If you’ve seen one disgruntled-former-law-associate attack gripe site, you’ve seen them all. But I did like this point by gold-plated pariah Edward Harrington Heyburn, Esq. (corrected). Because he’s so big on free expression, especially his of course (like the rest of us), I am certain he won’t mind my reproducing his whole rant, which actually looks like it could have been strung together using quotes from the “best of LIKELIHOOD OF CONFUSION®”:
Did the Judge infringe upon someone else’s trademark by telling me to “Get a life?”
Proving that life is stranger than fiction, it appears that Judge Thompson has trampled upon a registered trademark by telling me to “get a life.” [B]elieve it or not, “Get a Life” is a registered trademark. Here is a copy of the record from the US Trademark Office.
Word Mark GET A LIFE Goods and Services IC 035. US 100 101 102. G & S: Outsourcing in the field of legal support services. FIRST USE: 20090601. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20090601 Mark Drawing Code (4) STANDARD CHARACTER MARK Serial Number 77615815 Filing Date November 17, 2008 Type of Mark SERVICE MARK Register PRINCIPAL Live/Dead Indicator LIVE I guess the question is whether the judge used the phrase in commerce? I point this out to illustrate how ridiculous trademark law can get. Trademark holders like Levinson Axelrod can use misguided arguments to silence us. We are so afraid of the Government imposing on our right to free speech we neglect to see how corporate America can use our existing laws to silence criticism. I guess a web site called www.getalifesucks.com is out of the question.
Pretty good! Maybe I wish I’d had Heyburn around for a couple of my more “successful”
trademark cases in a certain federal judicial District he knows. I couldn’t have lost them much harder, but maybe there would have been a few more laughs along the way.
Originally posted 2010-01-12 23:59:28. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
I am the author of this site. You have attributed my comments/post to the Plaintiff’s attorney, Thomas Cafferty. Now that can cause a Liklihood of Confusion.
PS – I think my site is funnier and more clever than most!
Oy, sorry. Fixed. I’m glad you think your site is “funnier and more clever than most.” I know the feeling.
If you mean just gripe sites, though, I’ll take your word for it. I’m inclined to think you’re probably right, though. I’m also inclined to think it’s a good thing there were no blogs when I crashed my first associate job, so all I could do to try and destroy my career was get an agent and still not be able to sell this.