"Violation of Intellectual property rights"?

[Red Hook]

Another thing to note is that Doug's site has a wide range of features that are not found on the ComicLink site. The articles section, The vault, the arrangement of the search criteria, .....I really have a hard time seeing any major similiarities except in the ability to bid on a book. EBay has that, Metropolis has that now (I doubt whether they will hear from Josh), as do any number of other selling sites.

[namisgr]

The concept and features are not at issue, I believe.

 

Trade Secret (from LegalDefinition.com): A device, method or formula that gives one an advantage over the competition and which must therefore be kept secret if it is to be of special value. A trade secret can be almost any piece of information/technical or otherwise, that is not a matter of common knowledge in the field or trade; has some recognizable value and is or can be used continuously to competitive advantage; has some degree of definiteness or concreteness; and  reasonable steps have been taken to maintain its confidential or secret nature.

 

Any chance there is something that might meet the definition of "trade secret" in the programs/code that run the CL website?

[The Brain]

Like you'r team crest RED.

[metropoliscomics]

Hold it. Hold Everything! Just saw this come over from UPI.

 

MAN ARRESTED WITH STOLEN CODE

 

Douglass P Schmell, local comic dealer and former lawyer, was arrested early this morning after local police uncovered a stash of stolen code located in various parts of his apartment. "I've never seen anything like it. There was code everywhere. Under his mattress, on top of the fridge. There was some much stolen code, you couldn't ever move around the place." stated police chief Thomas Murphy.

District attorney Susan Kennedy was quoted as stating "The matter is under investigation. However, we fell confident in the case we have against Mr. Schmell. We have been able to recover a significant amount of the stolen code from local businesses that Mr. Schmell patronized including the Starbucks on Passiac Street and the Key Food on 3rd Avenue."

 

 

 

 

Wow, I guess that clinches it. I am shocked.

[PovertyRow]

...My thoughts are how long will it be before Josh's lawyers subpoena this thread to use against Doug showing how the BSD's of the comic industry are comparing the two websites as indeed similar?....that add was printed for more than a mechanism to vent off steam folks,...it was to stir the pot,...which you all did quite nicely,...I'd say it won't be long now before the good people at CGC are contacted by Mr. Nathanson's attorneys......

 

Certainly not inconceivable. That already happaned to me when Ray Ferry and F.J. Ackerman were going to court over issues regartding the magazine Famous Monsters Of Filmland. I and many others recived - as best as I can call them - "e-mal supoenas" - from Ferry's lawyers trying to bring into evidence things we expressed on the AOL Horror Film message board. AOL caved like malnourished mice and gave them our names and addresses as well, which were duly noted on the e-mail.

 

Absolutley nothing came of it.

[namisgr]

Hold it. Hold Everything! Just saw this come over from UPI.

 

MAN ARRESTED WITH STOLEN CODE

 

Douglass P Schmell, local comic dealer and former lawyer, was arrested early this morning after local police uncovered a stash of stolen code located in various parts of his apartment. "I've never seen anything like it. There was code everywhere. Under his mattress, on top of the fridge. There was some much stolen code, you couldn't ever move around the place." stated police chief Thomas Murphy.

District attorney Susan Kennedy was quoted as stating "The matter is under investigation. However, we fell confident in the case we have against Mr. Schmell. We have been able to recover a significant amount of the stolen code from local businesses that Mr. Schmell patronized including the Starbucks on Passiac Street and the Key Food on 3rd Avenue."

 

Wow, I guess that clinches it. I am shocked.

 

 

Still, someone other than Doug put together the programs to run his site...

[stynxno]

Hold it. Hold Everything! Just saw this come over from UPI.

 

MAN ARRESTED WITH STOLEN CODE

 

Douglass P Schmell, local comic dealer and former lawyer, was arrested early this morning after local police uncovered a stash of stolen code located in various parts of his apartment. "I've never seen anything like it. There was code everywhere. Under his mattress, on top of the fridge. There was some much stolen code, you couldn't ever move around the place." stated police chief Thomas Murphy.

