The Mikey Blog-Contrabandhand.com
Federal Lawsuit Updates
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Six and Out !
The paper count so far is: documents filed by Sirote and Permutt 315 (it's growing exponetially) documents filed by the Court 76 and documents filed by me 21, I don't think I'm winning the "who filed the most stuff" battle !
12-08-08 Well it's not over till it's over and it ain't over yet. Well at least the Auburn Federal Foam War isn't ! I thought the proverbial "Fat Lady" was tuning up to sing but she called in sick it seems.
Thanksgiving came and went. The Iron Bowl came and went. "7" didn't come at all, a Bowl Game went and The Coach went. As of today, I'm waiting to hear back from the Court about my filings of last Friday, 12-05 and then we will see where we will be going from here....Stay tuned.....This Game isn't over yet.
12-05-08 Today I filed two things, one was my response to Auburn's original "complaint" titled "Defendant's Response to Plaintiff's 'Verified Complaint For Injunctive Relief and Damages' " and a "Request for Clarification", trying to get a better feel for where this whole thing is at, at this point. As far as the sixfinger hand goes, we have definitely increased the whole "mootness" factor big time since the Iron Bowl is now history and Auburn succesfully, irrevocably eliminated any chance for me to market and sell any hands during the two weeks before the Irow Bowl. which would have been certainly the primetime to sell those babies.
Thanksgiving came and went. The Iron Bowl came and went. "7" didn't come at all, a Bowl Game went and The Coach went. As of today, I'm waiting to hear back from the Court about my filings of last Friday, 12-05 and then we will see where we will be going from here....Stay tuned.....This Game isn't over yet.
Hands Taken Hostage
Update Time 11-24-08 Finally, I got a minute from reading and filing legal papers to catch the blog up.
11-24-08 I filed a "Motion for Extenion of Time and Notice of Status". As of this afternoon, there was no ruling by Judge Coody. So that's were it's at folks.....The Auburn Federal Foam Hand War ain't over yet it seems.........I'll keep ya posted....
11-20-08 I filed my " Settlement Proposal".
11-18-08 I got home from the "Hearing" and had two more big envelopes from Sirote&Permutt. This time they were doing some "Contempt" piling on. I will say the titles of their filings are getting longer the further we go. You must be about to charge more if the title of your filing is bigger. Maybe they bill by the word. Anyway, here is what they filed "Plaintiff's Supplement to It's Motion for Order Directing Defendants to Show Cause Why Contempt Sanctions Should Not Be Imposed for Defendants' Violations of This Court's of October 30, 2008. A 29 worder...WOW!
Judge Coody then proceeded to give me a tongue lashing and told me what bad things he could do to me and how much money he could fine me. He went on to say that i was under an "Injunction" and I was not supposed to be "selling" or "giving away" or even"throwing the hands out of the car window". He then pointed out that I had been in Auburn the previous Monday and was giving out hands. I thought he might have known that because I had been in touch by phone with the Marshall who was going to serve me papers, which was the "Injunction", and thought that the Marshall probably had told Judge Coody that I was in Auburn that previous Monday. But NO! This is an interesting, disturbing and gorrie detail about how Judge Coody knew I was in Auburn on that Monday. I'll share more on this little detail later. Well the only thing I remembered about that Monday, at the time, was coming back from Auburn to Montgomery to be served the "Injunction" that he was talking about. So when I was in Auburn I had not even been "served" the "Injunction" that he was wearing me out about. There's more to this story and I will tell the "rest of the story" later. We were in Court an hour and 15 minutes. Sirote&Permutt only sent two of the "gang of three" lawyers this time. Guess they figured it would only take two of them to take me after all.
11-17-08 Hands taken Hostage... I delivered 33 hands to Samford Hall on this afternoon. They were received by Susan Nismith, the secretary for the President. Obviously wasn't important enough for Susan Smith to receive them herself. She sure had seemed to want them badly up to now. Guess she was out "shopping".
11-13-08 I got a letter from Sirote & Permutt telling me that i had been at Auburn using the name "Michael Arthurs" and asking the University for some information. Now my name is Michael Arthur. I don't know where they got the "s" but I guess they don't want me using own name. Maybe I should have told them I was the "Foam Pirate" and yes I was asking the University how much money they were paying the Collegiate Licensing Corp. each year. Does seem the University really does not want to tell how much money is involved in this deal. Susan Smith, the Director of the University's Trademark Office, certainly didn't want to show the contract that Auburn has with the CLC and refused to call me back or email me after I had ask to see this contract over a 6 week period, before they filed a law suit against me, even though I had emailed her three different times and had talked to Dannis Christian, the assistant to Susan Smith's boss , on many occasions over that six week period making the same request to her by phone. I did receive a copy of the CLC contrart mysteriously from Sirote and Permutt in the mail the day before we were to go to court for the first time.....hummmmmm
11-12-08 I mailed a letter to Sirote & Permutt letting them know I was prepared to give Auburn my hands and asking them to let me know "in writing" where they wanted my hands delivered and to who was going to be getting them.
