--- Date: Wed, 12 Mar 2003 11:00:49 -0500 From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVYat_private> To: <declanat_private> Cc: <jimfoltsat_private> Subject: "First they nearly killed me ... now they're suing me!" That is the theme for the latest in the Internet trademark wars. Jim Folts, who lives near Knoxville Tennessee, suffered a mishap in a private plane that he was flying, and he felt that Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation, an airplane repair shop that had serviced his plane, was responsible. He took his problem to the National Transportation Safety Board, which found that Piedmont Hawthorne was responsible. But when Folts set up a website titled Aircraft Pilots for Better Maintenance, and used Piedmont Hawthorne's name is his domain name and meta tags, Piedmont Hawthorne sued Folts alleging trademark and defamation theories. Piedmont appears to have sued the wrong guy, at the wrong time. It is the wrong guy because Folts doesn't like being pushed around and, it turns out, he has the luxury of being able to afford to stand up for his free speech rights because Folts is covered for this lawsuit by his insurance. So he is going to have a fully financed and high-class defense. Indeed, the first thing I ask any cybergriper who comes to me is, do you have insurance coverage so that you can hire a lawyer. If more people thoughy about this BEFORE they got threatened with litigation, they'd be a lot better off. Second, the lawsuit was filed within days after the Sixth Circuit decided Taubman v. Mishkoff, which would seem to preclude the trademark claims altogether. (we actually decided not to take the case because, in light of Taubman, it seemed clear to us that the trademark claims were untenable and the only real issues in the case was deframation for which a local lawyer would be better) The story, including information about the lawsuit, is now on Folts' website at http://www.aircraft-maintenance.com . He stopped using the Piedmont-related domain name after he consulted a local lawyer. Now that he has experienced trademark counsel, however, that may well change. Paul Alan Levy Public Citizen Litigation Group 1600 - 20th Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 (202) 588-1000 http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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