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Auburngate

contrabandhand blog — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 17:45:00 GMT

03-16-09 Ya got to wonder.....is it an Auburngate unfolding....here's an update......There were three bits of information that I wanted from A.U. related to this whole matter.....the first one of them I started trying to find out starting back in late August of last year....at that time there was no lawsuit and no talk or threat of a lawsuit.....I had gone to the Procurement Office at A.U. to see the contract between A.U. and the CLC.....they couldn't find it and ended up sending me to Sanford Hall and the Trademark Office....which lead me to Susan Smith, who is in charge of that office....to make a long story short, I never heard from Susan Smithover this six week period of trying to contact her, either by phone, email or mail even though I sent two or three emails and made numerous calls.....after A.U. filed the lawsuit in late September, the day before I had to be in court for the first time, I went to the mailbox to find an envelope from Sirote and Permutt which happened to have a copy of the CLC contract without a cover letter or note of any kind......hummm....interesting but I did finally receive a copy of this contract......It was originally initiated in 1981, signed by Don Little V.P. and was entered into without going out for bid.

Now we are up to late December.....The lawsuit ended in early December and all issues settled....I called the Comptroller's Office to Linda Pierce and was told that she was on vacation....I placed a few more calls to her in early January and continued to get voicemail so on a trip to Auburn in mid-January I stopped by her office to see her in person and she was in this time....I introduced myself again, as we had met in the fall when she had given me some general pie chart info on athletic dept. expenditures.....she said she had gotten an email about all this and she tried to find that email and couldn't at that time....so I ask her if she generally remember what it said and she said that it said not to talk to me because of the lawsuit.....I let her know that the lawsuit was over and told her that there were still two bits of information I was looking for and thought she would be the person that might have it......I told her that I wanted to know how much money Auburn paid the CLC in "07" and "08" under their contract for their services.....I told her that i also wanted to know how much money the University was billed by Sirote and Permutt for their representation in this lawsuit.....she said she would check on it and let me know......

A few days later she emailed me and said I would have to contact Susan Smith and make a "formal written request".......So on 1-14 I sent a certified written request with a return receipt to Susan Smith.....I told her what info I was looking for and suggested that I thought 10 days should be sufficient for a response from her....She received this letter on 1-16....In this request I only ask about the CLC fees as I still thought that Linda Pierce would have the other info.....On January 30th, I received a certified letter from Susan Smith dated 1-27 providing the CLC fee info.....A.U. paid the CLC $365,264 in fiscal year 2007/2008 and $333,107 in fiscal year 2006/2007....

After receiving this email, I contacted Linda Pierce once again and let her know that I had gotten that info and wondered if she had the legal fees info yet....She said no that I would also have to get that from Susan Smith so on 2-10 I sent another certified letter with return receipt to Susan Smith asking for this info....once again I suggested that I thought that 10 days should be sufficient for a response since it had already been over two months since the lawsuit ended and I felt that it would be reasonable to believe that by then the University would have been billed by Sirote and Permutt.....She received this letter on 2-11.......as of today, 33 days after Susan Smith received this second request for info, I have not heard from her....no letter, no call, no email.......AUBURNGATE.....hummmm....I don't know....there is more on this and I'll write about it in the next blog entry.....so stay turned....till then....WAR EAGLE !! M

The Final Paper Count

contrabandhand blog — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:31:00 GMT

01-26-09 The final paper count in this interesting legal adventure, for those who are counting, is: documents filed by Sirote and Permutt 316, documents filed by the Court 96 and documents filed by me 25, I definitely didn't win the "who filed the most stuff" battle !

Why

contrabandhand blog — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 23:22:00 GMT

01-17-09 Well folks, I have a thought to share about the present outcome of this little legal matter.........If you have been following this whole thing then you know that Judge Coody granted Auburn University a "Permanent Injunction" to stop me from selling my dangerous sixfinger foam hands........What I think is worth sharing is how we ended up with a "Permanent Injunction"..........There was no real hearing of what I consider the significant issues in this whole thing.........from a business point-of-view, our team, The Auburn Tigers, had done quite a sufficient job of curbing our collective enthusiasm as they disintegrated over the course of the season and became more and more disfunctional. So it turned out, as the collective enthusiasm waned, so did any interest in the dangerous sixfinger hands.....

