Consumer Fraud Laywer will not send documentation/ Stacy Papachristos IP assure/ scam?

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scdina

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I am a working mom with an ebay store. I was contacted by a buyer to make Alvin & the chipmunk cupcake toppers. So I did. Now I received an email stating that I need to pay a $300 as a settlement. I have asked the attorney, Stacy Papachristos IP assure, to mail me the documentation. Now she is staing that if she mails anything the $300 settlement will no longer be available. I am not sure what to do. I was under the impression that the sale of the items were fine under the fisrt sale doctrine. I can not afford an attorney nor the $300. Any advice you could give would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
 
Settlement for what?

Does the letter state clearly what the $300.00 is settlement for? It obviously has something to do with trademark and patent infringement, but playing the devil's advocate here, it does not sound quite right or legitimate; to me any ways. You should have received at the very least and in the first instance a cease-and-desist letter from an attorney connected with the Chipmunk merchandising people, threatening all manner of things if you continued making the Chipmunk toppers, and then talk about damages and settlement.

It was a good move on your part to ask for "documentation" which I presume has to do with the settlement, setting out the terms and the finality of the matter upon payment of the sum demanded and so an do forth, and you should stick to your guns until you have determined for certain the legitimacy of the claim and the identity of the attorney.

And that begs the following questions: Who was the entity you did the work for and what state did the order come from? Also, what state is the attorney from and where did her letter originate from?

fredrikklaw
 
Thank you so much for answering. I truly appreciate it. Th original request came from WA. This attorney is located in CT. I have sent an email to her "client" asking if she represents them.

This is the original email:
I represent Bagdasarian Productions LLC ("Bagdasarian") with respect to certain intellectual property enforcement matters. Bagdasarian is the exclusive owner of numerous trademarks for the ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS names and characters (hereinafter referred to as "Bagdasarian Trademarks"). In addition, my client owns numerous copyrights for the ALVIN & THE CHIPMUNKS characters and related footage (all hereinafter referred to as "Bagdasarian Copyrights").



It has recently come to my client's attention that you are blatantly infringing their federally protected Bagdasarian Trademarks, specifically by manufacturing, offering for sale and/or selling products on eBay.com bearing one or more of the Bagdasarian Trademarks, or bearing marks substantially indistinguishable thereto, and that this merchandise is unauthorized. Your unauthorized use of Bagdasarian Trademarks may constitute actionable trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and dilution in violation of federal trademark law (15 U.S.C. §§1114, 1117, and 1125) and unfair competition law. In addition, Bagdasarian as trademark holder can institute a civil action for trademark infringement, trademark dilution and unfair competition seeking permanent injunctive relief and an award of treble damages, plus counsel fees and costs , or can elect to seek statutory damages of up to $2,000,000 for willful infringement (15 U.S.C. §§ 1116 and 1117). Federal law specifically prohibits the distribution of goods or services bearing counterfeit marks and makes such activity punishable by a fine of up to $2,000,000 and a possible prison term of up to 10 years (18 U.S.C. § 2320).



Moreover, your use of Bagdasarian Copyrights constitutes actionable copyright infringement (17 U.S.C. §501). Under U.S. Copyright law, my client may be able to obtain actual damages plus any additional profits you made on the infringing products, counsel fees and costs, or statutory damages of up to $150,000 per work infringed (17 U.S.C. §504, 505).

Accordingly, we demand that you:



1. Immediately and permanently cease manufacturing, distributing, advertising, offering for sale, and/or selling any merchandise bearing any of the Bagdasarian Trademarks and/or Bagdasarian Copyrights, or any other mark that may be confusingly similar to any of Bagdasarian's Trademarks, now or in the future;



2. Immediately voluntarily surrender to Bagdasarian and/or law enforcement officials, your entire inventory of such infringing products on hand as of the date of delivery of this letter;



3. Provide Bagdasarian, within 7 days of receipt of this letter, with a report indicating separately for each product on it, the sales which you have made of products which bear any reproduction, copy, counterfeit or colorable imitation of Bagdasarian's Trademarks (quantity and price), and/or Bagdasarian Copyrights, together with your cost for each product. Copies of your records confirming your purchases and sales of such products should be enclosed with the reports;



4. Provide Bagdasarian, within 7 days of receipt of this letter, with the name(s), and address(es) of your supplier(s) for each product, which bears any reproduction, copy, counterfeit, or colorable imitation of Bagdasarian Trademarks and/or Bagdasarian Copyrights;



5. Provide Bagdasarian, within 7 days of receipt of this letter, with a report detailing the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all store jobbers, wholesalers, or other sellers or distributors to which you have sold such products which bear any reproduction, copy, counterfeit or colorable imitation of Bagdasarian Trademarks, and/or Bagdasarian Copyrights;



6. Provide Bagdasarian, within 7 days of receipt of this letter, with a detailed accounting of your profits from the distribution of products bearing any reproduction, copy, counterfeit or colorable imitation of Bagdasarian Trademarks and/or Bagdasarian Copyrights;

7. Agree to pay Bagdasarian those damages attributable to your use of simulations of Bagdasarian Trademarks, and/or Bagdasarian Copyrights, including your profits, together with any attorneys' fees and costs which Bagdasarian has sustained in connection with this matter; and


8. Confirm in writing, within 7 days of receipt of this letter, your compliance with the foregoing.


In addition, we strongly urge you not to contact any manufacturers, distributors, and/or suppliers of the counterfeit merchandise, or to take any action which would interfere with our ability to eliminate counterfeit merchandise from the marketplace and will hold you responsible for your complicity in any such actions to the maximum extent provided by law.