11-10-08 I was served Judge Coody's "Writ of Injunction" and his "Memorandum Opinion" in person by U.S. Marshall Jim Alton.
11-7-08 Auburn filed "Plaintiff's Motion for Order Directing Defendants to Show Cause Why Contempt Sanctions Should Not Be Imposed For Defendants' Violations of This Court's Order of October 30th, 2009. Six pages and 18 attachments
11-7-08 Judge Coody issued an "Order" granting my "Motion for Extension of Time" .
11-6-08 I flied a "Motion for Extension of Time" to extend the time for me to file my response to Auburn's original "Complaint" till November 24th.
11-5-08 Hilary Funk, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, wrote her second article about this lawsuit. There was a color picture of my hand at the top center of the front page and underneath it is the big bold heading.'Defining Moment' about the election outcome. Hey this is one historic hand ! The article is buried online, but is on 2A in the paper version of the paper.
Here's a link:
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008811050356
11-4-08 Judge Coody issued his 22 page "Memorandum Opinion" and we had an historic election. Now this is some interesting reading folks. Probably one of the more interesting Judge's "Opinion" you'll ever read. If you want to read it, go to this link : https://ecf.almd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show_public_doc?2008cv0796-23
11-2-08 I received a "Notice of Deficiency Regarding Corporate/Conflict Statement" and a "Order/Conflict Disclosure Statement" from Judge Mark F. Fuller. So I had to let the court know if I was an "Individual" or a "Governmental Entity" . I checked and discovered that I am not a "Governmental Entity".
10-31-08 Judge Coody issued a "Writ of Injunction".
10-30-08 Judge Coody filed an "Order" granting Auburn University a "Preliminary Injunction". Basically there were four things I had to do: 1) Stop "manufacturing, producing, marketing, distributing and selling" my hands 2)Put a statement on my site saying that me and my hand "are not now, nor have they ever been,licensed to sell merchandise bearing the Auburn trademarks and service marks" 3)Turn over my remaining "inventory" to Auburn by Nov. 6th and 4) Give Auburn my first born child (oh come on just kidding) no really I had to remove any of the pictures of my hand that have "Auburn" and "War Eagle" on them, from the website. Judge Coody also made Auburn put up a $5000.00 bond. Hey these hands are getting more valuable by the minute.
Goin' Federal !!
!!!FREE the HAND!!!
11-14-08
Ok folks, if ya wanna follow the unfoldings of this Federal Lawsuit,
Case # 3:08-CV-00796
go to blog.contrabandhand.com for the blow by blow update blog.....thanks for the interest and support...M
11-03-08 As of today, Sirote & Permutt have filed and sent me 194 pages of legal documents. Now that's a lot of paper. Guess they're not on the "Save a Tree" program ! Stay tuned, more to come I'm sure.
10-29-08 I filed a "Consent" document that the judge had given us at the hearing, which said whether I wanted to keep this judge on the case or have it changed to another judge. I kept him.
10-23-08 Prelim Hearing
Montgomery, Al., Federal Court House, Rm 4b, 3:00pm. I arrived to find three expensive suit wearing attorneys from Sirote & Permutt, Timothy A. Bush, Robert R. Baugh and Stephen R. Geisler. They were accompanied by boxes of documents and Susan Smith from AU, who is in charge of the Trademark Dept. at AU. The judge was Magistrate Judge Charles S. Coody. We were there for a hearing on AU's "Motion for Preliminary Injunction". We were in court for three hours. In the end Judge Coody did not make any ruling and did not grant the injunction at the close of that hearing. Lots of interesting things were discovered and discussed including "widgets". More on that later. I did sort of get the impression that the three lawyers did not go to AU. So that's the short story on our first get together.
10-22-08 Received service by certified mail from the Court of AU's original claim and motion for a "preliminary injunction.
10-20-08 This is the original date for the hearing for AU's "Motion for Preliminary Injunction". The hearing was scheduled for 1:30pm. I was at the Federal Court House at 1:30 to be informed that a marshall was on his way to my house to deliver the notice that the hearing had been changed to 10-23-08. Great timing don't you think,since I was standing at the court house ready to go. I was there and Auburn University wasn't. Hummmm
10-17-08 I filed my "Response in Opposition to Motion for Preliminary Injunction".
