Owner of the Word Stealth 'Protecting' Rights 745
popo writes "Just when you thought ownership of intellectual property couldn't get any more absurd: The New York Times is reporting that the word 'Stealth' is being vigorously protected *in all uses* by a man who claims to exclusively own its rights. Not only has he gone head to head with Northrop Grumman, he has pursued it vigorously in the courts and has even managed to shut down "stealthisemail.com" (Steal This Email.com) because the URL coincidentally contains the word "stealth". What's terrifying is that he's gotten as far as he has."
Jesus Chrysler (Score:5, Interesting)
He came after me, too (Score:5, Interesting)
stealth (Score:1, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:bittorrent is next (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder if he owns the trademark to utterly craptacular web design?
And some of the words?
Renaissance
Name of a period in history. A common word.
Stradivarius
Surname of a family of violin makers. Can you trademark someone else's name? And really expect them to licence it back from you?
Tirade
Hmm... I feel like going on one right now...
This guy is a total and utter bastard (is that one of his?) and his trademarking of words *and then going after people in unrelated industries* is even less convincing as a business tactic than anything SCO ever came up with.
Why Northrop Grumman caved in, I'll never know. They should have nailed his arse to the court documents and filed it under 'F' for
Diamond Stealth Video Cards (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, he's got precedent... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Northrop Grumman stalemate? (Score:5, Interesting)
If I create the trademark "Quropiwla", which is a freely invented word, then I'm going to have a fair chanse demonstrating that anyone using that word does it in the intention of creating confusion with my product -- afterall, what other reason could there be ? It's unlikely someone would end up with that word by chance, and the word doesn't have any meaning as such.
If, on the other hand I register "Enjoyable" in the market for computer-input-devices (say I market joysticks) then it's not that obvious that others using this word does so in order to create confusion with my product. I'd probably still be able to stop other "Enjoyable" joysticks, but I doubt I'd have a case against say the "Enjoyable" computer-monitor.
He has not gone after Nmap (Score:5, Interesting)
-Fyodor [insecure.org] (who is now resuming the search for SCO products or marketing messages talking about Stealth
Re:July Fools??? (Score:4, Interesting)
The guy's a patriot (Score:2, Interesting)
After all, the best way to get a law repealed is to enforce it strictly. How better to illustrate the stupidity of IP laws and the loser-pays legal system than to be completely over the top like this?
Re:He came after me, too (Score:4, Interesting)
I ignored him but forwarded the dossier to the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse http://www.chillingeffects.org/> who are compiling dossiers on these sorts of guys.
As a private individual, I'd be interested to see how the hell he thinks a character string in a DNS domain that can be parsed to extract the substring stealth infringes his right to....make money from the word Stealth: like that's a major contribution to society.
I should have published my book by it's working title "XML by Stealth" - might have given this guy indigestion as you can't copyright book titles!
Re:July Fools??? (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Diamond Stealth Video Cards (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:July Fools??? (Score:4, Interesting)
He can still only claim protection for the use of the word in those fields for which he is using the mark. He also has to actually be USING it, not just sitting on it. He doesn't get general protection unless his mark is so widely used that it would likely be confused even if it is in a field that they aren't currently using the mark in.
There ought to be a law (maybe there is) that says this kind of abuse of trademark is illegal - the penalty should be that he loses all rights to the trademark in all fields. People shouldn't have to give in to this kind of "legal extortion" just because it is cheaper to pay him off and stop using it than to fight it when they are in the right.
One way might be to require going through a "trademark dispute arbitration" which can give a preliminary ruling that, e.g. "stealthisemail.com" is not infringing on "Stealth tennis shoes" (or whatever) - if he wants to continue and take it to court, he risks losing the trademark entirely. The process should cost the losing party $500, and no additional damages could be claimed if it is found infringing and they agree to stop using it immediately. That limits the damage to $500, which I think plenty of people would be willing to risk to challenge something like this, and also costs the abuser $500 every time he gets denied.
"Confusing customer's" (Score:1, Interesting)
The guy's a genius (Score:3, Interesting)
First, from the article it's clear that he puts the "stealth" mark on nearly everything, including air conditioners. That at the very least gives him a legal basis to sue.
Second, he's more than willing to settle for what would be considered nominal amount. While a few grand might be nothing to K-Mart, if he gets enough of them they add up quickly.
The fourth and last is that he's never actually WON a lawsuit! He's had this great settlement record even though he gets his butt kicked everything he enters a court room. That takes a lot of balls.
I'm not saying I like the guy, or even respect him. In fact, if I could get away with it, I'd ensure he got a slow and painful death. I'm just saying he knows all the flaws in our system and he's taking good advantage of them. And maybe if enough people start doing this, our system will change for the better.
Re:July Fools??? (Score:2, Interesting)
He came after me too (Score:3, Interesting)
My Stoller Story [mac.com]. He was going after a hell of a lot of personal websites at the time, trying to scare money out of people. He deserves a good kicking. If it wasn't for the fact he was on the other side of the Atlantic I'd personally have torn him limb from limb.
"What's terrifying (Score:2, Interesting)
How could anyone possibly believe otherwise? This is the natural path of all these kinds of laws. There can be no other way. All prohibitions end up like this, mostly due to the selective enforcement(and mostly against the poor). If you are to continue with this, you will continue to see the same kinds of results. So, let's see if we can abolish the whole thing without having to fire a shot. Freedom shouldn't have to come out the barrel of a gun.
Re:July Fools??? (Score:3, Interesting)
Would you like a copy of the package? (Score:2, Interesting)
So this guy wants exclusive use of the word on an International level! I wonder if the word exists in any other language and what legal claim would be made for the word in a non-English speaking country.
Anyway, the package, as usual, contained letters from companies that had withdrawn their use of the word "stealth" from their products etc.
I was concerned when I received the package so I had a good friend of mine look over the letters to see what my legal standing was. My friend pretty much laughed at the whole thing and proceeded to point out that every few letters were identical in wording, sentence structure, and paragraph positioning. He was absolutely correct!
He believed that all of the response letters coming from companies such as Panasonic, that were included in the package, were doctored.
All of you guys that have received the package, have a close look at the letters and see for yourself.
In addition, I scanned the whole package and sent it to a Lawyer in Missouri... he basically said that the this guy was seen, amongst the legal fraternity, as a clown.
If anyone wants a copy of the package let me know so I can email it to you (or is that a breach of copyright?)
don't forget (Score:3, Interesting)