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Coalition To Advance The Protection Of Sports Logos Cyber Cop Hall Of Shame Member Added December 5, 2010 |
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Last Updated - August 30, 2017
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The Coalition To Advance The Protection Of Sports Logos (CAPS) has known about this web site for years. We have received emails from
people working for them or who know people working for them. If we were saying anything illegal or improper, do you not think that CAPS
would have taken legal action to shut us up? CAPS would have sued long ago to stop us from telling you not to give in to their extortion demands.
We do not describe an organization as "extortionist" unless their actions and relevant information indicates that what they are doing are
extortion.
WARNING - Communicate with CAPS only through email or by letter. Do not engage in any telephone communications with them. Do not send CAPS any money and do not give CAPS any information about you or your sales. According to Idaho law the preparation of instruments and contracts by which legal rights are secured /b> must be done by a lawyer licensed to practice law in Idaho. Any cease and desist letter prepared by a CAPS non-lawyer, or any settlement agreement prepared by a CAPS non-lawyer, if therefore fraudulent, invalid and a violation of Idaho law. And arguably, any information obtained through the use of these fraudulent documents is inadmissible as tainted because it was obtained through the use of fraudulent documents. Documents that are really nothing more than form letters. It is very likely CAPS' employees are paid by the scalp, that is, they find "abusers" and then they get a bonus for every one that pays the "penalty" for getting caught. CAPS never goes after the Chinese supplier which would much more profitable for the CAPS "members". We seriously doubt that the CAPS Member ever see much of the penalties collected on their behalf. WARNING - We highly recommend that you do not send these people, or their partners in extortion, Trademark Management, any money whatsoever. In our opinion, no reputable organization claiming to represent a company would have you make out a payment for alleged damages to a third party. Such a demand probably violates fraud statutes and consumer protection statues in most states. Lisa Uriguen Armstrong and Lindsay Conn are not attorneys and under Idaho law have no legal right to negotiate or act on the behalf of anyone as though they are attorneys. Here we will refrain from saying what we think they really are. Demand the name of the attorney representing CAPS. Do not communicate with anyone at CAPS until you have the name of the attorney. And then verify that name with the Idaho Bar to make sure that the person is licensed to practice law in Idaho. Additionally, we do not believe you are required to provide them with any information concerning any activities they allege you have committed. We do not believe you have to answer any questions they ask because they are not legally representing the teams the teams they claim to represent because under Idaho Law they do not have the right to practice law. CAPS does not have the legal authority to take you to court in the name of the CAPS Members. CAPS has become desperate. CAPS has obtained letters from the NBA, MLB, CLC, NHL and others but to what end? Click Here to read the letters and why they do not apply and why they are more of the same old scam. CAPS has no legal right to collect monies as penalties for their "members". IF WE WERE WRONG, and we are notS, CAPS would have sued us years ago for defamation. They haven't even sent us a Cease And Desist, of which they are very fond. |
| Like bed bugs, Cyber Cops seem to be everywhere. They are just as pesky, they like to suck blood and they have no real function except to annoy. It seems the Coalition To Advance The Protection Of Sports Logos ("CAPS") is not satisfied with just being a Cyber Cop - CAPS has evolved into trademark extortion as well. And CAPS claims to have some hefty clients as well: Major League Baseball Properties, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association, Collegiate Licensing and the National Football League. Impressive? But is it true? No too long ago, someone we know was attacked by Major League Baseball Properties through their New York office. So we ask, why would the MLBP be using some shit can outfit like CAPS if they are doing their own work? Does the MLBP know what CAPS is doing? Does the MLBP know who CAPS is? Does the MLBP care who CAPS is? Inquiring minds want to know. |
| CAPS has no legal authority to demand any money or other compensation from you! |
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| CAPS has no legal authority to demand any money or other compensation from you! |
| Just because a company "claims" to represent some entity does not mean that they really have the legal right to send cease and desist letters and to make legal demands, especially demands that you make monetary payments to them or to their designated representative. The professional sports leagues and colleges have their own people policing for trademark and copyright infringement. So why would they knowingly affiliate themselves with a company like CAPS that sends out form letters that lack substance and particulars? And, from what we can determine, CAPS has no licensed attorney on staff and CAPS openly admits that. Demand letters for third parties are being sent out over the signature of non-lawyers. One recent demand letter listed some 180 universities and college bowls that CAPS claims to represent. Since the extortionist demand checks are to be made payable to Trademark Management, how does anyone really know ANY of the monies collected are going to the schools or any of the so-called "CAPS Members"? And is not the third-party involvement a violation of most consumer protection laws? If CAPS does not have a licensed attorney on staff, do you want to bet they also do not have an accountant? If, as we believe, they are lying to collect money, then surely are not they lying when it comes time to remit the money to the "CAPS Members"? We think so. It appears to be a logical conclusion. |
| DEFEND YOURSELF FROM CAPS |
If you are contacted by CAPS and they demanded money from you, this is what we suggest you do. We have been giving people this information
for several years and many have heeded it. We know of NO ONE who has been sued by CAPS or any of the CAPS "Members" after following
our suggested course of action.
