Tabberone Logo

Tabberone is pronounced tab ber won
not tay ber own

Tabbers Temptations     www.tabberone.com/Trademarks/ Home | Site Index | Disclaimer | Email Me!
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
Edmund Burke


The Tabberone™ Archives
These articles concern what we consider major trademark and copyright issues. They are usually reproduced with the original source referenced. Bear in mind, these articles are copyrighted and commercial use without permission of the authors may be considered infringement. The intended use here is educational, commentary and non-commercial. The reason they are reproduced in the Tabberone™ Archives, as opposed to just providing a link, is because links disappear and pages are removed. That presents a messy confirmation process that is annoying to the browser (you) but also presents a credibility issue. We do not claim any rights in these pieces. Do not regard the absence of a copyright statement or © to mean the article is not copyrighted. Some sites do not have a copyright statement.

When an article or a comment is posted on the internet by the copyright owner, the owner is seeking a world-wide, 24/7 audience; sometimes for a limited amount of time, sometimes indefinitely. In essence, an internet posting intentionally relinquishes one's copyright for exclusivity because the owner has posted it on the internet to been seen by everyone, everywhere. The Tabberone™ Archives non-commercial duplication of the posting is simply a continuance of the original wishes of the copyright owner. We post these articles for reference, for commentary and for confirmarion of our position.

http://pubcit.typepad.com/clpblog/2009/10/jenzabar-joins-trademark-abusers-hall-of-shame.html
November 27, 2009 - links have been removed.

Public Citizen Litigation Group

Tuesday, October 13, 2009


Jenzabar Joins Trademark Abusers Hall of Shame

Jenzabar, a company that makes software systems for colleges and universities, has joined the trademark abusers’ hall of shame by relentlessly pursuing trademark claims against the makers of a documentary film about the student protests at Tiananmen Square. Jenzabar objects to the fact that, on the handful of pages on a web site about the film that discusses Jenzabar, the name “Jenzabar” appears in the keyword meta tags.

The trademark claims are based on the fact that a Google search for “Jenzabar” brings up the main Jenzabar-related page on the web site about the film in the first ten search results. But these claims are preposterous, for many reasons. Not only has Google announced that it stopped supporting keyword meta tags in its search algorithm “many years ago,” (Yahoo! has also dropped keywords) but even if meta tags still mattered, their use would be protected as truthful speech that accurately describes the content of those web pages. Moreover, trademarks are “infringed” only if users are confused about the source of a product or service, and no reasonable Internet user would be confused about whether Jenzabar is the sponsor of the web page. Jenzabar also relies on the questionable theory of “initial interest confusion”; but as Public Citizen’s brief explains, that doctrine has no application here and in any event runs afoul of the First Amendment.

Because the trademark claims are so tenuous, it is hard not to assume that Jenzabar’s real agenda lies elsewhere.

Jenzabar’s founder Ling Chai is distressed about the way she is portrayed in the film, which quotes her as expressing the hope for bloodshed to show the people of China how bad the regime is. Chai has since been quoted as maintaining that her words were either mistranslated or taken out of context.

However, she sued for defamation only over the web site's having quoted newspaper articles about previous litigation involving the Jenzabar company. After those defamation claims were dismissed, her company used the trademark claim to keep the lawsuit alive in the apparent hope of bleeding the documentarists dry. Reading through the deposition transcripts, which can be found here, it is quickly apparent that Jenzabar is using its trademark claims to oppress the authors of speech that its owners deplore. And a Jenzabar publicist was quoted in the Boston Globe as bragging that the trademark suit represents Chai’s use of the software company’s “resources to fight back” against her critics.

The great irony here is that Chai, who first made her name as a voice for freedom, is now using the money she has made through her software company to attack her critics and keep them tied down in court. One may well wonder whether she retains the free speech values that her customers in the world of higher education demand. One blogger, in fact, suggested that potential Jenzabar customers should take this lawsuit into account in deciding whether to buy its products.

Posted by Paul Levy on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 04:03 PM

General
Articles | Cease and Desist Letters | Federal Court Cases | FAQs & Whines | Glossary | Hall Of Shame | Contributions

Corporate Lawyers
Cartoons | Code Of Ethics | Courtroom Remarks | Definition Of A Lie | Jokes | Lawyers | Lying | Who Have Lied

eBay - Land The Game

Definitions

Trademark Definitions
Blurring   |   Confusion   |   Damages   |   Dilution   |   History   |   Initial Interest Confusion   |   Likelihood Of Confusion   |   Material Difference Standard
Parallel Imports   |   Post-sale Confusion   |   Puffery   |   Secondary Meaning   |   Subsequent Confusion   |   Trademark Abuse
Unauthorized Use   |   Unfair Competition   |   What is a Trademark?
Copyright Definitions
Angel Policies   |   Contributory Infringement   |   Copyrightability   |   Copyright Extortion   |   Copyright Misuse Doctrine
; Derivative   |   The Digital Millennium Copyright Act   |   EULA   |   Fair Use   |   First Sale Doctrine   |   Product Description   |   Registration
Registration Denied   |   What is a Copyright?   |   What is not Copyrightable?
Other Issues
Embroidery Designs   |   FAQs & Whines   |   Image and Text Theft   |   Licensed Fabric   |   Licensing & Licenses   |   Patterns
Patterns Index   |   Profit   |   Quilting   |   Selvage   |   Stanford School of Law Case Outline
Tabberone Disclaimer   |   Trademark Extortion   |   Urban Myths   |   What To Do If You Are Veroed

Federal Court Cases
Alphabetically | by Federal Circuit | by Subject | by Court Quotations

Federal Statutes
Copyright Act 17 U.S.C. 5 | Digital Millenium Copyright Act 17 U.S.C. 12 | Lanham Act 15 U.S.C. 22
<

VeRO (Verified Right's Owner Program)
VeRO Commandments | VeRO-Verified Rights Owners Program | Counter Notice Letter
Counter Notice (pre-2003) | Counter Notice present | On-Line Survey from 2004 | Articles about VeRO | What To Do If You Are Veroed

Original material by Karen Dudnikov & Michael Meadors is © 1999-2017