If People Actually Hate Your Product And Say So, That's Not A Trademark Violation

from the just-so-you-know... dept

Back in December, we wrote about a company that was selling a product it claimed would provide you with a facelift in an hour. Not surprisingly, many people weren't impressed with the results of such a product (which was advertised widely on TV) and wrote about it on such sites as InfomercialScams.com. The company behind the product proceeded to sue InfomercialScams claiming trademark infringement. There were just a few problems with this. First, having someone critique your product is not a trademark violation -- it's protected free speech. Second, even if it were a trademark violation, it would be a violation by the person writing the review, not the website service provider. It appears that the facelift-in-a-box company hasn't quite learned that lesson as it's now also threatening yet another site that has negative reviews of the product. That site has responded by pointing out that the original lawsuit appears to be a misuse of trademark law, and then also countersues claiming that the company broke the site's terms of service. The countersuit seems like a stretch from a legal standpoint (and, even if the terms of service are violated, it's not clear that it's a matter that raises to the level of a lawsuit), but it's good to see yet another site fighting back against an abuse of trademark law.
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Filed Under: critique, trademark


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  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 6:37am

    Fist er, I mean First or F1r5t

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    SilverSliver, 5 Mar 2008 @ 7:06am

    First

    First to use a name :)
    These are the frivilous lawsuits that should be thrown out of court, and the company fined for wasting the courts tim.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 7:10am

    FIRST!!!

    Fisrt to be the third! or am I the second...? I'm confused!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 7:42am

    Verizon - SUCKS
    AT&T - SUCKS
    HP - SUCKS
    DELL - SUCKS
    And many more -

    Sue ME!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Lawyer for these companies, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:25am

      Re:

      I would have sued you. But you, being an Anonymous coward, didn't provide your name.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Danny, 5 Mar 2008 @ 9:12am

        Re: Re:

        pssst

        Just sue Techdirt to get their name and then sue them. Problem is techdirt will probably sue me and then I'll sue you...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Overcast, 5 Mar 2008 @ 7:45am

    Just makes you wonder why they are so sensitive about it....

    Most other companies I know, just shrug it off.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Four More Years, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:24am

      Re:

      Just makes you wonder why they are so sensitive about it....

      Most other companies I know, just shrug it off.


      They are sensitive about it because it's 3 am, and they can't sleep because they have hot flashes, or something else. DON'T LAUNCH THE NUKES HILLARY!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 7:48am

    RE: SilverSliver

    "These are the frivilous lawsuits that should be thrown out of court, and the company fined for wasting the courts tim."

    Better yet, discorporate the company. Destroy it utterly.

    Too many companies simply put court fines in the "expenses" side of their balance sheet and keep doing what they were doing before.

    Fines work to deter the behavior of individuals when they cause financial ruin, fines typically don't work on corporations with much deeper pockets.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:06am

      Re: RE: SilverSliver

      Alternatively, cut the problem off at source - punish lawyers who knowingly bring frivolous lawsuits, then see how many are willing to "yes man" their employer's madness :)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    chris (profile), 5 Mar 2008 @ 7:59am

    have a little compassion

    they are selling crap on infomercials. as we all know, everything sold on an infomercial is a scam, the products are crap, and the target market is morons. thanks to the availability of information on the web, the pool of salable morons is shrinking.

    it's hard enough to find morons to scam in the middle of the night without the internets exposing their secrets all over the place. cut these guys a little slack... they're just trying to protect their god-given right to lie to people for profit.

    besides, trademark is pretty much the only legal tool they have. "our crap doesn't actually work" doesn't hold much weight as a trade secret.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Shuryno, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:06am

    I don't know if it's the fact that the medias are covering more the lawsuits for corporate images and trademarks, but I can't believe how much it seems to be out of control. Everybody's suing anyone for anything.

    All the resources and money wasted instead of being invested in r&d. It feels like there's really something wrong with the way businesses are run.

    I'm sure there's legitimate cases, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot of bogus SCO's like cases. I don't know, not being a specialist in the matter may affect my comprehension on the subject.

    Strange world we live in...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Shuryno, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:10am

    Oh, BTW, I do understand this case is really the mother of all bogus cases, it's just this made me questions about just another lawsuit ...

    Are lawyers trying to take over the world or something? ;)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    bmac (profile), 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:14am

    Misuse of Trademark

    Slightly off-topic, but in the ballpark:

    The Church of $cientology also uses trademark infringement claims to pull auctions from eBay for E-Meters (the $25 worth of plastic and electronics that is really just a wheatstone bridge and skin galvanometer) that the Church sells for $5500, but that they don't want any ex/non-$cientologist to be able to sell/buy.

    What makes this outright abuse of trademark law is that the Cof$ allows auctions of E-Meters on eBay if the seller is a current $cientologist, and if they promise to sell it only to another $cientologist.

    www.xenu.net
    www.enturbulation.org

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Put your money where your mouthpiece is?, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:32am

    i think you're on to something...hold the lawyers accountable for bringing frivolous lawsuits. the "buck" should, perhaps, stop there.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      MH, 5 Mar 2008 @ 9:24am

      Re:

      Um...the courts can and they often do. But many of these lawsuits are brought because the CLIENT wants them. An attorney's first obligation is to their client. Knowing a bit about Trademark Law, depending on the context of the "free speech", if used in a commercial way (having a commercial website link), some courts might say TM infringement. And if not=summary judgment and it's tossed anyway.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Mr. Fix it, 5 Mar 2008 @ 9:46am

        Re: Re:

        to my knowledge (but im not lawyer) an attorneys job is to recommend and inform his/her client on what they can/ should do.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          Anonymous Coward, 5 Mar 2008 @ 10:31am

          Re: Re: Re:

          And just how often have you been successful getting your PHB to do the smart thing?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • identicon
            Law, 5 Mar 2008 @ 1:24pm

            Re: Re: Re: Re:

            Not bloody very. Anyone who tells their client the strait truth gets fired, and replaced with one of us who WILL compromise morals. It's an unfair market.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    MadJo (profile), 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:32am

    A deliberate Streisand effect?

    Perhaps this company is actually hoping for a Streisand effect?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chronno S. Trigger, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:49am

    ha

    When I started reading this post all I could think of was Facelift-in-a-can. Then I got to the facelift-in-a-box part and laughed my ass off.

    How can people possibly think that a product like that could work? I take that back. People drink their own urine for youth.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Mr. Fix it, 5 Mar 2008 @ 8:59am

    I am surprised companies didn't start copyrighting "X product sucks" then started suing who ever criticized said product.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    laserlipo, 25 Apr 2009 @ 2:43am

    hello............all
    I think so Computer science professor Matt Blaze critiques a recent New Yorker profile of Michael McConnell, the man who is leading the Bush administration's charge for more warrantless wiretapping powers.......thank

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    ewr44, 23 May 2009 @ 3:04am

    444

    China printing industry developed this years, who can tell us? China based plastic injection molding services with low costs and supeior quality Steel and aluminum scaffolding for construction is a very useful tool.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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