06/25/91

CONTACT: Stanford University News Service (650) 723-2558

Stanford Wins Injunction Against Nutri/System

STANFORD -- Stanford University won a preliminary injunction against Nutri/System, Inc., in U.S. District Court in San Francisco Monday, continuing terms of a restraining order that bars Nutri/System from using the university's name in advertising and promotion of its diet products.

The injunction, granted by Judge D. Lowell Jensen, also orders Nutri/System to send copies of the restraining order to the company's general managers, regional managers, area managers and center managers.

Judge Jensen also ordered Nutri/System to appear Aug. 30 for a hearing to show cause why the company should not be found in contempt for violating the restraining order by continued unauthorized use of Stanford's name.

(After the June 7 restraining order, Nutri/System began a new advertising campaign throughout Canada using Stanford's name and seal.)

Stanford filed suit June 3 to block Nutri/System from continuing to use newspaper ads and radio and TV commercials that included a reproduction of Stanford's seal and featured a rating of weight loss plans that appeared in the magazine Healthline.

The magazine has no official connection to Stanford. Its editor-in-chief, Paul Insel, is a psychologist in private practice who holds a voluntary clinical faculty appointment in the psychiatry department of the School of Medicine.

The article on weight loss plans that appeared in Healthline was written by Associate Editor Dr. Walton D. Roth, a Stanford professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences. The article discussed 16 commercial diet plans and rated Nutri/System's plan number one.

Nutri/System agreed to pay Healthline $25,000 in conjunction with the Roth article, and retained editorial control over the article.

In its suit, Stanford noted, "The views expressed in this article are the personal opinion of Dr. Roth and are not based on or reflective of any comparative scientific study or other research conducted by Stanford. There was never any such study by Stanford at any time." 6/25/91 -rg- nutri/system6/25

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