Since my first post regarding junk mail stats, I have set the tone for this blog as the place to discuss how to stop junk mail and save trees. With this, I came up with a name, EarthMailFree, meaning to help the earth free itself from mail. I write this on my own time, discuss a topic that I care about, and I don’t make a dime out of this. The world needs our help, and I’m here trying to put our strengths together for a better cause.
And yet, here I am, talking about the continuing progress of my current battle with Earth Class Mail over violating their trademark. As of now, they have confirmed that this is for real and an email was sent to me from their legal counsel, Perkins Coie, LLP, yesterday afternoon. Needless to say, I am quite upset by the emails I’ve been getting from Earth Class Mail. In their last legal mail, they want me to cease and desist the use of this domain name “EARTHMAILFREE.” the “designation EARTHCLASSMAIL.”
Email Reply From Earth Class Mail to My Previous Post
The followup post from Mr. Cameron Powell of Earth Class Mail was received in my email inbox at 11:02am yesterday morning, October 29, 2008. Herein lies the content of the email (numbers, address info omitted):
_________________________________________________________
Dear jclayton,
I’ve noted your blog posting of today, in which you question the authenticity of my email to you, cast unsupported aspersions on unspecified business practices of our company that you imply are somehow related to our demands regarding our trademark rights, “smell more stinky fish,” and request feedback and legal advice.
I will not offer legal advice, except to say that I must counsel you to locate, expeditiously, a competent specialist in trademark law.
You have said you are, and appear to be, a technically-savvy individual. You know as well as I do how to determine if an email comes from who it purports to come from.
Your first certified letter is on its way.
And because you have indicated a willingness to tiptoe up to and perhaps over the line of business libel and defamation, you will shortly receive another letter, this time from our outside counsel. Your deadline for compliance in handing over the infringing domain name will be moved up to Wednesday, November 5. And the cost-free nature of the settlement terms already proposed will naturally change with any additional time or money we spend on this matter.
Sincerely,
Cameron Powell | General Counsel
_______________________________________________________________________
Legal Email From Perkins Coie, LLP
Later that afternoon, Perkins Coie, their legal representation, sent me the following email at 4:02pm, October 29, 2008. Original file was in PDF format, now converted into individual images. Click through to see the enlarged sizes.
Earth Class Mail / Perkins Coie Legal Letter Page 1
Earth Class Mail / Perkins Coie Legal Letter Page 2
My Response To Earth Class Mail
In regards to your request to cease and desist the use of this domain, I will consult an attorney on how best to proceed.
In regards to the second item, as a sign of good faith, I will retract the statements that relates to “fishy business”, even though this is perfectly within my rights to offer and express my opinion.
To the World – Looking for Attorney Reference
I’m just your average Joe with a day job. Legal jargon is unfortunately not my strong suit. So this is my shout out to the world to offer some advice on how I should proceed. I live in Los Angeles, California, so if you happen to be a lawyer specialized in trademark infringment and have taken an interest in representing me in this case, I urge you to contact me privately at jclaytonj (at) live (dot) com. I will of course look for my own representation at the same time. But whatever I decide to do, everyone on the Internet will be able to see how this progresses and ends.
Meanwhile, just to make sure that my continued posting does not get interrupted, I will be creating additional blogs on WordPress containing full copies of all my posts here, minus any possible “false and defamatory” statements, if any, about Earth Class Mail.
This is not a newspaper. Neither is this a publication. This is a pure and simple blog where I can exercise my First Amendment rights to speak my mind. So I will continue to voice my opinions and write about what I believe is right.
October 30, 2008 at 1:41 pm
[...] UPDATE (10/30/2008): At 11:02am yesterday morning, I received an email stating that this is real. At 4:06pm yesterday afternoon, I received an email from their law firm, Perkins Coie, LLP, demanding that I “retract and remove these comments from your website immediately” and also cease and desist the use of this domain. Since they have authenticated this letter, I have retracted the requested statements. I write more about the new developments in the next post. Read it here -> [...]
October 30, 2008 at 3:58 pm
You might want to get an attorney to look at this before you post any more stuff about anything with “Earth” and “Mail” in it. Because your business competes with Earth Class Mail you may not be protected by First Amendment rights as you appear to think you are. Free advice worth the price you paid for it, so I’d strongly suggest you get a real lawyer involved (and probably remove the potentially harmful content until you do – you can always re-port it later but you don’t want to appear “willful” in your actions). Also, check out the landmark domain name law case around sportys.com.
October 30, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Thank you for your advice. As a clarification, I am not a business. This is simply a personal blog talking about the earth and our environment.
October 31, 2008 at 8:21 am
This is madness. In your own way, you are helping this company by promoting the same values. They should thank you.
From abroad(I’m Canadian), suing for far-fetched reasons seems like a national sport in the US. This is nothing to change this reputation.
Your cause is a good one. I hope you will succeed in your battle. The best I can do for you is spread the word about your cause and let people know about this kind of controversial company.
October 31, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Pierre, thank you for your comment. It actually makes me feel better to see that I won’t be alone out there. See you back in twitter!
November 18, 2008 at 7:21 pm
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