The National Association of Professional Women is suing Google and three other Web sites for publishing bloggers’ statements that say the organization is a scam. -DB
Courthouse News Service
December 31, 2009
By Barbara Leonard
MINEOLA, N.Y. – The National Association of Professional Women claims Google and three other Web sites defamed it by allowing bloggers to publish defamatory statements that call the organization a “scam.”
The NAPW says Google hosts at least four blogs that called the group a “scam,” and call NAPW president Matthew Brian Proman a “scam artist.”
The bloggers also accused the group of being “not professional” and say it “hurts other women,” according to the complaints in Nassau County Court.
NAPW says the East Cooper Entrepreneurial Women, a competing organization for female entrepreneurs, made similar statements on its Web site and blog.
It claims Mark Schultz dba Complaintsboard.com published statements calling the association a “fraud” that uses “deceptive recruitment.” And it claims that that site also used the association’s name for advertising.
Associated Content allegedly published an article that accuses NAPW of being a “no-benefit scam” that is “designed to target women.”
Because Associated Content uses pay-per-click advertising, it profits from Internet users who search for NAPW or its president and are linked to the defamatory article, according to the complaint.
The NAPW seeks exemplary damages, an injunction ordering the Web sites to remove the defamatory posts and advertising, and the identities of the people who published the defamatory posts.
It is represented by Michelle Gellman with Fischetti & Pesce of Garden City, N.Y.