Atlanta IP lawyer Sanford Asman isn't happy that CaseRails CEO Erik Dykema won't hand his company's name over to him—in fact, he's filed a trademark lawsuit over it, just as he said he would last month.
Asman believes that CaseRails is infringing his trademark rights to CaseWebs and CaseSpace, two websites that house his own litigation-management software. In fact, Asman believes any Web-based legal software with "case" in its name should be under his purview.
But even worse than having "Case" in his company's name, Dykema made the mistake of daring to discuss the ordeal with Ars Technica. And to Asman, the interview was pure defamation.
In an amended complaint (PDF), Asman maintains Ars' May 22 story about his case led to "numerous (unsuccessful) attempts to infiltrate" his websites, casewebs.com and casespace.com. And there's more:
Defendants Dykema, Zeller, and CaseRails... encouraged that website to publish derogatory comments as to Asman, and such publication did, in fact, take place, whereby, inter alia, (1) Asman was referred to as "Ass man"; (2) one of the readers of the blog apparently registered the domain "sanfordasman.com" and is using it to link to another website (namely, "The Scuzz Feed" which appears under the url, "sanfordasman.com") that Asman does not sponsor or endorse.
Writing "Ass Man" in a comment section isn't just mean talk on the Internet—to Asman, it's legally actionable defamation, and his lawsuit wants Dykema and CaseRails co-founder Kyle Zeller to pay.
[Editor's Comment: This looks like the second Atlanta-based IP lawyer to sue/to have sued EFF - the previous we reported here .]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday June 09 2015, @01:50AM
I understand that back in the day, Sun was quite threatening to any business that used the word "Java" in trade. I always wondered what the people of Indonesia had to say about that, as well as those who were in some way involved in the coffee business.
Trademark law is well-established, in part by international treaty. This lead the Supreme Court of Canada to rule that any business may call itself McDonalds provided they not sell hamburgers. Also a very distant cousin of mine operates a pub called McDonalds; when he received a C&D letter from the Big Mac people, he pointed out that, as Chieftan of the McDonald Clan, he had the legal authority to forbid McDonalds Corporation from doing business in Scotland. His pub is still operating.
Loosely speaking the criterion is whether the mark is "confusingly similar". There are also geographic rules - you can call your shop "Joe's Garage" provided there aren't any other "Joe's Garage"s in the same city. It is quite common for multiple products and services to have the exact same mark, provided they are sold into different markets.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by TheRaven on Tuesday June 09 2015, @06:40AM
sudo mod me up
(Score: 3, Funny) by aristarchus on Tuesday June 09 2015, @08:26AM
Hundreds of years? Not so fast! I was present at some of the original games, between 280 BC and when Theodosius (asshole!) banned them in 392 AD. The modern games only started in 1894. So not so many hundreds of years. And nothing so bad as FIFA! Silly circles? What do they even mean? Real Greeks from ancient times (like me) are embarrassed by the modern games. And by Bruce Jenner. And that toking swimmer dude. And what is with the skiing? Isn't that a German sport?
(Score: 2) by TheRaven on Tuesday June 09 2015, @09:21AM
Hundreds of years? Not so fast! I was present at some of the original games, between 280 BC and when Theodosius (asshole!) banned them in 392 AD. The modern games only started in 1894.
Yes, that's what I meant. There are restaurants in Athens that have been around in one form or another for longer than the modern Olympics with the word 'olympic' in their name. FIFA does seem to be approaching IOC levels of corruption, but they're still playing catchup.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 1) by Dogeball on Tuesday June 09 2015, @05:42PM
The "Olympic Café" up the road from where I was living in 2012 was ordered to change its name (it had been trading as such for at least 10 years.)
It became the " lympic Café."
(Score: 1) by Frost on Wednesday June 10 2015, @04:18AM