Copyfight and Teleread both picked up on an AP story about Homeland Security Agents Enforcing Trademark Law.

Pufferbelly Toys owner Stephanie Cox “was taken aback by a mysterious phone call from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to her small store in this quiet Columbia River town just north of Portland.”

Calls from law enforcement agents get noticed. Calls from organizations charged with securing America from terrorist threats get fretted over.

“I was shaking in my shoes,” Cox said of the September phone call. “My first thought was the government can shut your business down on a whim, in my opinion. If I’m closed even for a day that would cause undue stress.”

So her first reaction to the agent’s visit may have been releief:

When the two agents arrived at the store, the lead agent asked Cox whether she carried a toy called the Magic Cube, which he said was an illegal copy of the Rubik’s Cube, one of the most popular toys of all time.

He told her to remove the Magic Cube from her shelves, and he watched to make sure she complied.

Clearly, she then got curious about what had happened and why:

After the agents left, Cox called the manufacturer of the Magic Cube, the Toysmith Group, which is based in Auburn, Wash. A representative told her that Rubik’s Cube patent had expired, and the Magic Cube did not infringe on the rival toy’s trademark.

An agency representative to AP:

One of the things that our agency’s responsible for doing is protecting the integrity of the economy and our nation’s financial systems and obviously trademark infringement does have significant economic implications.

The agency aparently didn’t consider it important to require complainants in trademark issue to supply proof of ownership of the trademark prior to sending a pack of agents to batter down the doors of local merchants.

Six weeks after her brush with Homeland Security, Cox told The Oregonian she is still bewildered by the experience.

“Aren’t there any terrorists out there?” she said.

This story sounds spookily similar to the Bits of Freedom takedown experiment where nine out of ten ISPs blocked or deleted a public domain text at the request of a non-existant organization sending emails from Hotmail without asking for proof or informing the account-holder who’d posted the text. The difference is that ISPs are held to a lower standard of proof and process than government organizations, even those supposedly charged with securing America from terrorist threats.

Posted October 31, 2004 by Casey Bisson
Categories: Copyrights & Intellectual Property. .

83 Comments

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

 

User contributed tags for this post:

FEAR CD key (11322) - f e a r cd key (8415) - cd key f e a r (2132) - fear cd code (2054) - cd key fear (1816) - fear serial (1671) - f e a r serial (1418) - fear Serial Number (1298) - fear extraction point cd key (1098) - FEAR Key (906) - serial fear (905) - fear cdkey (840) - F E A R serial number (751) - cd code fear (571) - cd key f r F E A R (546) - SERIAL F E A R (525) - F E A R key (471) - key fear (467) - F E A R cd code (441) - CD Key f r FEAR (413) - F E A R cd keys (379) - f e a r extraction point cd key (346) - FEAR COMBAT keygen (337) - F E A R serial key (334) - fear serial key (309) - serial code fear (301) - key f e a r (295) - FEAR cd key Generator (271) - fear (265) - cd code f e a r (263) - serial number fear (245) - cd key for fear (239) - cdkey fear (234) - FEAR beta key (233) - serial code F E A R (229) - fear combat serial (218) - F E A R CDKEY (216) - fear cd keys (209) - cd code f r fear (207) - serial (202) - F E A R Download warez (197) - CD KEY do f e a r (194) - f e a r keys (189) - CdKey F E A R (186) - cd key (173) - fear key code (167) - SERIAL do fear (160) - cd key do fear (151) - Fear beta key code (146) - fear serial no (136) - F E A R key CD (127) - serial number F E A R (124) - FEAR serial code (123) - fear beta download (120) - fear serial cd key (120) - extraction point cd key (120) - cd key buy (118) - fear cd code key (116) - fear beta cd key (107) - key f r fear (107) - serial f r fear (107) - CD code f r F E A R (107) - key cd fear (105) - Cd key for F E A R (98) - fear pc serial (98) - f e a r cd key download (91) - Google Earth com (84) - F E A R KEY CODE (82) - FEAR multiplayer cd key (82) - fear bac2 (80) - cd key download (77) - fear serial key cd (77) - key code fear (76) - cd key fear extraction point (75) - FEAR cd key download (74) - f e a r serial code (74) - download cd key fear (73) - F E A R beta key (71) - serial key fear (69) - f e a r warez (68) - Fear Beta Serial (67) - fear cd key 12 (65) - cd key to F E A R (64) - F E A R CD Key Generator (61) - F E A R cd codes (61) - Fear BAC2 DEF3 NAZ3 LAM3 2742 (61) - fear serialcode (61) - here is a fear cd key (60) - CD KEY DE FEAR (59) - cd key AND f e a r (58) - free fear cd key (57) - google earth (55) - warez F E A R (55) - Cd key download fear (54) - serial fear combat (54) - Key for FEAR (53) - download f e a r CD key (53) - serial cd keys (53) - Download FEAR cd key (51) - product key for fear (51) - fear combat key generator (51) - fear combat cd key generator (51) - f e a r combat serial (48) - Cd key to Fear (47) - F E A R beta serial (46) - serial number for FEAR (46) - cd key F E A R 2005 (44) - f e a r keycode (44) - key code for fear (43) - F E A R free cd key (43) - serial do f e a r (42) - serial cd fear (42) - fear serial number sierra game (42) - FEAR Extraction Point cdkey (42) - fear game serial number (42) - f e a r warez download (40) - warez fear (40) - free f e a r cd key (40) - Fear Cd Key Serial Number (40) - fear combat serial number (39) - serial number for f e a r (39) - CD KEY FOR FEAR GAME (39) - keycode fear (39) - fear cd key OR cd key (39) - fear combat serials number (39) - cdkey f r fear (38) - serial key F E A R (37) - serial de fear (37) - fear cd key not working (37) - F E A R key generator (36) - serial key for fear (35) - cd key extraction point (35) - NEED FEAR CD KEY (34) - Fear Serialnumber (34) - fear cd (34) - fear extraction cd key (34) - key do fear (33) - f e a r multiplayer cd key (33) - serial codes for f e a r (32) - fear cd serial (32) - cd code von fear (32) - fear lan play cdkey (32) - fear extraction cd keys (32) - FEAR cd key location (31) - fear cd key warez (31) - fear combat cd key (31) - fear extraction point keygen (31) - game fear cd key (30) - f e a r (30) -