NJweedman, Marijuana Dispensary Owner in L.A., Can't Change His Name to NJweedman.com, Court Rules

By Dennis Romero Wed., Sep. 7 2011 at 12:26 PM

MySpace

SuperNJ.

Update: Mr. Weedman, in a comment below, says he will appeal the court's decision and continue his quest to change his name to NJweedman.com. First posted at 8:06 a.m.

You gotta love NJweedman, the L.A. pot shop owner who has much higher hopes than you do. He might have smoked a little too much OG Kush, but he soldiers on in his Quixotic attempts to bend the system to his will.

First he tried to sue the city of L.A., charging that it was infringing on his religious freedom (Rastafari) when it tried to shut down his dispensary. (Rastafarians, he said, have the religious freedom to smoke and share dope as "sacrament"). His latest move was to try to legally change his name to NJWeedman.com.

Denied. Big up for trying though:

California's second district court of appeal here in L.A. ultimately ruled last week that Mr. Weedman, a.k.a. Robert Edward Forchion, Jr., can't change his name to NJweedman.com because, the court argues, "the domain name, NJweedman.com, should not also serve as Forchion's personal name as long as he uses the Web site to encourage others to violate the law."

NJweedman.com, as a personal name, could not be fully understood without viewing the Web site of the same name. And NJweedman.com, the individual, would control the content of NJweedman.com, the site, which he could change without anyone's approval.

By "violate the law," by the way, the court means Forchion's pro marijuana stance, his tips on growing weed, and allegations he tried to influence jurors who would judge him in New Jersey. (You can read more than you ever wanted to know about NJ here).

But more than anything the California jurists believe that Forchion can't change his name to a ".com" because a .com is a distinct commercial entity on the web that can't always be controlled by or parallel a personality.

The court:

... Personal names and domain names should not overlap; they belong in distinct realms. Domain names were created for use on the Internet and should be limited to assisting a user in finding a desired Web site. By the same token, we should not treat a person as part of a domain.

It would have been much easier, Bob, to aim for N.J. Weedman. And we'd definitely know who you are. The guy who smokes too much and aims a little too, er, high.

[@dennisjromero/djromero@laweekly.com]

Tags:

appeals court, California second district, dispensary, Liberty Temple II, Los Angeles, marijuana, name change, NJweedman, pot shop

We Recommend

Patrick Duff

The right for one to call themselves whatever they want to be called should never be taken away. Prince changed his name to a symbol. When people would call his name they would have to bend like a pretzel in order communicate what the courts allowed him to do when he LEGALLY changed his name to a symbol.

The first amendment allows us the right to say, and believe, what we want. In this case the courts seem to be protecting their own lies and corporate interests. If what Njweedman.com says on his site is in fact, illegal, then how is it still in operation?

To speak your mind freely is what makes our country great. The fact that the message of his site is directed at ending the prohibition of a plant that this court system upholds, creates a conflict of interest, and therefor this courts decision is bias on it's face and should be considered mute.

I have known Ed for years. I testified for him in his name change case in NJ where they gave him more bogus reasons why he couldn't change his name. A part of his parole conditions were that he could not speak of the legalization of marijuana publicly. He was then jailed for commercials he made that were never even aired, and he did not speak of the legalization of marijuana in them.

The message is what scares the government and the court system. Their lies have compounded into a prison industrial complex that houses 30 percent of the worlds prisoners while our country is only 5 percent of the worlds population. We claim freedom, but our actions seems to be in direct conflict with the definition of the word.

Mfgersource

Hey Weedman. I just love your rollin and punchin. Your too cool buddy. Wished I lived in LA. I'd come say hello. See ya on Face book. Terry Winger Marijuanana Planet

NJWEEDMAN

http://www.google.com/search?q...

NJWEEDMAN

HEY 'littleman" -- DO A GOOGLE NEWS SEARCH, AND A GOOGLE BLOG SEARCH OF NJWEEDMAN. YOU WILL SEE THIS CASE/ MY SITE IS GETTING WORLD-WIDE MEDIA ATTENTION. WHICH WAS THE EXACT INTENTION OF MY PLAN. THIS TO ME IS VERY SUCCESSFUL. IN A FEW MONTHS EVEN MAGAZINE ( SOME HAVE TWO TURN AROUND TIMES) WILL RUN THIS STORY!!! HA HA DONT BE JEALOUS!!!!

SMOKE A BOWL AND SHUT THE F-UP!!!!

bigriggs

No thanks, never used drugs in my life.

NJWEEDMAN

WHO'S MONEY DO U THINK I AM WASTING "big fella" - I PAID FOR THE NAME CHANGE PETITION, - $225.00I PAID FOR THE REQUIRED AD ANNOUNCEMENT IN THE LA WEEKLY - $100.00I PAID THE FILING FEE FOR THE APPEAl - $650.00

MY LAWYER VOLUNTEERED TO DO THIS CASE PRO BONO ( FOR THE PUBLICITY HE WILL GET) AND GUESS WHAT I GOT OUT OF IT (EXACTLY WHAT I INTENDED BUTTHEAD) MASSIVE WORLD-WIDE PUBLICITY FOR MY WEBSITE!!! (WHICH I COULDNT AFFORD TO PAY OTHERWISE.

AT THIS MOMENT IVE GOTTEN OVER 40 HITS TO MY SITE SINCE YESTERDAY. (IVE SOLD 23 OF MY BOOKS TOO). I WILL BE FILING FOR AN APPEAL TO THE CA SUPREME COURT TOO SOON.

ITS CALLED A GREAT ADVERTISING GIMMICK "littleman"

bigriggs

Big deal. You are nothing more than an abuser of our court system. Maybe you should worry more about spelling, punctuation and sentence structure than a name change.