Now that brings us to the decision to allow the "Permanent Injunction" .......I had no real interest, at the point that the lawsuit had reached total muteness, to continue beating this dead horse, so when Judge Coody, who was fully aware of the stupid muteness of this whole thing continuing, ask me if I was willing to make the "Temporary Injunction" a "Permanent Injunction"......I had no problem saying yes to ending the whole thing for now......So at that point the question was, would Judge Coody give Auburn University any "damages, cost or fees" .......and the answer was a big .......NO! Now it is my opinion that by making this decision, he was acknowledging that there are issues here that were not airtight and crystal clear......A "legal opinion" is just that "an opinion" and subject to appeal, reconsideration, reinterpretation and review.......So when the time is right, should I choose I will revisit these issues in the appropriate time and place.......not a lot of other thoughts about all of this but I do have a few more......so stay tuned if you're interested....till then......M

Scumbag Report #2

contrabandhand blog — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:32:00 GMT

01-09-09 Well it turns out that another "Scumbag Report" is called for in this whole affair so here it is.....I first conceived of this sixfinger hand thing in probably November of "07"....It was late February of last year before I had figured out how to do a website and had it up and running (which learning how to do a website was one of the main motivations for doing this project) and that I had the shipment of sixfinger foam hands.........Well now we can jump in time to mid-July........The Montgomery Auburn Alumni Club was having their fall season kick-off party at the Shriner's facility......I decided to go and bring a few of my sixfinger hands.....There were hundreds of AU fans there when I got there.......I signed in and paid my membership fee.......I looked around and noticed that to the left of the stage there was a door with "VIP" on the door.....I walked over that way and ask who was in charge .........just as I ask, a blonde female walked up and I was told that she was in charge.......I showed her one of my hands and ask her if she might like to auction them off as a fundraiser......She said "sure" .....I ask her how many she would want and she said "give me three" ....so I did.....and she went into the "VIP" room (ya know ya have to be uniquely special or have lots of money to get into the "VIP" room and I wasn't in those groups).........I went over to the bar to get a drink and as I was standing in line I noticed the booth to my right selling all kind of Auburn University stuff so I went over to the booth and ask the guy behind the booth if he had ever seen one of my foam hands....and he said "No" ....I gave him a card and said " well if you want some then give me a call" ..........So now we jump forward in time in this story by about two weeks......this is when I got my first email from the CLC.....and they told me to cease and desist selling my hands, send them all of my inventory, tell them how many I had sold, tell them how much profit I had made and then they would tell me how much I had damaged them........hummmmm.......Now we jump forward in time till the first hearing before Judge Coody on October 23rd........Susan Smith, the Trademark girl at AU was in Court testifying .......at a point she produced one of my business cards, which was then entered as an "exhibit" ........She then testified that she was given my card by a "Vendor" in Auburn........Well it took me a long time of pondering to figure out who that "Vendor" might be........I didn't even give my card to more that one or two "vendors" total.....finally It came to me.......it was the guy at the booth at the Montgomery Alum Club fall kick-off party or somebody at his company who had decided that they needed to share my card with Susan Smith.......Now that company will remain un-named to protect the guilty but they are one of the two bookstores located in Auburn and this one on College Street with a company name that has two letters in it.........So there you have it....The Second "Scumbag Report"........Definitely "Scumbag" Worthy.....There are a few more comments and observations to come yet .....so stay tuned......till then.....M

Scumbag Report

contrabandhand blog — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:59:00 GMT

