J&J claims the company has been using the red cross since 1887, before the chartering of the Red Cross. J&J trademarked the design consisting of two intersecting red lines of equal length at least “as early as 1906,” according to the suit. J&J also claims that the Red Cross only has the right to use the trademark “in connection with nonprofit relief services.”

Johnson and Johnson might as well have sued the church. We have to agree with Jack Friday on this one. Obviously, lawyers were involved. Here’s how one editorial writer sums things up:

Even though the Red Cross has made first-aid and emergency kits available for more than a century, it only recently started selling them in big-box stores like Target and Wal-Mart. The decision to make them available to more people came after the terrorist attacks and natural disasters of the past few years.

The Red Cross made about $2 million from those sales, which it said it reinvested in its emergency relief programs. J&J CEO Bill Weldon’s salary alone was almost that much last year…

Trademark infringement lawsuits should be reserved for legitimate corporate competitors. If 3M started to put a red cross on its bandages, that would be something worthy of the legal team. Penalizing the Red Cross for wanting to cast a wider net to help more people in times of crisis is petty and reprehensible.

[Johnson & Johnson] will launch a promotion this month, in which churches, charities and nonprofit groups—such as the Girl Scouts—will be encouraged to sell J&J’s painkillers and cough medicine to their friends and neighbors. For every purchase of a J&J brand, including Tylenol, Sudafed, BenGay and Motrin, J&J will donate 8% of the sale to the community group…

Here’s how it works: The volunteer persuades a neighbor to buy their regular over-the-counter medicine from J&J as part of the fund-raiser. The consumer then goes to Ucareorg.com to punch in the code for their specific fundraising group. After that, any product they buy will benefit the community group.

Based on Big Pharma’s demonstrated predilections when it comes to hiring drug reps, we can only imagine where this latest initiative might lead.

(Note: At the moment, the Ucareorg.com site appears to be down.)