Well, the American Academy of Family Physicians has finally had enough. They are ready to fight. Who do they want to fight, you ask? No, not Big Pharma. No, not the insurers. No, not big government. The AAFP is ready to fight me for mocking them. They spent good money on a lawyer to have me pull part of my blog down due to their logo being used. The letter they sent me is above but here are the salient points:

By virtue of this use, the Mark has acquired substantial goodwill and recognition.

We understand that the Blog Post is a parody of AAFP’s own webpage regarding its upcoming 2018 Family Physician Health and Well-Being Conference, and we recognize your right to create and display such a parody. However, the Mark itself is not being parodied, but used in its entirety. This unauthorized use dilutes AAFP’s trademark rights, infringes on AAFP’s Mark, and may create confusion and a misconception among the public that a relationship exists between AAFP and your blog (especially in view of your inclusion in the Blog Post of a weblink to AAFP’s Physician Health First initiative).

I have ten days to take that part of the image down so feel free to read that blog entry before I do. I have used their logo before in mocking them so I am not sure what got them irked about this one. Could it be that this parody pissed the wrong people off at the AAFP? Could it be that they aren’t so happy being called out on their bullsh%t? Here was my response to the lawyer:

Really? My lawyer says otherwise but I will take the AAFP image down. I will share your letter with the world, however, via social media. That is if you don’t mind? Tell whoever is afraid of me at the AAFP that I said hello. Be Well, Douglas Farrago MD DPC Doc, Author, Inventor, Speaker, and overall nice guy

Hope this makes your day, everyone. Be careful not to make fun of the wrong people or they may just take legal action against you. That is unless you are Big Pharma, an insurer or the government.

P.S. The truth is I got lazy. I initially used their exact image from that conference but decided to be nice and make my own while putting the AAFP logo below it. Next time I will just go the extra mile and use their dedicated images to show who I am mocking.