Best Buy Apologies For Sending Cease & Desist Letter

This is amazing. Best Buy’s legal department has just sent us an apology letter for sending yesterday’s Cease & Desist letter regarding our blog coverage of the Improv Everywhere Best Buy Blue Polo Shirts parody.

The letter was the result of my call yesterday to Best Buy Corporate Public Relations Group explaining the situation regarding their demand letter. Best Buy did the right thing here, by quickly responding and issuing an apology for their legal threats against a blog that was simply reporting on another situation.

I think this will serve as a great example to other companies whose legal department sends out these demand letters without fully researching the situation or considering the possible negative PR that they can generate. My advice regarding situations like this is that their PR departments should become more involved and aware of what their legal departments are doing with regards to the community at large.

Ongoing coverage:

“Best Buy apologizes to blogger for nastygram” – Boing Boing

“Best Buy sends cease and desist letter to blogger” – Shake Well Before Use

City Room – New York Times

“Best Buy Apologizes For Cease & Desist Letter to Laughing Squid Blog” – Chilling Effects Clearinghouse

“Best Buy Goes After Polo Shirt Bloggers” Jason DeRusha

“Best Buy Apologizes For Sending Cease And Desist Letter To Blogger For Reporting Factual Information” – The Consumerist

“BEST BUY threatens blogger. For reporting on someone else’s parody.” – Instapundit

“Many Times PR Pros Have To ‘Run It By Our Legal Department'” – Market Presence (By Marketing Matters)

“Best Buy Takes On Bloggers Over Polo Shirts” – WCCO-TV Minneapolis, MN

“Don’t Even Blog About Trademark or Copyright Infringement, or You’ll Commit Infringement” – Legal Blog Watch

“Laughing Squid squirts ink at Best Buy” – Channel Register

“Episode 623” – Buzz Out Loud, CNET (starts around 7:20)

“The Other Story on Twitter Tuesday: Best Buy and Laughing Squid” – Conversation Agent

“Best Buy Tells Comedy Troupe to Cease the Satire” – Dealerscope

“Innovation: Best Buy Apologizes for Cease and Desist to Laughing Squid” – Fast Company Expert Blogs

“Best Buy v. Laughing Squid” – Citizen Media Law Project

UPDATE 1: Jason Van Steenwyk has a really great write-up on the whole situation over on Market Presence (By Marketing Matters).

UPDATE 2: Local TV station WCCO in Minneapolis, MN, where Best Buy’s headquarters are located, did a segment on the story: “Best Buy Takes On Bloggers Over Polo Shirts”

UPDATE 3: Here’s what Laughing Squid’s traffic stats looked like during this time.