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...