District attorney Susan Kennedy was quoted as stating "The matter is under investigation. However, we fell confident in the case we have against Mr. Schmell. We have been able to recover a significant amount of the stolen code from local businesses that Mr. Schmell patronized including the Starbucks on Passiac Street and the Key Food on 3rd Avenue."

 

 

 

 

Wow, I guess that clinches it. I am shocked.

 

[Silver Surfer]

Hold it. Hold Everything! Just saw this come over from UPI.

 

MAN ARRESTED WITH STOLEN CODE

 

Douglass P Schmell, local comic dealer and former lawyer, was arrested early this morning after local police uncovered a stash of stolen code located in various parts of his apartment. "I've never seen anything like it. There was code everywhere. Under his mattress, on top of the fridge. There was some much stolen code, you couldn't ever move around the place." stated police chief Thomas Murphy.

District attorney Susan Kennedy was quoted as stating "The matter is under investigation. However, we fell confident in the case we have against Mr. Schmell. We have been able to recover a significant amount of the stolen code from local businesses that Mr. Schmell patronized including the Starbucks on Passiac Street and the Key Food on 3rd Avenue."

 

 

 

 

Wow, I guess that clinches it. I am shocked.

 

Did they find any raw books under the mattress? Is he pressing?

[Bronty]

I have an opinion but wil keep it to myself for now.

 

Steve

 

So much for that

[drbanner]

Hold it. Hold Everything! Just saw this come over from UPI.

 

MAN ARRESTED WITH STOLEN CODE

 

Douglass P Schmell, local comic dealer and former lawyer, was arrested early this morning after local police uncovered a stash of stolen code located in various parts of his apartment. "I've never seen anything like it. There was code everywhere. Under his mattress, on top of the fridge. There was some much stolen code, you couldn't ever move around the place." stated police chief Thomas Murphy.

District attorney Susan Kennedy was quoted as stating "The matter is under investigation. However, we fell confident in the case we have against Mr. Schmell. We have been able to recover a significant amount of the stolen code from local businesses that Mr. Schmell patronized including the Starbucks on Passiac Street and the Key Food on 3rd Avenue."

 

 

 

 

Wow, I guess that clinches it. I am shocked.

 

Did they find any raw books under the mattress? Is he pressing?

 

What about butter? Were there any petrified butter bricks??

[BachelorOfComix]

Hold it. Hold Everything! Just saw this come over from UPI.

 

MAN ARRESTED WITH STOLEN CODE

 

Douglass P Schmell, local comic dealer and former lawyer, was arrested early this morning after local police uncovered a stash of stolen code located in various parts of his apartment. "I've never seen anything like it. There was code everywhere. Under his mattress, on top of the fridge. There was some much stolen code, you couldn't ever move around the place." stated police chief Thomas Murphy.

District attorney Susan Kennedy was quoted as stating "The matter is under investigation. However, we fell confident in the case we have against Mr. Schmell. We have been able to recover a significant amount of the stolen code from local businesses that Mr. Schmell patronized including the Starbucks on Passiac Street and the Key Food on 3rd Avenue."

 

 

 

 

Wow, I guess that clinches it. I am shocked.

 

Did they find any raw books under the mattress? Is he pressing?

 

What about butter? Were there any petrified butter bricks??

Oh no.

[Red Hook]

This reminds me a little of the case where Amazon.com tried to stop Barnes and Noble from using it's one-click purchasing technology, claiming it had a patent. Here is a story I found on the web this morning....it's a little dated but I think it's relevant.

 

 

NEWS

 

One Year Ago: Amazon Loses Round in 1-Click Patent Case

 

By Lori Enos

www.EcommerceTimes.com,

Part of the ECT News Network

02/15/02 6:25 PM PT

 

The setback in the patent case may slow the revenue stream Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was expecting from the company's patented 1-Click technology.

 

 

Barnesandnoble.com (Nasdaq: BNBN) scored a legal victory over rival e-tailer Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) when the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. lifted a preliminary injunction that had barred Barnesandnoble.com from using one-click Web shopping technology .

In its ruling, the court said that Barnesandnoble.com "raised substantial questions as to the validity" of Amazon's 1-Click patent, which allows returning customers to buy a product without repeatedly filling out personal information.

