Tabberone is pronounced tab ber won
not tay ber own
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Tabberone is pronounced tab ber won |
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This posting was copied from http://lists.elistx.com/archives/interesting-people/200602/msg00296.html. Content has not been altered except for readibility and to correct broken links in the original. |
interesting-people messageSubject: [IP] Paying the price for a dumb theat of litigation
Begin forwarded message: From: Paul Levy <plevy@citizen.org> Date: February 27, 2006 2:38:26 PM EST To: dave@farber.net Subject: Paying the price for a dumb theat of litigation I want to call your attention to the amusing consequences of a foolish cease and desist letter that a trademark lawyer sent to Karen Dudnikov. Dudnikov is an eBay seller and an activist in opposing corporate abuse of the trademark and copyright laws to suppress the use of eBay as a secondary market in goods produced by intellectual property owners. I learned of it from my new colleague Greg Beck, who has been developing a series of cases to put a stop to the abuse. Typically, eBay responds to notices claiming that the sale of goods infringes intellectual property rights by removing the sales regardless of the merits of the claim of infringement. Not surprisingly, some companies and lawyers respond to this incentive by making bogus claims. Greg is trying to develop new ways of rectifying these abuses. Dudnikov has created a Hall of Shame featuring what she regards as particularly egregious takedown notices. http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/HallOfShame/HallOfShame.shtml. One member of her Hall of Shame is Sy Garfinkel, who sells fabric licensed by the National Football League and other sports organizations, and who objects to the sale of goods made from the fabric he sells. http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/HallOfShame/Sykel/Sykel. Dudnikov went through Garfinkel's cease and desist letter, pointing out a number of ways in which she felt he had misstated the law or otherwise displayed ignorance or stupidity. Apparently unhappy at being nominated by Dudnikov for the"Pompous Twit of the Year" award, Garfinkel threatened to sue Dudnikov for libel on the ground that she had mischaracterized his legal position. Unfortunately, a lawyer at Reed Smith lent himself to this sorry endeavor, authoring a letter which, among other things, warned Dudnikov not to post his letter online because she would only provoke litigation by doing so. So, what did he think would happen? Far from deterring Dudnikov, this line apparently provoked Dudnikov into inducting Reed Smith itself into her Hall of Shame: http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/HallOfShame/ReedSmith/ReedSmith.shtml, and posting the letter along with her notations of the ways in which THAT letter seemed to her false or misleading: http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/HallOfShame/ReedSmith/CeaseAndDesist.shtml She also posted Greg's response to the threat of litigation. http://www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/HallOfShame/ReedSmith/LetterToCohen_20060224.shtml Greg pointed out that each of Dudnikov's statements about Garfinkel's legal position was in fact a quotation from his nastygram. The demand letter was quite definite and unqualified in its threat of litigation: "We will be perfectly clear, Ms. Dudnikov. Unless you or your company immediately takes down the offensive and defamatory pages concerning Mr. Garfinkel and his company from the "Hall of Shame" portion of your web site, and promises to refrain from such actions in the future, we will bring suit against you and your company without hesitation." So, has Reed Smith, in addition to putting itself into an uncomfortable position by sending a laughable cease and desist letter that cannot help making its sender look silly, boxed itself into a position where it has to file a frivolous lawsuit in order to maintain the credibility of its threats of litigation? Or will cooler heads prevail once the grownups at this law firm look at the situation, read what their colleague has threatened, and put a muzzle on him? Stay tuned.....
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