skippy, Inc. are subject. Further, your maliciously false statements about CPC, Bestfoods, Bestfoods employees and the SKIPPY peanut butter brand subject you to further litigation.
While Bestfoods would hope to avoid further litigation with you and Skippy, Inc., it cannot stand idly by and permit your dissemination of false information and allegations of "piracy," and "theft" in direct contravention of the court order. Therefore, this letter will serve as notice to you of Bestfoods' demand that you immediately, and in any event no later than Wednesday, July 21, 1999 revise the Skippy, Inc. website by deleting all references intimating or directly stating that Bestfoods or its predecessors have no rights to the SKIPPY trademark for food products. To avoid further litigation, we also demand that you remove all of those statements libeling Bestfoods and its employees.
For your ease of determining those pages and comments that are of most concern to us I enclose "hard" copies of the Skippy, Inc. website pages highlighting the offending language. We are sending a copy of this letter to your website server provider and placing it on notice of the site's violation of the court's order and libelous statements.
Your failure to comply will result in our seeking, at our earliest opportunity, the court's sanctions of you and Skippy, Inc. for contempt of its order.
Very truly yours,
[W. M Webner signature]
W. Mack Webner
cc: Robin Young, Summit Web Design, Inc.
This is a reproduction, the orginal is available.