 

"We have said throughout this case that we do not intend to sit back and allow Amazon.com to stake a claim upon any technology that is widely used." Barnesandnoble.com said. "Allowing [Amazon] to do so abridges our rights as a leader in e-commerce , but more important, limits the choices of customers."

Each party has expressed the belief that it will win the case when the suit goes to trial on September 10th.

 

 

The preliminary injunction was originally issued in December 1999 by the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Washington after Amazon sued Barnesandnoble.com, claiming that the rival bookseller was infringing on Amazon's patent.

 

According to Amazon, Barnesandnoble.com was using a "copycat version" of its 1-Click technology.

 

On the Battlefront

 

At the heart of the lawsuit is the question of whether one-click Web shopping technology can be patented.

"Being a pioneer and innovating for customers is always hard," said Amazon chief executive officer Jeff Bezos when the suit was first filed. "We spent thousands of hours to develop our 1-Click process, and the reason we have a patent system in this country is to encourage people to take these kind of risks and make these kind of investments for customers."

 

However, in the months since the suit was filed, analysts and Web shoppers have come forward to criticize Amazon for patenting technology that they believe is too simple to be patented.

 

Money Train

 

Amazon is battling hard to protect its 1-Click patent not only because its use can set the e-tailer apart from the competition, but also because licensing the technology to other e-tailers could prove lucrative for the Seattle, Washington- based company.

In September, Amazon licensed the technology and the "1-Click" trademark to Apple Computer for use at the computer company's online store.

 

In a similar step, the giant e-tailer last week unveiled its Amazon Honor System, a payment-gathering program that allows participating Web sites to leverage Amazon's 1-Click technology to process small payments.

"It's a clever move," Gartner Group financial services analyst Avivah Litan told the E-Commerce Times at the time. According to Litan, the new payment program could be a signal that Amazon is seriously exploring becoming an online payment vendor.

 

 

Stock Drop

 

 

In other Amazon news, Prudential Securities analyst Mark Rowen downgraded Amazon stock to a sell rating in a research note.

 

Rowen lowered his price target on Amazon from US$20 to $9.

 

 

So I would have to believe that even if Comiclink had filed a patent on it's technology (which I seriously doubt), and could prove that it was the first one to ever use it, they would still not be able to stop other sellers from using it.

 

I think CL would be wise not to pursue this.......Amazon brought down a lot of consumer wrath on itself by taking this bullying position. I believe ComicLink would suffer greatly if it followed up on this, if this is indeed what is going on.

[joe_collector]

Yeah, that;'s assuming CL spent a few hundred thousand $$$ submitting and proofing their patent, waited several years for the confirmation, and has proved it was their sole design not in previous use, and has....

 

Which I seriously doubt..

 

Look up "strong-arming" and you'll see what this is all about.

[joe_collector]

"We spent thousands of hours to develop our 1-Click process, and the reason we have a patent system in this country is to encourage people to take these kind of risks and make these kind of investments for customers."

 

I think Amazon needs to find some new developers, or hire a PR guy who can lie better.

[OldGuy]

What about butter? Were there any petrified butter bricks??

 

Oh good lord, I had to leave my office I was laughing so hard.

[THE_BEYONDER]

comiclink User Learning the Ropes 08/24/04 09:05 PM Reading a post in flat mode

"Violation of Intellectual property rights"?

 

 

[Silver Surfer]

[OldGuy]

comiclink User Learning the Ropes 08/24/04 09:05 PM Reading a post in flat mode

"Violation of Intellectual property rights"?

 

 

 

[Aman619]

Thats it?

A juicy topic like this dies out after a quick flurry of posts??

What will all our critics think? That we've gone soft??

Where's the anger? Where's the outage? Where's the taking sides and personal attacks?

where where where???

 

[Mr. Zipper]

Thats it?

A juicy topic like this dies out after a quick flurry of posts??

What will all our critics think? That we've gone soft??

Where's the anger? Where's the outage? Where's the taking sides and personal attacks?

where where where???

 

 

 

I think folks are just waiting for the other shoe to drop...