01-06-09 It's time for the Scumbag Report......Ya know it turns out that there are scumbags among us and they can sneak up on ya cause they look so much like normal human beings and they can get you at the most unsuspecting times, which makes them such scumbags.....I was in Auburn on Monday, November 10th. I had decided to go by the School of Business and see if I could find a business law professor and let him or her know about this lawsuit. I thought I might be of interest since it did have to do with the University and trademark issues and I thought they might want to discuss it in class.
    Well I got to the School of Business building and ask where a business law professor might be and was told to go to the third floor so I did. I came to an office with the door open and a guy sitting behind his desk. I went in and introduced myself. After making the introduction he ask me if I was THE Mike Moody. Under the circumstances I wondered what he was really asking so I said with a grin, "Well that depends" He said he had a college roommate named Mike Moody. I didn' t recognize him at all and ask if he was talking about at Auburn and he said "yes". He said it was fall quarter of junior year. I told him that I was clueless at that point. He started telling me about who else lived there and some other details as I racked my brain trying to remember thinking that it's pretty sad to not remember somebody you had roomed with in college. Well as he talked on and on bits and pieces started coming back to me and damn I guess I had roomed with him after all.     So I told him about my foam hand and the lawsuit. I told him the case number and a bit about it all and we discussed the whole collegiate licensing thing and trademark stuff a bit. At apoint there was a female student who came to his door and needed to talk to him about a grade so I told him I was not in a hurry and walked outside while he talked to her. I walked around the corner and went to the Accounting Department since my degree was in accounting. I met the Dean and had a brief visit with him while I waited. I had left the two foam hands I had brought with me on the business law professors desk.
    Shortly I headed back to the business law professors office and the student was gone. He and I visited for a bit more and talked about some of the people we lived with and some funny things that happened durning that time including streaking at Auburn during that time. We talked for a bit and I left him one of the two foam hands and headed out thinking that it was pretty interesting to have accidentally stumbled on to a college roommate that I had managed to forget that I had.
    Well I would have thought that that was the end of this story other than now knowing how to reach him in the future should I want to. I got back to Montgomery and was paid a visit about 4:00 at my house by a U. S. Marshall who served me the Judge's "Preliminary Injunction" papers. Well there was a "Scheduling and Status Conference" on the Tuesday the 18th of November. In Court the first thing the Judge ask me was "What were you doing in Auburn the previous Monday". Well right off the top of my head I didn't remember and the Judge said that i "must not be taking this very seriously" and went on to tell me that he
could do bad things to me". He went on to say that I had been in Auburn "distributing hands", which at that point I had no clue what he was talking about. I assured him that I was taking the whole thing very seriously. He lightened up then and we moved on. I was still scratching my head wondering how in the hell he know I was in Auburn on the previous Monday unless they were following me.
    When I first sat down in Court on that day, one of the Sirote and Permutt lawyers had leaned over to my table and layed some papers on my table and explained that they had sent these papers to me the previous day and that I may not have gotten them yet, which was right. I didn' t get a chance to read these papers till I got home. The papers were Sirote and Permutt's second filing for the Court to find me in "Contempt". Well that was just more legalese with a pile of attachments until I turned over to the last page and boom there it was, a single page titled "Statement". I read this "Statement" with my mouth hanging open as I realized who had written it and sent it to Sirote and Permutt. Yes it was The Scumbag and The Scumbag was none other than the Auburn business law professor and ex-college roomate. How do ya like those apples.....gotta watch out for those Scumbags cause ya never know what kinda disguise they will have.
    Half of what he said in his sworn "Statement" was bullshit. He said that I had given him one of the two hands I had with me, which is true but he went on two say that when the student came by and I left for a bit that I had taken the other hand with me and did not come back with it. That's bullshit ! I left that other hand sitting on his desk. He also said that I had told him that I ""had given out some others around the School of Business". Again bullshit ! I didn't give anyone else in the School of Business a hand. He went on to say that later in the conversation that he ask my name again because he said "I didn't hear him if he told me his name when he first came in my office" . Again bullshit ! The first thing he ask me after I told him my name was "Are you THE Mike Moody" and we talked about all that before we ever got in to the hand and lawsuit stuff. So obviously he is not only a Scumbag but also a lier in a written "Statement" under "penalty of perjury", which is how he ended his "Statement". Unbelievable but true !! I have intentionally left The Scumbag un-named here to protect the guilty but he's one of the two business law professors at Auburn and for those of you with access to lhese Federal Court documents, his "Statement" is a matter of public record and is the last page in Sirote and Permutt's filing of November 17th. So now ya have the full Scumbag Report.

"Good Deed"

contrabandhand blog — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:55:00 GMT

01-01-09 Happy New Year out there in "War Eagle" world !! Hope everybody had a good one...Thought I would start this year and this blog with a quote from Judge Coody that he made during the first hearing in this gotta stop that hand business,......"No good deed goes unpunished".........Stay tuned, the "Scumbag" entry is coming soon......till then, be good out there in the "War Eagle" family......M

Aftermath

contrabandhand blog — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:29:00 GMT

12-30-08 Well this may be aftermath or may not be math at all.....who knows.....Auburn University did succeed in technically stopping me selling my sixfinger foam hand but the team and thereby market had already done that one. The Court did not give Auburn University any legal fees, cost or damages. So from Mikey point of view Auburn University won the battle and lost the war. My guess is that they probably spent $20,000 in legal fees and cost on this little legal adventure but what's 20 grand when ya pay off the Coach for 6 mil. How much Sirote and Permutt billed Auburn University for this one should be a matter of public record and I will make a request to know how much they spent before long and unless they do what Susan Smith, the Director of Trademarks at Auburn U. did when I ask to see the CLC contract and never answerd her phone, never returned a call or email and after 6 weeks sent a message back through Dannis Christian, the assistant to V.P. Donald L. Large Jr., who by the way is the person who signed the CLC contract for Auburn University, saying that I had to make my request "in writing" after I had sent her two previous email request asking to see the contract. Who knows? Strange things have been happening at my Auburn University so why should this be any different right. I have lots of other thoughts a observations about all this monkey business and will be posting more about all this along the way, so stay tuned if you're interested.......Happy New Year out there and War Damn Eagle !

