busybee fluffy rambles

I finally tracked down contact information for the attorney the scammers claimed to have on their counsel, and sent him an email. He almost immediately got back to me:

Thank you for finding a way to alert me that someone is fraudulently using my name and California Bar number and claiming to be associated with me or that I work for them. I greatly appreciate it.

Unfortunately, whoever is behind this scam has used other trademark related entity names and contacted other members of the public like yourself claiming that this person works for me or that I work for him/her, which is false. I have previously notified the State Bar of California that someone is misusing my name and bar number.

I am in-house counsel for [redacted]. I have no clients other than [company]. I am not a trademark attorney, and I do not know what [scammer company] is. I am not, and I have never been, associated with [scammer].

Best regards,

[redacted]

Anyway, I’ve been in communication with this attorney and he seems to want to shut these fuckers down.

So, I’m in a bit of a frustrating situation right now.

I’ve been releasing music as “Sockpuppet” since 2006, with my first album under that name released in 2009. From everything I can find online, this firmly establishes me as having “common law” trademark status; for example:

• Gerben Law: An Overview of Common Law Trademark Rights
• LegalZoom: How to Establish a Common Law Trademark
• Stan Soocher: Big Legal Battles Over Rights in Bands' Names

• Secure Your Trademark: Trademarking a band name

  The legal advice is in; the mega pop star can’t force you to drop your band name because, technically, you arrived on the music scene several years before she did. But from now on, when you mention the name of your band, people are probably going to start humming “All About That Bass.” Here, the degree of trademark protection you missed out on becomes evident.

  […]

  Key Takeaway: When two or more non-trademarked bands share the same or a similar name, the one with the highest seniority usually wins and ends up with trademark protection.

• USPTO: I Received a Letter/Email…, particularly this excerpt:

  Federal registration is not required to establish trademark rights. Even if a trademark registration expires or is cancelled, the trademark owner may continue to have “common law” rights in the mark. Common law rights arise from actual use of a mark for particular goods or services and may allow the common law user to successfully challenge another party’s use in court.

Anyway, back in 2021, I decided to try registering for a federal registered trademark on the name Sockpuppet, but it was denied because of an existing trademark on the band name “Sock Puppet Parody” which they considered to be too similar. So I decided to stick with my common-law trademark status for now and figured I’d only move forward until something came up.

And, well, something came up.