The demands made herein are not made to the exclusion of other remedies to which Bagdasarian is entitled and Bagdasarian specifically reserves its right to seek all remedies available to it under law as a result of your infringing activities.

If I do not receive the requested information within 7 days of your receipt of this letter, my client may be forced to take further legal action.

We await an immediate response from you or your counsel.

Sincerely,

Stacy L. Papachristos

IPAssure


Now she is saying that the settlement will be for a larger amount b/c she has to mail the documentation. The listing was pulled immediately. There is no merchandise b/c it was made to order. I thought this was covered under the first sale doctrine. What can I do? Thank you again for responding, I do appreciate it.
 
Legit she is, but is her claim?

Well, I did a little search myself and I can save you some time by telling you that she (the attorney) is in fact quite legitimate and she DOES represent the client mentioned in her e-mail, Bagdasarian Productions, who is, and has been the owner of Chipmunk Trademark since around 1969.

And of course, her e-mail does not divulge everything regarding patent and trademark infringements contained in the relevant U.S. Code, namely the First Sale Doctrine which is covered by the Title 17, Section §109 of the U.S. Code, which I don't really think applies in this situation. But all is not lost and I think you have a good shot at getting this thing off your back because what you performed sort of falls in the gray areas of the section having to do with Copyright violations; I just have to look into it a bit more.

What I can tell right away in mitigation however, is that before any fines and such can be levied against you, the company HAS to file a lawsuit first and obtain a civil judgment and cannot willy-nilly demand money for what after all is only perceived at this time to be a copyright infringement, and a biased one at that. And it is fairly unlikely, well, make that quite unlikely, that the copyright owners will initiate a full blown, Federal lawsuit on the back of such a small stepping on their toes and it is not as if you have two factories going 24 hours a day making Chipmunk-related stuff. If you notice from her e-mail, all the information that is demanded is pretty much aimed at finding the next step up in the so-called counterfeiting scheme, which in this case they are grabbing at straws.

In any ways, I would not contact them again any more at this time by which way you could be giving them more information about yourself; information they can chew on to your detriment.

So, stay tuned. I'll be back soon!

fredrikklaw
 
I'm curious, and it may have nothing to do with the legal issue, but what kind of toppers were these? Fondant? Or did you buy the images and make pick-style toppers?
 
fredrikklaw said:
well, i did a little search myself and i can save you some time by telling you that she (the attorney) is in fact quite legitimate and she does represent the client mentioned in her e-mail, bagdasarian productions, who is, and has been the owner of chipmunk trademark since around 1969.

And of course, her e-mail does not divulge everything regarding patent and trademark infringements contained in the relevant u.s. Code, namely the first sale doctrine which is covered by the title 17, section §109 of the u.s. Code, which i don't really think applies in this situation. But all is not lost and i think you have a good shot at getting this thing off your back because what you performed sort of falls in the gray areas of the section having to do with copyright violations; i just have to look into it a bit more.

What i can tell right away in mitigation however, is that before any fines and such can be levied against you, the company has to file a lawsuit first and obtain a civil judgment and cannot willy-nilly demand money for what after all is only perceived at this time to be a copyright infringement, and a biased one at that. And it is fairly unlikely, well, make that quite unlikely, that the copyright owners will initiate a full blown, federal lawsuit on the back of such a small stepping on their toes and it is not as if you have two factories going 24 hours a day making chipmunk-related stuff. If you notice from her e-mail, all the information that is demanded is pretty much aimed at finding the next step up in the so-called counterfeiting scheme, which in this case they are grabbing at straws.

In any ways, i would not contact them again any more at this time by which way you could be giving them more information about yourself; information they can chew on to your detriment.

So, stay tuned. I'll be back soon!

Fredrikklaw
Click to expand...


thank you so much!
 
irish223 said:
I'm curious, and it may have nothing to do with the legal issue, but what kind of toppers were these? Fondant? Or did you buy the images and make pick-style toppers?
Click to expand...

Thank you for responding. The toppers are the pick style. Would that make a difference?
 




OP, SCAM is spelled S_C_A_M.


This is a SCAM

Think about it, $300, for an alleged trademark violation?

Really?

A lawyer, writing a letter to collect, $300?

Come on, even a scum sucking, bottom feeding, reprobate, alcoholic, drug addicted lawyer wouldn't write a letter for less than $500.


Who spends $500 to collect $300?


SCAM, SCAM, SCAM, SCAM!!!!!!

