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Family Of Hiccup Girl Sues Remedy Maker

News Channel 8 file photo by PAUL LAMISON

Jennifer Mee demostrated the Hic-Cup on the "MJ Morning Show."

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TBO.com

Published: August 5, 2008

TAMPA - The parents of a girl afflicted for about two months with constant hiccups said they are suing a hiccup-remedy business for using images of their daughter without permission.

Rachel Robidoux, the mother of Jennifer Mee, 17, said her husband visited the Web site of Pennsylvania-based Hic-Cup Ltd. and saw pictures of his daughter.

"We never said it was OK," Robidoux said.

In 2007, Mee used a Hic-Cup — a patented metal cup designed to cure hiccups — along with acupuncture and hypnosis to treat her condition. Robidoux said one of those treatments or a combination could have helped her daughter.

The Pennsylvania business paid the family $2,500 in March 2007 to publicly credit the metal cup as the primary cure and to use those testimonials in the company's marketing and advertising, according to a statement released today by Hic-Cup Ltd. President Michele Ehlinger.

Robidoux said it was a one-time payment. "We said we would mention the cup on the 'Today' show and on MJ's show [radio's 'MJ Morning Show'] as one of the many things we had done."

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