By Susan Decker of Bloomberg News, as published in the St. Louis Countian and the St. Charles County Business Record .

Johnson & Johnson, the world's biggest health-products company, has sued the American Red Cross and four of its licensing partners, claiming illegal use of a red cross emblem on first-aid kits and other emergency products.

The Red Cross called the lawsuit "obscene" in a statement, saying Johnson & Johnson demands that it stop using the emblem, destroy existing products with the symbol and give the company all proceeds from the sale of red-cross kits.

Johnson & Johnson said in a statement that it has used a red cross emblem on first-aid products such as kits, health-care gloves and gauze pads since 1887. The company and the charity co-existed peacefully until the Red Cross decided to use the emblem on commercial products, New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson said in the statement.

"For the past several months, Johnson & Johnson has attempted to resolve this issue through cooperation and discussion with the American Red Cross and recently offered mediation to no avail," Johnson & Johnson spokesman Jeff Leebaw said in the statement. "The company was left with no choice but to seek protection of our trademark rights through the courts."

Johnson & Johnson said Red Cross President Clara Barton signed an agreement in 1895 that acknowledged the company's exclusive right to use a red cross on "chemical, surgical, pharmaceutical goods of every description." The American Red Cross was founded in 1881.

Not Competing

"We had our lawyers look at it; we think we're operating in a manner consistent with our rights and our mission," Mark W. Everson, president of the American Red Cross, said in an interview. "There's no desire to compete with a commercial business. That's not what we do."

The Red Cross said it wants to use the cross to promote emergency preparedness and that all money is "reinvested in its humanitarian programs and services."

"The Red Cross products that Johnson & Johnson wants to take away from consumers and have destroyed are those that help Americans get prepared for life's emergencies," Everson said in a statement.

Johnson & Johnson's Red Cross complaint, filed this week in federal court in New York, states the American Red Cross has no right to use the emblem for commercial purposes. Johnson & Johnson claims it holds a trademark for that purpose. The charity owns the trademark for use in other areas, including charitable fundraising, blood banks and education.