First, just because CAPS claims your use was infringing that does not make it so. CAPS lies because it is in the extortion racket. Do not admit to any wrongdoing and do not provide them with any information. They are not entitled to that information. |
| When confronted with the demand to only communicate with an in-house attorney, CAPS routinely responds with: |
Trademark Management does not have an attorney on staff, as the majority of our employees are paralegals and we take our direction directly from in-house attorneys employed by the CAPS Members. |
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However, that is not what Idaho law demands for negotiations. Idaho statute 3-420.Unlawful practice of law refers to the penalty applying to
"...any person ... without having become duly admitted and licensed to practice law within this state." Paralegals are not "licensed to practice law"
nor are they admitted to the Bar. Working under the direction the direction of out-of-state attorneys does not qualify as being "within this state [Idaho]"
We received the folloing email from one CAPS target: |
I received letters from Caps. I did what you suggested and after a few months they finally sent me a letter saying that they had decided at this time not to persue but said they would keep the case open since I had not complied with their demands. |
| Our opinion is the Coalition To Advance The Protection Of Sports Logos is pure Mickey Mouse (no offense meant to Disney). To begin with, right click on one of their web pages and you get that silly little error box that is supposed to stop you from downloading pictures. One, the code is faulty, so it does not work, and two, it is sooooo easy to get around it. That is soooo stoopid. FYI to CAPS - trademarks are not copyrighted. | 
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| Next, who is Trademark Management? The web site for CAPS, www.capsinfo.com, is owned by Trademark Management. The address for Trademark Management is 122 E. Poplar Avenue, Coeur d'Alene, ID 83814, which, by a strange coincidence, is the same address for CAPS! How about that? And, it appears that Trademark Management is owned and operated by the very same Lisa Uriguen Armstrong, also called Witch-On-A-Stick, who seems to own and operate CAPS! Wow. And, Trademark Management claims to have the same clients, plus a few more, as the same clients as CAPS and TM also lists CAPS as a client. Talk about padding ones resume. |
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The question here is why the duplicity? Why form two companies, both at the same address, both doing the same work, both with the same personnel?
While it may not be, it certainly sounds nefarious. Who is hiding what from whom? Hmmmm? Tell us, Lisa. We will report any lies you tell us.
And lies they will be we are sure. Because that is what Cyber Cops and trademark extortionists do: they lie, and lie, and then they lie some more.
From an email we received we now know that one Lindsay Conn and one Hallie Alexander work at Trademark Management. Lindsay seems as doofy as her Hollywood namesake in her claims in the email. Telling someone to "conduct your own research into CAPS" seems awfully snotty instead of proving the documentation requested. And, as we stated further up the page, anyone with a fax machine and a willingness to lie can become a VeRO member so her statements about eBay lack and credibility. Perhaps she believes that having once been a paralegal gives her a better snotty posture? Claiming to be a "legal assistant" does not give one stature. |
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| Rhett Barney |
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Let us start with a letter sent to a non-infringer by some nimrod at CAPS named
Rhett Barney - the letter has our deconstruction alongside the original.
The tone and structure of the letter sent by nimrod Rhett Barney would make one believe that he is an attorney.
Note that he did not include any title but he lists himself on the internet as a "Trademark Enforcement Intern at Trademark Management, Inc"
and a legal intern at CAPS. This is interesting because Rhett Barney is not listed as being a licensed attorney in Idaho (did we mention that Idaho is where CAPS
and TM are located?), nor is Rhett Barney listed as being a licensed attorney in the State of Washington, however, Rhett Barney IS LISTED as being a law student at
Gonzaga University School of Law in Spokane, Washington. What is a law student doing sending email letters representing himself as a licensed attorney?
Did he not take basic legal ethics yet? Or did he sleep through them like most law students? Sending an error-laden letter of this type out over his signature
constitutes badly practicing law without a license.
And it would appear that the nimrod at CAPS named Rhett Barney has a "friend" named "BEN" who "became very disturbed" when he read what we had to say about nimrod Rhett. Ben's email goes on to defend his good buddy and does a poor job of taking us to task on the issue. Wasn't "BEN" the name of a rat in a movie some years ago? Seems appropriate. |
| Hallie Alexander |
| Hallie Alexander is a member of the CAPS Extortion Team in 2013-2014, perhaps longer. |
| So, who is Lisa Uriguen Armstrong? She also sends out threatening letters to alleged infringers. We should point out that not all of the recipients of the letters are innocent - that many are infringing, but many are not. That said, it is the extortion demands to which we object. Most of these extortion demands are made under the color of legal authority, which from what we can see, does not exist. Like her partner in crime, Rhett Barney, it seems that while Lisa Uriguen Armstrong dispatches letters making legal conclusions and representations followed by cease and desist demands, and ending with threats of potential litigation, Lisa Uriguen Armstrong is not licensed to practice law in Idaho. It appears that at one time she may have been a paralegal in California, that does not qualify her under the law to present herself as the legal representative of major sports organizations. She wants others to follow the rules while she does not? Her defense? "I never said I was a lawyer". |
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The letters are obviously form letters. They are expansive in nature, covering all of the "CAPS Members" and talking in general terms. We are guessing that
many get sent out every week. A shotgun approach - fire away and hope you hit something. Serious cease and desist letters site examples of infractions,
dates, times, places, etc. They are specific. And they come from lawyers, not legal impersonators. The letters that are sent out also give the false
impression that the recipient will be sued by CAPS on behalf of its members. That is highly unlikely. The extortion demand is the last indicator.
Tracking trademark infringement is a cost of doing business. Inflated demands for a monetary settlement show the motive for CAPS is financial,
not trade protection. The checks are ordered to be made out to Trademark Management which means CAPS gets funding from these extortion
demands and that is the real motivation. If it looks like a pile of shit, and it smell like a pile of shit, it probably is CAPS. Sorry, we meant a pile of shit.
Now impersonating a lawyer is one Lindsay Conn. She is signing the form letters supposedly because Lisa's hand is getting cramps? As of the end of 2010, we have Larry, Moe and Curly all running around CAPS yelling, "Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck" and smacking each other on the nose. Let us send them a case of seltzer water because they are a bunch of clowns in search of a banana peel. |
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