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Lawyer Who Sued EFF Blames Ars Technica Readers for Hacking, Defamation

posted by janrinok on Tuesday June 09 2015, @01:30AM   
from the suing-is-in-their-blood dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

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.

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Original Submission

[Editor's Comment: This looks like the second Atlanta-based IP lawyer to sue/to have sued EFF - the previous we reported here .]

• Re:Here are six more infringers (Score: 3, Interesting) by Ryuugami on Tuesday June 09 2015, @07:18AM

  by Ryuugami (2925) on Tuesday June 09 2015, @07:18AM (#193984)

  You may have just provided Mr. Assman (with a surname like Asman, you'd think he'd develop thicker skin during elementary school) with additional targets.

  From an earlier ArsTechnica article [arstechnica.com]:

  Since "case" alone is often used as a synonym for "lawsuit," I pointed out to Asman that there are numerous online legal services that use "case" as part of their name.

  "Like what?" he asked.

  I pointed out a few I had found, such as CaseFlex and CaseLoop. Asman didn't respond immediately—he was taking notes.

  "Thank you for bringing them to my attention," he said. "I may decide to take action against one or both of them."

  On the other hand, one of these services may actually stand up to Mr. Asshole in court instead of folding down immediately. While I can understand trying to avoid litigation costs, it doesn't really speak well about your ostensibly lawyer-supporting software when you can't or don't use it to defend yourself against frivolous lawsuits from entitled idiots :/

  --
  If a shit storm's on the horizon, it's good to know far enough ahead you can at least bring along an umbrella. - D.Weber

  Parent

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