Abuses of trademark law:

Over the last few years, Leo Stoller has written dozens of letters to companies and organizations and individuals stating that he owns the trademark to “stealth.” He has threatened to sue people who have used the word without his permission. In some cases, he has offered to drop objections in exchange for thousands of dollars. And in a few of those instances, people or companies have paid up….

Mr. Stoller owns and runs a company called Rentamark.com, which offers, among other things, advice on sending cease-and-desist letters and Mr. Stoller’s services as an expert witness in trademark trials. Through Rentamark, Mr. Stoller offers licensing agreements for other words he says he owns and controls, such as bootlegger, hoax and chutzpah, and sells t-shirts and other merchandise through what the Web site calls its “stealth mall.”

Stanford lawprof Mark A. Lemley says Mr. Stoller’s sweeping claims are “based on a misunderstanding of how trademark law works” and that courts would be unlikely to assign liability unless a rival company’s use of a word led to consumer confusion with some product or service offered by his enterprises. However, many companies he has targeted are reluctant to incur the legal fees involved in defending their use of the words; one of his companies appeared before one federal judge in Chicago 33 times between 1995 and 1997 alone to assert its rights. (Colin Moynihan, “He Says He Owns the Word ‘Stealth’ (Actually, He Claims ‘Chutzpah,’ Too)”, New York Times, Jul. 4).

Filed under: expert witnesses, legal extortion, trademarks