Brand Bully Basement

Brand Bully Basement^SM

Trademark bullying happens when a trademark owner over-reaches in the exercise of its trademark rights. Usually, though not always, this involves a big company threatening unwarranted costly legal action against a smaller company in order to make the smaller company change its trademark. Trademark trolls — entities that fraudulently obtain trademark rights for the sole purpose of enforcing them — engage in a similar bullying behavior, though most trolls are individuals or small companies.

The Brand Geek^(R) team hopes to make the Brand Bully Basement^SM a clearinghouse for cases of trademark bullying. We hope to draw increased attention to the issue by facilitating dialogue about it. The more attention these cases get, the less frequent they will become. Or at least that’s our hope.

Think you’ve been bullied? Submit your story by commenting at the bottom of this page where it says “Leave a Reply!”

Please include links to any relevant documents (correspondence, pleadings, etc) since we are unable to upload documents at this time (Chilling Effects maintains a clearinghouse of C&D letters to which you may upload documents here or you can upload and store documents for free on Dropbox.com or similar sites).

Lara Pearson

Comments (6)

Carl Vennitti says:

October 11, 2011 at 5:15 pm

The link below is pretty “Oh, well” for the legal minded sort, but when we in the business world are confronted with it, it takes on a completely different aura. I am going to be able to get my story published for the ultimate victim of bullies to see; the consumer. If there is a victim of a trademark bully that would like their story told, I will be more than happy to assist them.

http://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue/v?cn=&cop=&pn=&pn2=&pno=91167465&pop=&pop2=&procstatus=All&propname=&propnameop=&propno=&qs=&qt=adv

Rock On,

Carl
1. Lara says:
  
  October 13, 2011 at 9:34 am
  
  Thanks so much for sharing your story, Carl. I admire your chutzpa and perseverance for standing up to Nestle! I wish you all the best with your endeavors and look forward to reading and helping promote your book.
Tom Galvani says:

October 12, 2011 at 4:01 pm

Excellent idea, Lara! I will be sure to let my clients know about this alternate avenue of relief. Any thought to creating a dedicated site for it, similar to the Chilling Effects website?
1. Lara says:
  
  October 13, 2011 at 9:32 am
  
  Thanks, Tom! I appreciate your spreading the word.
  
  I did indeed think about making it its own website, but the cost to do so was significant, so I thought it better to start small. My hope is to gain enough traction here that the press sees it as a resource and brand owners see it as a dungeon in which they never want to find themselves. 🙂 If that happens, then I likely will break it out to its own site.
Brand Bully Basement | Tom Galvani - Arizona Patent and Trademark Attorney at Parsons & Goltry says:

October 12, 2011 at 4:13 pm

[…] pushed around by someone exerting a little too much influence with a trademark can complain at Brand Bully Basement. As the forum picks up publicity, hopefully the actions complained of there will begin to recede […]
What makes a Trademark Bully? - Erik M Pelton & Associates, PLLC says:

March 27, 2012 at 4:00 am

[…] Brand Bully Basement™ hosted by brandGEEK®. They define the situation as: Trademark bullying happens when a trademark owner over-reaches in the exercise of its trademark rights. Usually, though not always, this involves a big company threatening unwarranted costly legal action against a smaller company in order to make the smaller company change its trademark. Trademark trolls — entities that fraudulently obtain trademark rights for the sole purpose of enforcing them — engage in a similar bullying behavior, though most trolls are individuals or small companies. […]

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