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Tabberone is pronounced tab ber won
not tay ber own


®   Trademarks & Copyrights   ©

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing"
Edmund Burke



Visit Tabberone's Trademark & Copyright Abusers' Hall Of Shame where we list companies we feel are, or have been, abusing the DMCA and the eBay VeRO Program with their police-state tactics. For a company to get into the Hall Of Shame, it does not have to get sued by us. All it has to do is shut down auctions, etc, in what we feel is a violation of the rights of others, or actively promote false restrictions and/or make false claims concerning trademarks and/or copyrights.

 

 

You may have noticed that there are a lot of pundits who will tell you what you can and cannot do with patterns, licensed fabrics, embroidery designs, pictures, and descriptions, but none can point you to specific court cases or federal law that supports their claims. We can and we do. What we find particularly galling are the people who make claims such as "designers can put restrictions on use if they want" and "I think if it is actually printed on the fabric, you should respect the copyright wishes of the designer" without considering the legal ramifications. Once the item is sold why should someone be able to control what you do with it? The First Sale Doctrine says they can't. But, there are some logical restrictions. You cannot misrepresent the item when you resell it. We started these web pages in 2001 and we have yet to have anyone provide us with court cases or federal law backing their false claims.

"The whole point of the first sale doctrine is that once the copyright owner places a copyrighted item in the stream of commerce by selling it, he has exhausted his exclusive statutory right to control its distribution."
Justice Stevens, delivering an opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in the case QUALITY KING DISTRIBUTORS, INC. v. L'ANZA RESEARCH INT'L, INC. (96-1470), 98 F.3d 1109, reversed.

There are a lot of companies out there who use questionable tactics to coerce people into doing what these companies want them to do. While there are far too many people and companies infringing upon copyrights and trademarks, far too many rights holders have adopted approaches that infringe upon the rights of the innocent. If one percent of the people put into jail were proven to be innocent, the public would be outraged and demand some sort of corrective action. One study has concluded that as much as thirty percent of eBay auction terminations are "questionable". Tabberone has been in federal court more than 15 times, witjout a lawyer, to defend against "improper" eBay auction terminations and won the great majority of them.


Sevenarts and CVFA lose jurisdiction appeal! On January 28, 2008, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Sevenarts and CVFA concerning jurisdiction. For the decision in HTML format, click here,; for the decision in PDF format, click here. Now, they have to fight the issues which they have avoided. The impact of this decision is now the Federal Courts are accepting that a Notice Of Claimed Infringement ("NOCI") establishes jurisdiction for a federal court case in the home district of the recipient of the NOCI, i.e., the VeRO member will have to travel to the home court of the seller to fight the issue if the seller takes the VeRO member to federal court.

In October 2008 a settlement agreement was signed ending this dispute.


Come visit our wackiest addition to these pages:

eBay - Land
The Game

a parody

This is an open-source board game based upon
the buying and selling experience on eBay.


VeRO Commandments
Check out Tabberone's Vero Commandments for those with a need of direction.
eBay's Verified Rights Owner ("VeRO") Program is abused and eBay does not care. These Commandments are the result of our experiences in dealing with eBay and the abuses of the VeRO Program.


The MicroEnterprise Journal printed an article titled "Fighting Back (and Winning) in Trademark-land" about Tabberone's fight with Major League Baseball Properties. CLICK HERE to read the article.

History and Purpose of these Pages
On August 1, 2001, we had three eBay auctions terminated by Warner Brothers. After some heated exchanges with Warner Brothers' representatives, Warner Brothers backed off and agreed they had made a mistake. They unconditionally re-instated our auctions on August 3rd. Since then, we have been the recipient of threats and/or terminated auctions by M&M/Mars, Precious Moments, Disney Enterprises, Major League Baseball Properties, Yates Racing, Vittoria North America, Shabby Chic, Wiggles, Bratz (MGA Entertainment), United Media (Peanuts fabric), E! Entertainment Television, Frederick's of Hollywood, Sanrio, Debbie Mumm and more.

There are a lot of companies who are using the Digital Millennium Copyright Act ("DMCA") to interfere with legitimate small businesses. Tabberone is not condoning or promoting trademark infringement or copyright infringement but there are many non-infringing businesses being caught up in the "infringement witch hunt" being conducted by corporate lawyers who know better but use intimidation and fear to stop legitimate auctions. In their aggressive and all encompassing efforts to pretend to protect the trademarks and copyrights of their clients, these unethical corporate thugs in Armani suits are deliberately misstating trademark and copyright law to coerce small home-based businesses into submitting to their demands. And we support these statements with facts.

How do we know this? Read on.

But first, the required legal disclaimer. We are not lawyers. The statements made here concerning legal rights and legal options are opinions and a result of our encounters, in and out of federal court, with lawyers representing corporations who have threatened us over trademark and copyright issues. We strongly suggest you seek competent legal advice before attempting to do what we have done. We did. And we were told we didn't have a chance. So we ignored them. And we won. End of disclaimer.

This is just some of the information available on these pages. Most pages have a full menu index at the bottome of the page.