Merry Sixfinger Christmas !!

contrabandhand blog — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 15:27:00 GMT

12-24-08 What I got from Jim Alton were three different filings: 1) "Writ of Injunction" 2) "Permanent Injunction" and 3) "Final Judgement". Guess it turns out that that Christmas Eve also was "Final Judgement" Day. Whoa! The bottom line on all this was that I was ordered to stop selling my sixfinger foam hands, which was already moot anyway. I had to keep a notice on my site saying that my sixfinger foam hand was not licensed by Auburn University. I could not have any pictures on the site with the words "Auburn and "War Eagle" on them.
        The Judge also concluded that "exceptional circumstances as defined in Burger King v, Pilgram's Pride Corp., 15 F.3d 166, 168 (11th Cir. 1994) do not exist and declines to award attorney's fees". The Judge also ordered that I be served these papers by U.S. Marshall.
        In the "Final Judgement" the Judge ruled that "each party to bear it's own cost" and "all pending deadlines are terminated and all pending motions are hereby DENIED as moot",

12-24-08 Day, Christmas Eve....Place, My House....Time 7:50am......There was a loud banging on my front door. I went out and was met by U.S. Marshall Jim Alton with papers in hand. Jim ask how I was doin' and wished me a Merry Christmas and said he had the Judge's "Permanent Injunction" , as he looked down and flipped through the paperes. He handed the papers to me and I walked him to his SUV. We chatted a minute about why it took so long for me to get these papers. I told him that the Judge had ruled on the 11th and this was 13 days later. He fumbled through some of his papers after saying that he had be given the papers on the previous Friday and that he had been to my house a few times since then but I wasn't home. I ask why he hadn't called first and he just looked a bit puzzled and shrugged. I told him I had been home most of the time. It was obvious that continuing to talk about this was not going to clear up the mystery any further so I wished him a Merry Christmas again and he did the same and off he went. So there I was with the papers in hand and the Fat Lady had sung. The Auburn Federal Sixfinger Foam Hand War was over, well maybe. Who knows? My sixfinger foam hand is in the history books but the team took care of that long before this Court. So on this day Auburn University and Santa still know where my house is.

Well Ref if ya called the game seems like you'd let both teams know !!

contrabandhand blog — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:45:00 GMT

12-23-08 Ya know, I kinda thought after our December 10th phone conference withJudge Coody that we might actually be done with the Auburn Foam Hand War but not so fast hot foot. I called the Court Clerk on the morning after our phone conference and was told that the Judge had entered a "Permanent Injunction". Now in the previous ten weeks on this legal funkyness I had been serviced by regular U.S. mail, certified U.S. mail and by personal service from a U.S. Marshall. In each case where something was mailed to me from the Court, I got it the very next day so I expected to get Judge Coody's final ruling the next day, which would have been a Thursday. I waited for the mail on Thursday and nothing there. I called back down to the Clerk on Thursday, after not getting anything from the Court and ask if the Judges's final ruling was mailed to me. She checked and checked my address, which was correct, and said yes this was mailed to me. Didn't get it Friday, didn't get it Saturday and didn't get it Monday. It was now six days since Judge Coody ruled and I had received nothing.
    I once again called down to the Clerk's office. This time I told this clerk that I had called the previous Wednesday and was told that the Judge's final ruling had been mailed to me but I had not gotten anything. He put me on hold and talked to the Dockey Clerk. He came back and told me that the Judge's ruling would be served to me in person by a Marshall and that once they "turned it over to the Marshalls, that it was out of their hands". The Marshall had already been to my house previously and had my phone number.
     I waited until the 23rd, 12 days since the Judge's ruling and still no service to me. So I filed a four page "Request for Clarification" with the Court, explaining all the stuff I just wrote here and that I still had not been served. Before 8 oclock AM the next morning, I was greeted with banging on my door. It was Marshall Jim Alton , who had served me papers twice before and surprise, on the Christmas Eve I got served and the fat lady could sing.

