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 Stoller: Google will go out of business by the end of this lawsuit...

Google has sued Stoller for false advertising, unfair competition and RICO violations for claiming that Stoller owns the Google trademark. According to Wikipedia, Leo D. Stoller is an self-styled "intellectual property entrepreneur", who controversially claims rights to a large inventory of "famous" trademarks and engages in the assertive enforcement of those alleged trademark rights, threatening infringement action against people and companies who attempt to use similar marks. A federal court labeled Stoller and his companies as "vexatious litigants" in 2005. Courts have repeatedly found lawsuits brought by Stoller to be part of pattern of sham litigation and have repeatedly sanctioned him for his groundless claims of trademark rights. The complaint is a funny read. It lists out the long, long history of Mr. Stoller, and details many of the lawsuits he's lost and bogus trademarks he's claimed to own.

In 2005 Stoller tried to claim the trademark "Google", sending a letter to the USPTO on letterhead supposedly from an organization called "Google Brand Licensing and Products," claiming the use of "Google" in commerce since 1981. Stoller also claimed on his website that you could license "Google" from him. He then demanded money from Google to make this go away. He threatened to destroy the Google trademark by having it taken away as generic. He alleges that the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board cancel Google's mark because it has become a "generic" name for the goods or services for which it is registered (15 U.S.C Section 1064(3)). He also alleges that Google has also perpetrated a fraud on the public by contacting publishers of dictionaries in order to induce the publishers to change the "lexicon" of the 'google' meaning so as to avoid the generic label.

Stoller promises that Google's stock "won't be worth $5 a share" after he's done with them and that he wouldn't be surprised if "Google goes out of business" by the end of his lawsuit...

Google v. Central Mfg Inc., No. 07CV 385 (N.D. Ill. complaint filed Jan. 19, 2007)

 

 

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