Palin's Favorite Store Forced To Change Its Name From Out Of The Closet To Second Run

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's favorite consignment shop has been forced to change its name after she brought the trendy, upscale Anchorage boutique unintended legal problems during last year's presidential campaign.

Out of the Closet owner Ellen Arvold said she was served a cease-and-desist letter by a Los Angeles-based chain of thrift stores with the same name _ same trademarked name, it turned out _ after Palin mentioned her store in an interview.

Rather than fight, Arvold agreed to change the name to Second Run. The change is effective Saturday, the store's fifth anniversary.

"We don't have the resources to fight," Arvold said. "We just decided to change the name. We really had no choice legally."

Palin came under heat as John McCain's running mate when it was disclosed the Republican National Committee spent $150,000 to outfit the Alaska governor and her family during the presidential campaign.

Palin told reporters at the time the clothes were neither her idea, nor her property. In an interview with Fox News in October, she said she was a frugal shopper and her favorite shop was "a consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska, called Out of the Closet."

Ged Kenslea, spokesman for AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the owner and operator of the Out of the Closet thrift store chain, said if it weren't for Palin, the duplicative name "wouldn't have landed on the radar."

"We've invested a lot of time, energy and money or resources branding Out of the Closet, tied specifically to our HIV/AIDS mission to provide care and advocacy regardless of a patient's ability to pay," Kenslea said. "She was very gracious and agreed to change the name of her store."

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Arvold said Palin was last in the store a few days before McCain made her his surprise pick for vice president in late August, and sent a note Arvold a photograph from the campaign trail, showing her wearing a pink Dolce & Gabbana jacket she bought at the store.

Included was a note that "thanked us for the clothes, and apologized for all the flak we took, so that was really thoughtful of her," Arvold said.

As for Palin's high priced wardrobe, the Republican National Committee has said it would be donated to charity. Neither Palin nor RNC officials immediately responded to interview requests on Friday.

If the campaign duds haven't been distributed yet, Kenslea said the charity would be happy to take them.

___

On the Net:

http://www.outoftheclosetalaska.com/

http://www.outofthecloset.org/

Comments

[cdsister]

And her I was thinking that it was at least one good thing about Mrs. Palin and that was her shopping at a store that provides funds for the care and treatment of persons with HIV/AID's. Wrong again.

[Churchi11]

one wonders if sarah p. is the one who re-named the store, presumably foreshadowing her "second run" at the casa blanca. hopefully, the store has more success in selling used clothes than the gov. does in her quest for national office.

[grumpygranny66]

Sarah Palin should pay for the name change of the store. that woman is a curse.

[silentknight65]

God, how I loathe this woman. Too bad Lee Harvey Oswald didn't have a son in Alaska!

[MissLola]

LOL at religious conservative shopping anywhere named "out of the closet".

[DinSea]

Why didn't they just rename it "Out of the Closet-Alaska" or something?

[susou]

Or "I can see your closet from my house" ???

[MizK]

LOL, too funny! Good one!

[landoffools]

Ma Palin - the gift that keeps on giving !

[salh]

Palin is the gift that keeps coming to the American people. I'll take 10 of Palin's character over Obama's character. I want to see her on the national stage, perhaps as a Congresswoman or Senator.

[silentknight65]

YOU ARE MENTALLY ILL!!!

[grumpygranny66]

In your dream. For Sarah Palin to hold any of those positions, she must be able to speak in public also, have some intelligence.

[stimpy]

Well, I was pretty impressed by Palin's ability to turn nothing into something, which is a remarkably rare trait in the GOP, whose slogan really should be "Demolishing Everything We Touch!". But now that the dream ticket has emerged from the woodwork, she is just going to have to stay up north.

Joe the Plumber & Nadya Suleman in '12!

[Martyn Collins]

I was wondering how this would turn out. The local owner could have fought to keep the name, with some authority, but she is correct, it would not be worth it from a cost benefit basis. Second Run, sounds good. Now the question is will she go ahead and trademark it?

[OkieIntellectual]

Once again proving that Sarah Palin is bad for Alaska, bad for Alaskans.

[BartLA]

She wreaks destruction on whatever she touches.

[AZ4thatone]

My thoughts exactly.

[scully05]

Thank Goodness she is NOT the gov. of Akansas, That's too close!

[gevan]

"A" states all the same.

[MizK]

Hush!! Please--we've already had HUCKLEBEE...please!!!

