Palm Desert Woman Ordered To Stop Using Michael Jackson’s Name

A federal judge today ordered a Palm Desert woman to stop inferring that her charity was endorsed by the late Michael Jackson.

U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee granted a request from Jackson’s estate for a preliminary injunction enjoining the “Heal the World Foundation” from using Jackson’s name, image and likeness.

Melissa Johnson is accused by the Jackson estate of “website swooping” and picking up the name of a charity that the superstar had used in the past.

Johnson and the Palm Desert-based foundation have no listed phone number. But in a statement issued last year, she said her foundation was no adversary to Jackson.

“This is a terrible position we find ourselves in, but we cannot allow the estate attorneys to destroy our charity, nor will we just hand over the responsibility for actualizing our work, to people we cannot be certain have the character to develop and preserve it,” she said in a statement last September.

A statement issued by the Jackson estate, through a public relations firm, said the estate filed suit against two related entities operated by Johnson in the California desert communities of Indio and Palm Desert that have been using the “Heal the World” name.

While Jackson had a Heal the World Foundation, it had been inactive for many years prior to his death last June 25 at age 50.

According to the estate, the federal order found that the websites of Johnson’s entities “convey to consumers a false affiliation with Michael Jackson and have, in fact, misled consumers into believing that defendants are associated with Michael Jackson or Jackson’s foundations.”

Gee also ruled that Johnson’s entities violated “anti-cybersquatting” laws through attempts to register the “mjaid.com” and “mjquotes.com” domain names, finding that use of “mj” in the two domain names would likely confuse consumers into believing that the websites were associated with the singer.

“Michael had no ties to this Heal the World Foundation,” said Vincent Chieffo, the attorney representing the plaintiffs. “We believe the court made the correct decision to protect Michael’s fans from being misled into believing they are contributing to either an official Michael Jackson charity or one of his causes.”