10-15-08
This is when Hilary Funk, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, broke the story of AU suing me.
9-29-08/When AU went legal on me
The power of sixfingers "Free the Hand" An Update As of today, our beloved Alma Mater has filed a Federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for The Middle District, Eastern Division against me, my fun little sixfinger foam hand and this little lemonade stand project of mine. Now this information came to me by U.S. mail from a law firm in Birmingham, AL named Serote & Permutt. It was a big pile of documents for sure. There were 24 very legal and impressive pages of lawsuit and 34 pages of attachments, for a total of 58 pages. That’s about ½ inch thick of taxpayer paid-through Auburn University-coming to get me lawsuit. Actually this stack of legal papers is only a quarter inch short of being as thick as my foam sixfinger hand. Seems they believe that me and my hand are “unfairly competing” with the University and that I’m misleading all of you folks into believing that Auburn University has sponsored and/or endorsed the sixfinger foam hand. Now I don’t know how much taxpayer money has already been spent by Auburn University to have the good folks over at Serote & Permutt prepare this pile of papers and file this lawsuit against me in Federal Court in Montgomery. WOW! and “War Eagle” (well guess I might not should say “WAR EAGLE” in this little note as the University might file another law suit against me)….Stay tuned for the Federal sixfinger foam hand updates….I guess all I have to say at this point is:
DON”T TASE ME BRO”!
11-14-08
Ok folks, if ya wanna follow the unfoldings of this Federal Lawsuit,
Case # 3:08-CV-00796
go to blog.contrabandhand.com for the blow by blow update blog.....thanks for the interest and support...M
11-03-08 As of today, Sirote & Permutt have filed and sent me 194 pages of legal documents. Now that's a lot of paper. Guess they're not on the "Save a Tree" program ! Stay tuned, more to come I'm sure.
10-29-08 I filed a "Consent" document that the judge had given us at the hearing, which said whether I wanted to keep this judge on the case or have it changed to another judge. I kept him.
10-23-08 Prelim Hearing
Montgomery, Al., Federal Court House, Rm 4b, 3:00pm. I arrived to find three expensive suit wearing attorneys from Sirote & Permutt, Timothy A. Bush, Robert R. Baugh and Stephen R. Geisler. They were accompanied by boxes of documents and Susan Smith from AU, who is in charge of the Trademark Dept. at AU. The judge was Magistrate Judge Charles S. Coody. We were there for a hearing on AU's "Motion for Preliminary Injunction". We were in court for three hours. In the end Judge Coody did not make any ruling and did not grant the injunction at the close of that hearing. Lots of interesting things were discovered and discussed including "widgets". More on that later. I did sort of get the impression that the three lawyers did not go to AU. So that's the short story on our first get together.
10-22-08 Received service by certified mail from the Court of AU's original claim and motion for a "preliminary injunction.
10-20-08 This is the original date for the hearing for AU's "Motion for Preliminary Injunction". The hearing was scheduled for 1:30pm. I was at the Federal Court House at 1:30 to be informed that a marshall was on his way to my house to deliver the notice that the hearing had been changed to 10-23-08. Great timing don't you think,since I was standing at the court house ready to go. I was there and Auburn University wasn't. Hummmm
10-17-08 I filed my "Response in Opposition to Motion for Preliminary Injunction".
10-15-08
This is when Hilary Funk, a reporter for the Montgomery Advertiser, broke the story of AU suing me.
9-29-08/When AU went legal on me
The power of sixfingers "Free the Hand" An Update As of today, our beloved Alma Mater has filed a Federal lawsuit in the United States District Court for The Middle District, Eastern Division against me, my fun little sixfinger foam hand and this little lemonade stand project of mine. Now this information came to me by U.S. mail from a law firm in Birmingham, AL named Serote & Permutt. It was a big pile of documents for sure. There were 24 very legal and impressive pages of lawsuit and 34 pages of attachments, for a total of 58 pages. That’s about ½ inch thick of taxpayer paid-through Auburn University-coming to get me lawsuit. Actually this stack of legal papers is only a quarter inch short of being as thick as my foam sixfinger hand. Seems they believe that me and my hand are “unfairly competing” with the University and that I’m misleading all of you folks into believing that Auburn University has sponsored and/or endorsed the sixfinger foam hand. Now I don’t know how much taxpayer money has already been spent by Auburn University to have the good folks over at Serote & Permutt prepare this pile of papers and file this lawsuit against me in Federal Court in Montgomery. WOW! and “War Eagle” (well guess I might not should say “WAR EAGLE” in this little note as the University might file another law suit against me)….Stay tuned for the Federal sixfinger foam hand updates….I guess all I have to say at this point is:
DON”T TASE ME BRO”!
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