A LOT of articles about Trademark and Copyrights. More than you ever wanted to know or knwe existed.

What is a "Cease and Desist Letter" ("C&D") and C&D Letters & Emails received by Tabberone.

We don't accept financial contributions of any kind. However, what you can do if you want to contribute is support the organization, Public Citizen Litigation Group, who handles a lot of court cases.

"CopyrightLaw/CopyrightLaw.shtml">Copyright Law and Definitions in detail and plain English so you can understand them.

Cyber Cops, companies who do the dirty work looking for infringing material and often getting it wrong. They get paid by the takedown whether it is legitimate or not.

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, a.k.a., the "DMCA", Title 17 Chapter 12.

Disney Enterprises lawsuit, filed by Tabberone on December 24, 2002. Our Christmas gift to 'Da Mouse' for terminating several eBay auctions.

Disney Enterprises lawsuit Settlement Agreement with Tabberone whereby Disney agreed that making and selling items from Disney license fabric was permiyeed.

eBay - Land The Game a parody

Federal Court Cases of interest about Trademarks and Copyrights, and related issues, arranged by Federal Circuit, and alphabetically and by by subject matter.

Forced labor, a.k.a. slavery, is an issue that confronts many American manufacturers with overseas operations or supply sources. Did you know it violates federal law and could invalidate many existing trademarks and copyrights?

Fleurville lawsuit settlement with Tabberone.

Tabberone's Trademark & Copyright Abusers' Hall Of Shame. Chock full of nuts.

Major League Baseball Properties lawsuit settlement agreement with Tabberone.

Merle Norman Cosmetics, who, according to Merle Norman's lawyers, Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldisert LLP, violate FDA Drug Laws with very compact they sell.

Public Citizen Litigation Group, who takes court cases and battles defending the Freedom of Speech and internet access.

The Putrid Plecostomus Award, given to thosecorporate law firms and companies that go below and beyond the call of duty.

Trademark Law and Definitions in detail and plain English so you can understand them.

VeRO Commandmentsas formulated by Tabberone. What to do, and what not to do, if the victim of a listing termination on eBay.

We are not lawyers but we have represented ourselves in federal court against multi-billion dollar companies and won.
The content here is not presented as legal advice but as opinion and a result of what we have learned in these battles.

You can fight them as well!
You too can fight back. Representing ourselves, we have backed-off numerous different million-dollar and billion-dollar companies: Warner Brothers, M&M/Mars, Disney Enterprises, Major League Baseball Properties, Precious Moments, Sanrio (Hello Kitty), United Media (Peanuts), and more.


Just Shine the Cat Light

Copyrighted material. In an effort to provide comprehensive information concerning a wide array of trademark and copyright topics, we have archived a number of web pages rather than link to them. Sometimes web pages are moved or removed and then the link is no good and the information is lost. Archived pages usually have the URL of origin showing the source. The reason people post information on their web sites is for others to read and learn from it. Their intention is for others to have access to it. By archiving it, and referencing the original source, we are assisting them in their original intention, which is informing the public. We are not trying to claim we own these pages nor that we authored these pages. When possible the original copyrights are shown.

Someone has expressed concern that this copying violates the copyrights of the original owners. We disagree. The Colorado Court of Appeals has strongly affirmed that web sites of this type are "protected speech" and therefore are afforded protection under the First Amendment. We believe our non-commercial and informative use of properly referenced material meets the copyright guidelines for "fair use".

Rebuttals. In an effort to provide a balanced view, we make the following offer to anyone who feels they have been wrongly accused on this web site.

If you, or your company, have been referenced on these pages, and you would like the chance to post a rebuttal, we will post your rebuttal (provided it is in good taste) so others can read it. The rebuttal must be submitted in a format that can easily be converted into HTML. We reserve the right to respond to the rebuttal.

Articles | Cease and Desist Letters | Federal Court Cases | FAQs & Whines | Hall Of Shame | Contributions
eBay - Land The Game

Links
Auction Bytes | Public Citizen Litigation Group

Definitions

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

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

Federal Court Cases
Alphabetically | by Circuit

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

Federal Lawsuits
Filing A Federal Lawsuit
Setting Up | Standing. | Joinder of Parties. | The Complaint | Their Answer | Default Judgment
F.R.C.P. 12(b) Motion | F.R.C.P. 12(f) Motion | Your Reply | Summary Judgment Motion | Affidavits | Time Extension

Defending Against A Federal Lawsuit
The Complaint | Your Answer | Denials | F.R.C.P. 12(b) Motion | F.R.C.P. 12(f) Motion | Affidavits | Time Extension

Federal Lawsuits
Filing A Federal Lawsuit
Setting Up | Standing. | Joinder of Parties. | The Complaint | Their Answer | Default Judgment
F.R.C.P. 12(b) Motion | F.R.C.P. 12(f) Motion | Your Reply | Summary Judgment Motion | Affidavits | Time Extension

Defending Against A Federal Lawsuit
The Complaint | YourAanswer | F.R.C.P. 12(b) Motion | F.R.C.P. 12(f) Motion | Affidavits | Time Extension

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