Trademark Victory by E.Z.

[E.Z. Earl]

The latest on the on-going trademark battle with the Ogre of the Midwest is good news. This week the P.T.O. office granted Branding Iron Foods final registry of "E.Z. Earl's Blazin'-Hot" trademark. Some of you may remember this battle began nearly two years ago. Establishing rights to a tradename seems to always involve a tough battle with some giant corporation with deep pockets. - Whew! E.Z.

P.S. - A new (and final) sauce is going to soon join the E.Z. family of products.

[POTAWIE]

Fight the power Earl. Good stuff;)

[Canuk Pepperhead]

Awsome to hear!!!

[dreamtheatervt]

Congrats!

New sauce = good!
Final ... say it ain't so!

[thehotpepper.com]

Yay!

[LUCKYDOG]

Awesome EZ

[E.Z. Earl]

Thanks people for the kind cudos on this victory.

If you are in - or are facing - a similar tradmark task I can advise you that you need to finesse your way through it. Especially if you are facing the type of for I faced. My opponent is ranked as the largest, privately held, debt free corporaation in the world :shocked: Needless to say I probably rank as the smallest.

I took my first shot back in 2005. Even though their claim was ridculous, I went down in flames for lack of gold to fight the battle. I lost both valuable time and the filing fees, plus a little legal fees. Then I evalluated their claims, found the chinks in the stone wall, and put together a finesse approach that won me basically the same T/M - or at least it will look like it on the label! That is the secret!

Now, I don't particularly care to post the details of this end run on a public blog, but if you are fighting the good T/M battle and would like to know how (and what) I did, feel free to contact me by P.M. - E.Z. :party:

[DevilDuck]

Good for you E.Z. I may be in for the same thing down the road. Really, have you Googled Devil Duck? There's camping equipment with that name!!!

I'll keep you in mind if anything ever happens.

Again, congrats on the victory!

[bentalphanerd]

Congrats EZ. Tactics will always win over brute strength. Sounds like you may be able to offset some of your costs with a book deal. EZ Earl v/s Goliath.

[E.Z. Earl]

Good for you E.Z. I may be in for the same thing down the road. Really, have you Googled Devil Duck? There's camping equipment with that name!!!

I'll keep you in mind if anything ever happens.

Again, congrats on the victory!

Actually you may be in pretty good shape with that. I believe the catagory for camping gear will be far removed from the one in which you will need to register for hot sauces. We are in Catagory 30 I believe. However if you are serious I would not wait too long to protect yourself. Be sure you affix a "T.M." to everything right now. EVERYTHING EVERYTIME Then when you file you need to answer two key questions: When was it first used, and when was it first used in commerce (selling somthing). I always claim first use as the date I first decided on the name and wrote it down in my business plan. Then I attempt to execute a "trial order" with some close business associate and keep a copy of that invoice as proof of first commercial use. Of course, the earlier these dates the more difficult it is for an opponent to register it with later use dates!

There is much more! - E.Z.

[E.Z. Earl]

Congrats EZ. Tactics will always win over brute strength. Sounds like you may be able to offset some of your costs with a book deal. EZ Earl v/s Goliath.

As I said - not sure I want to publicize to Goliath how I worked the sting on him. I have however written two novels -"Beaver Down" and "First Hostage". Maybe they will do the trick if I can only figure out how to get them published. - E.Z.

[E.Z. Earl]

Thanks, Krusty!! Your a funny guy :lol: - E.Z.

[Omri]

Thanks, Krusty!! Your a funny guy :lol: - E.Z.
Who were you talking to? :shocked:

[LinNJoe]

Thanks people for the kind cudos on this victory.

If you are in - or are facing - a similar tradmark task I can advise you that you need to finesse your way through it. Especially if you are facing the type of for I faced. My opponent is ranked as the largest, privately held, debt free corporaation in the world :shocked: Needless to say I probably rank as the smallest.

I took my first shot back in 2005. Even though their claim was ridculous, I went down in flames for lack of gold to fight the battle. I lost both valuable time and the filing fees, plus a little legal fees. Then I evalluated their claims, found the chinks in the stone wall, and put together a finesse approach that won me basically the same T/M - or at least it will look like it on the label! That is the secret!

