[ga] Re: [Politech] Public Citizen wins nice victory in car dealer critic case [fs]

[Jeff Williams <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Declan, Paul and all,

  Thank you Paul and Declan for passing the interesting case along.
We all can only hope that the folks at WIPO and ICANN will
eventually get the proper message that you Paul, rightly pointed
out in your comments and remarks below.  But somehow I have
my doubts that they shall given the Business and IP constituencies
strangle hold on the ICANN BoD and WIPO.

Declan McCullagh wrote:

> ---
>
> Date: Mon, 29 Sep 2003 15:57:40 -0400
> From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <declan@xxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Encouraging IP lawyers to stop and think before they sue......
>
> My colleague Amanda Frost has had a nice development recently in a case
> filed in federal court in Alabama against a Tom Ballock, a consumer who
> established a web site about a local car dealer.
> http://www.crownpontiacnissan.com/
>
> The dealer rushed into court and got a preliminary injunction against
> Ballock, who defended himself pro se.  Amanda then got involved and
> persuade the judge to lift the preliminary injunction.  After taking
> Ballock's deposition, the plaintiff gave up and dismissed the suit.
> There is an account of the progress of the litigation on Ballock's site:
>   http://www.crownpontiacnissan.com/lawsuit.shtml#settlement_filed
>
> Lat week, the judge granted our motion for an award of damages against
> the preliminary injunction bond that was wrongfully issued against
> Ballock.  The judge explained why the injunction should not have been
> granted -- although Ballock uses the dealer's name in his domain name,
> there is a very strong disclaimer of affiliation at the top of his site,
> so nobody could be confused, and the site was completely noncommercial.
> Consequently  and then gives Ballock $766.45 in out of pocket expenses,
> $4000 in mental anguish damages, and $2000 for the injury to his free
> speech rights.  (The judge was also quite complementary to Amanda,
> making clear that Ballock's ultimate victory was due to his securing
> "highly competent representation" after he received  the preliminary
> injunction).
>
> The case stands as yet another reminder to IP attorneys to stop and
> think  before they bring questionable trademark claims against
> individual dissenters in the hope that they can smash them before they
> can get a lawyer.  Sometimes, even a win on a quick preliminary
> injunction can come back to haunt their clients!
>
> 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
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Regards,

--
Jeffrey A. Williams
Spokesman for INEGroup LLA. - (Over 131k members/stakeholders strong!)
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