Two Minute Warning

contrabandhand blog — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:05:00 GMT

12-10-08 In the morning I got a Fedex copy of a fax from Sirote and Permutt, which they were letting the Judge know that they had set-up the coference call and it had a tollfree number and a passcode. After I got this letter, I called the Court Clerk and ask them how this conference call was supposed to work. The Clerk said it was implied that they (meaning Sirote and Permutt) would call me once they had the Judge on the phone. 3:00 came and no call. 3:05 came and no call. At 3:07 the phone rang and it was a female named Pam who said she was a secretary at Sirote and Permutt. She ask it I had received their notice about the call and if I had the passcode and I told her I had. I told her that I had talked to the Clerk and been told to wait for their call. She said they had the Judge on the line and I needed to call the tollfree number and use the passcode. I hung up and called.
Someone answered and said there were two parties on the line and it was being digitally recorded. The call lasted about two minutes. Judge Coody said we were at a point that we needed to end this or go on and he was prone to end it. He ask if we had agreed to make the preliminary injunction and permanent injunction. I told him that we had agreed on that when we had our "Status Conference" of November 18th. Didn't really matter to me at this point since it was pretty much moot, since the season was about to be over and with the poor perfotmance of the team there wasn't lots of enthusiasum and everybody was more focused on the possibility of #7.
Judge Coody commented that I had continued to "file" things since we seemed to have agree to settle this matter. I informed him that after Sirote and Permutt and I had discussed settling this and we had both filed out settlement agreements, that they had continued to file things. So I needed to respond and when the Court did not act, time went by and I had a deadline to file my "Response" to the Plaintiff's original "Complaint' and that I was not going to get caught in a legal techincality so I went ahead and filed my "Response". I also told Judge Coody that when Sirote and Permutt filed their settlement papers the included a "Permanent Injunction" that they had prepared for the Judge to sign and in this "Permanent Injunction" they said that this was "final". Judge Coody said he would be preparing his own injunction and ask again if I had agreed tor the "Preliminary Injunction" to be made a "Permanent Injunction" and once again I said "Yes". That was the end of the call. Click.

12-08-08 Today I got an order from Judge Coody by regular U.S. mail ordering the Sirote and Permutt gang to set-up a phone conference call at 3:00pm on December 10th for himself, me and the Sirote and Permutt. I guess we're movin' again.

Six and Out !

contrabandhand blog — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 20:21:00 GMT

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.

Hands Taken Hostage

contrabandhand blog — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:31:00 GMT

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....

11-21-08 Auburn was back. They filed " Auburn University's Response to Defendant's Settlement Proposal".

11-20-08 Auburn filed " Auburn University's Response to the Court Order of November 18, 2008. Well I thought that would put an end to all this but......not so fast Mikey. There was more to come.
11-20-08 I filed my " Settlement Proposal".

11-19-08 A friend sent me an email about an article my Michael Medallion of the website "Friends of the Program" about Judge Coody's "Memorandum Opinion". Interesting stuff.....if ya want to read it , here's the link.....http://friendsoftheprogram.net/2008/11/05/judge-stops-six-finger-year/

11-18-08 Judge Coody issued another "Order" instructing us to let him know in writing by 11-24-08 whether we have agreed to let his "Preliminary Injunction" become permanent and end this foolishness. (He didn't say "foolishnes", that was me) In Court on the 18th, the Sirote&Pernutt lawyer and I agree to have a phone chat at 3:00 on the 19th and see if we could get together on this thing.
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!

11-18-08 I received two certified letters from the Court. One was an order for a "status and scheduling conference" and was set for today at 10:00. Second, I got another "Order" for me to "show cause" why I shouldn't be held in "contempt" and this was set for 10:00 too. Got these two orders at 9:00am so I was one hustling boy to get to court by 10:00 and ya know it always happens when you're pushed for time, I got to Court and getting in there is like trying to get through security at the airport. Well of course there were 4 people ahead of me and the dude at the front of the line didn't know how to spell his name and couldn't seem to find which box on the sigh in sheet were he was supposed to sign his name if he figured out how to spell it. After about 4, blue jack wearing Federal guys jumped in to help the guy figure out what in the hell to do, he finally go out of the way so the rest of us could sign in. I got to the Courtroom about 2 minutes after 10:00. The Judge came in and the first thing he did was look at the clock. Guess I wasn't late enough for him to say anything about it because he didn't.
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 !!

contrabandhand blog — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:22:00 GMT

                    !!!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”!

Welcome

contrabandhand blog — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 18:20:45 GMT

Welcome to my blog. Please check back soon for new entries.