Now, I don't particularly care to post the details of this end run on a public blog, but if you are fighting the good T/M battle and would like to know how (and what) I did, feel free to contact me by P.M. - E.Z. :party:

Well, if you care to tell us the details about this privately, EZ, please feel free to do so. At the least, we'd love to know what corporate entity you were tilting at windmills with for this. ;)

- Joe

[RTK]

Actually you may be in pretty good shape with that. I believe the catagory for camping gear will be far removed from the one in which you will need to register for hot sauces. We are in Catagory 30 I believe. However if you are serious I would not wait too long to protect yourself. Be sure you affix a "T.M." to everything right now. EVERYTHING EVERYTIME Then when you file you need to answer two key questions: When was it first used, and when was it first used in commerce (selling somthing). I always claim first use as the date I first decided on the name and wrote it down in my business plan. Then I attempt to execute a "trial order" with some close business associate and keep a copy of that invoice as proof of first commercial use. Of course, the earlier these dates the more difficult it is for an opponent to register it with later use dates!

There is much more! - E.Z.

I agree, there is also the poor man's copywrite used with song writing. You mail yourself a copy of the song and keep the post marked envelope sealed incase you have to go to court. Definitly getting your sauce on a store shelf or selling to a friend over the net (with reciepts) will cover you.

[thehotpepper.com]

I agree, there is also the poor man's copywrite used with song writing. You mail yourself a copy of the song and keep the post marked envelope sealed incase you have to go to court. Definitly getting your sauce on a store shelf or selling to a friend over the net (with reciepts) will cover you.
Copyrights and TMs are two different animals. And the poor man's copyright will not hold up in any court. Think about it. You could mail yourself an unsealed envelope for the postmark and seal it later with whatever you want inside. Registering copyrights is cheap, when something important is at stake don't risk it.

[RTK]

Copyrights and TMs are two different animals. And the poor man's copyright will not hold up in any court. Think about it. You could mail yourself an unsealed envelope for the postmark and seal it later with whatever you want inside. Registering copyrights is cheap, when something important is at stake don't risk it.

Good point, oops.

[imaguitargod]

The latest on the on-going trademark battle with the Ogre of the Midwest is good news. This week the P.T.O. office granted Branding Iron Foods final registry of "E.Z. Earl's Blazin'-Hot" trademark. Some of you may remember this battle began nearly two years ago. Establishing rights to a tradename seems to always involve a tough battle with some giant corporation with deep pockets. - Whew! E.Z.

P.S. - A new (and final) sauce is going to soon join the E.Z. family of products.
I remember when you first announced the battle. I am boubling over with joy (either that or it's Diarrhea).

A NEW product.....I'm interested! Oh Oh! Send me some! Jon Want! Gimme gimme gimme!

[E.Z. Earl]

Thanks to all of you on your comments. I will get back on here and answer some questions in a bit, but at present I am dealing with a horse riding accident in which I herniated a disk and have a pinched sciatic nerve. Ouch!! I have just had an epidermal shot to the spine and hope that does the trick. Meanwhile I am buried :!: Hope to respond soon. I will soon make samples of the "Spicy-Hot Sauce (milder) available to THP if he is interested in reviewing it. (You too, Jon!)
E.Z.

[thehotpepper.com]

Get well soon!

[imaguitargod]

Thanks to all of you on your comments. I will get back on here and answer some questions in a bit, but at present I am dealing with a horse riding accident in which I herniated a disk and have a pinched sciatic nerve. Ouch!! I have just had an epidermal shot to the spine and hope that does the trick. Meanwhile I am buried :!: Hope to respond soon. I will soon make samples of the "Spicy-Hot Sauce (milder) available to THP if he is interested in reviewing it. (You too, Jon!)
E.Z.

Wow, sorry to hear that and hope you get on the fast track to recovery. About a year and a half ago my neighbor fell off a horse he was riding. The horse WAS standing still at the time. The guy was drunk. Broke his back (he got better though). hehehe

I'd love to review your new sauce, just pm me when you are ready and I'll shoot you my new address.