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Palin's favorite store forced to change its name

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-02-14 11:42

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's favorite consignment shop has been forced to change its name.

Dee Beeson of Broadway Signs changes the name of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's favorite consignment store, Out of the Closet in Anchorage, Alaska, Friday February 13, 2009. Ellen Arvold owner of the store said she was served a cease-and-desist order by an Los Angeles-based chain of thrift stores with the same name after Palin mentioned the Alaska store in an interview. [Agencies]

That's because Palin brought the trendy, upscale Anchorage boutique unintended legal problems during last year's US presidential campaign.

Out of the Closet owner Ellen Arvold said she was served a cease & desist letter by a Los Angeles-based chain of thrift stores with the same name after Palin mentioned her store in an interview. It turns out the LA stores, which are benefits for an AIDS organization, own the trademark to the name Out of the Closet.

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

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 said the clothes were neither her idea, nor her property, in several interviews.

She told Fox News last October: "If people knew how Todd and I and our kids shop so frugally. My favorite shop is a consignment shop in Anchorage, Alaska, called Out of the Closet." .

If it weren't for Palin, the LA organization says it likely would have never learned of the Anchorage store with the same name.