[applehead]

the title 'blackwater' has recently become available. if they named the store 'blackwater' the 'conservatives' would love it. they'd fly from all over the country to show their support, with the same mad passion skinheads pray toward berlin three times a day. hannity and limbaugh would do free commercials for it just so they can chuckle at the word blackwater.. for surely they love blackwater. I bet they’ve never said a negative thing about blackwater. i bet they say they’re very patriotic. i bet they would fly to alaska and do a live program from the rooftop of blackwater. they would say, “hey, we can see russia from here. the liberals who hate america mocked sarah for saying she could see russia from here --- yet, there it is, right before our very eyes.."

[frantaylor]

Old copyrights do not revert to the public domain when they are not used. GM still owns the copyrights on the names "Nova", "Cutlass", etc, even though those cars are no longer made.

[applehead]

fascinating. good to know. appreciate it. God bless.

[gevan]

How about "Backwater"? Gets rid of that nasty liberal "L".

[HIbbs4Prez]

I wonder how many people in this thread who are stressing the importance of trademarks and following the law are also folks who don't give a hoot about the concept of intellectual property when they illegally download music, movies and TV shows and then "share" them with "friends."

[applehead]

or how about when a celebrity can't use their own name on their own website without having to pay someone because someone copyrighted their name in anticipation of the celebrity's websight. apples and oranges, sure, but, out of curiosity, how do we like them apples? i think it's a gyp.

[frantaylor]

There is a BIG difference. It all comes down to "damages". If you steal someone's name, you are inflicting considerable damage and the owner has rights to considerable damages. When you download music, it is not clear what the damage is. There is NO precedent for damages in these cases. The claims currently made by the record companies for damages have recently been thrown out.

[HIbbs4Prez]

Its not clear what the damage is when you download music illegally? Are you serious? The top selling albums of the past year sold two to three million copies when 10 to 15 years ago they would have likely sold five times that. Sales of music have dropped dramatically this decade and, no, its just not because of the quality. Anyone being intellectually honest understands that the ability to get music for free with the same audio quality of a CD has taken a huge bite out of the profits of the music industry. Record companies have thrown out lawsuits recently in part because how almost pointless it is to go after individual downloaders and because of the bad press they have gotten because of it. But make no mistake the record companies still believe 100% that illegal downloads and file sharing have hurt their sales more than anything else. Oh, and most artists/musicians feel the same way.

You can rationalize downloading if you want but don’t be disingenuous when defending why one version of intellectual property theft is okay and another isn’t. That’s being hypocritical. How is one person or one company taking the name of an established business or celebrity much more damaging than possibly millions of users getting a song that they can play at any time free of charge? Where’s the proof that they are losing money because someone (say a third rate retail store/chain in Alaska) has the same name for their business?

[pgsteward]

You people should get a life. You have this weird fixation on Sarah Palin. The election was over in November. Get over it. She cannot possibly do anything in any way to the Democratic Party. She is the Governor of Arkansas. That's it. Let's leave it at that. Imagine you are all still finding any story however small to slander and libel the woman. What a bunch of losers.

[CrazyLiberal]

Hmmm...She's from Alaska, not from Arkansas. But I'll bet you could see Alaska from Arkansas.

[DeeDeeDaGumby]

someone with incorrect facts calling us losers...Isn't that rich.......

[droppedasachild]

Conservative FAIL. LOL

[domingueza]

The Governor from Arkansas??
I'm sorry, but the last time I checked, she was Governor of ALASKA, she can see Russia from her backyard, remember?

Why don't you study a little more and criticize less? It would be sooo good for your motionless braincells.

[Seaglass]

I just spit tea all over the monitor when I got to "She is the Governor of Arkansas."

Priceless.

But I bet you can see Russia from there, right?!

[rj0q1b]

The headline is all wrong that is not Palin's favorite store she is a diva, elitist a hockey mom with a 150,000.00 warobe. A pitbull with Prada lipstick and a800.00 Louis Vutton and a 22 thousand dollar watch none of that came from out the closet it came from high end fashion store lest you forgot

[BannedInBoston]

Arf!

[BartLA]

Out of the RNC Closet.

[rj0q1b]

I thought Palin's favorite store was Saks Neiman Marcus Barney's Victoria Secret and wherever she got those silk boxers for Todd, also reconizing with that being said it has to be all about wherever the RNC has credit. ha, ha, ha

[notconfindtweenhatnboots]

Victoria Secret? Doubt it. Bet it's La Perla or Commando for the Shrilla....

[weatherwaxx]

That's only when someone else is footing the bill.