Diet Plan Ordered to Stop Using Stanford’s Name in Ads : Health: Federal judge tells Nutri-System to pull commercials that claim the university ranked it better than other weight-loss programs.

A federal judge has ordered a national diet plan to halt an advertising campaign boasting that it outranked other weight-loss programs in a Stanford University research project.

U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen issued a temporary restraining order Friday ordering Nutri-System to stop all advertising using Stanford’s name and seal.

The university’s lawyer said the ads “cheapened and soiled” the Stanford name.

Stanford sued Nutri-System Inc. on Monday, claiming its name and seal were used without permission. Two other diet companies--Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig--filed lawsuits of their own, saying the ads disparaged their names, too.

Nutri-System filed a defamation suit against Stanford two days later, claiming it had received written approval for the ads.

“They’re using our name, our mark and our reputation. They are literally trading on it, and they have no right to do that,” Stanford attorney David Heilbron told the judge.

Jenny Craig Inc. joined Stanford in asking for the restraining order.

A Nutri-System representative present when the decision was issued declined comment.

Last week, Nutri-System began running television and newspaper ads that said its weight-loss program received the highest ranking from Healthline, a magazine edited by psychologist Paul Insel, a Stanford faculty member. The article was written by Walton Roth, a Stanford psychiatry professor.

The ads include the Stanford seal and say Healthline’s approval was “in collaboration with the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention, Stanford University School of Medicine.”

Heilbron said the statement was flatly untrue.

One ad reads: “Stanford Faculty Members Rate Nutri-System 1.” In small print, the same ad says the study does not necessarily reflect the university’s view. The disclaimer also appears briefly in the TV ads.

On Thursday, Nutri-System said it would drop the Stanford seal from its ads, but would continue citing Healthline, the two professors and their association to the medical school.