Besides, to be sued for this crap, the suit would have to be brought in a federal court!

This is nothing but a new take on an old SCAM.

I would not communicate any further with these creeps.

I would not send them a dime.

Here's some information on this "lawyer".
My goodness, she formerly worked for Vince McMahon's band of crooks and charlatans.
Yeah, she's a real threat, three years out of law school.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/stacy-papachristos/4/966/418

But, look at what is being said about this "lawyer" on an eBay thread!

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Seller-Central/Ip-Assure-Stacy/520184969&

Look at how she "conned", err, "counseled" for her client in another matter.
She needs to repeat Legal Writing, no, she needs to repeat Freshman Comp or Business Writing 101.
Her grammar is appalling.
SCAM ALERT, SCAM ALERT, be not thee afraid, this clown couldn't draft a pleading; because it can't compose an email!

http://forums.ebay.com/db2/topic/Seller-Central/Ip-Assure-Stacy/520184969&

I guess Vince and crew grew weary of her lackluster ability to scam correctly.

The scams just keep on coming!

http://webcache.googleusercontent.c...tacy+Papachristos+IP&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

In fact, this con-artist was mentioned in athread on this very forum a year ago.

http://www.thelaw.com/forums/showthread.php?p=113866

Man, I can sniff out the malodorous, putrefied stench of a scammer at the mention of the "con".

http://www.thelaw.com/forums/showthread.php?p=113866

Just tell the con-artist to hold her breath.
Your check is in the mail.


 
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scdina said:
Thank you for responding. The toppers are the pick style. Would that make a difference?
Click to expand...

I'm not sure. If you purchased the images to make the toppers, then maybe so. I had never heard of first sale doctrine, so I did a little reading. I still don't know if it applies, but wanted to clarify for Fredrikklaw, just in case it does matter.

So, did you purchase the images to make the toppers?


@Armyjudge, I agree that it sure does sound like a scam, and I would sure contact her supposed client about her demands and methods.

However, I read the WWF/piracy article, and in it she mentions a software program that searches ebay for mention of copyrighted brands (if I read it correctly). I think what happens is that the program finds a 'violation' and generates an automatic email, which would be the first email OP received. So, I think it's possible that it's legit, but I suspect that you're right in that the client will not pursue legal action.
 
Just Ignore It!

SCDINA:

Having researched the attorney and her company and the claim, I can only say that you should not let this thing occupy your time anymore and do not spend another second fretting over the letter from the attorney and her money demands or legal threats, which for all intents and purposes, are all a whole big NOTHING!

Well yes; Stacy Papachristos is a legitimate attorney admitted to practice law in the state of Connecticut and she is also the president/owner/operator of IPAssure, a legitimate company in the form of an L.L.C. and registered as such with the Connecticut secretary of state. But she is not now and nor has she ever been counsel, attorney of record, or in-house legal counsel for Bagdasarian Productions and does not represent them per se and Bagdasarian Productions is not her client per se.

IPAssure touts itself as a Brand Protection company and Stacy Papachristos touts herself as the Infringement Negotiation and Settlement Specialist who according to her dismal website "has over ten years of intellectual property experience, and not only has stopped volumes of infringements but collects substantial monetary damages from infringers*, which greatly assists with covering the costs of the enforcement work." Now you know the reason for her demand of $300, which is really her fee since she does not get paid anything from Bagdasarian Productions.

So basically, she dredges the websites like e-Bay 24-hours a day in order to come across or find transactions like the one you were involved in. And once she spots one, she sends out the very misleading and threat-filled form letter which barks out a string of cliché sound bites about trademark infringement and copyright violations and demands a $300.00 "settlement Payment" or else!

She has no authority to commence legal proceedings, file suit or even threaten legal action on behalf of Bagdasarian Productions, hence the boiler-plate and cut-and-paste nature of her e-mail which merely recites the pertinent U.S. Codes ad nauseam. So don't go wasting your valuable time and financial resources trying to appease Stacy and her rabid claim.

It's all hot air!

fredrikklaw
 
Thank you all very much. I did send an emai to her client & I did get a response back. All the reply stated is that she does work for them & that she has her full support. Should I just wait & see what documentation is sent?
 
scdina said:
Thank you all very much. I did send an emai to her client & I did get a response back. All the reply stated is that she does work for them & that she has her full support. Should I just wait & see what documentation is sent?
Click to expand...





Don't you get it?
This is a SCAM.
You'd have to be a lunatic to send this sleazy woman a penny.
She has no standing to sue you.
I could misuse my law degree and bar admissions to so what this scuzzball is doing.
I don't, because I'm ethical.
So, send her $300 if you want to do so.
You don't have to send her anything.
If you want to give away $300, I'm sure you know of many worthy charities that would be very grateful for the contribution.


 
army judge said:



Don't you get it?
This is a SCAM.
You'd have to be a lunatic to send this sleazy woman a penny.
She has no standing to sue you.
I could misuse my law degree and bar admissions to so what this scuzzball is doing.
I don't, because I'm ethical.
So, send her $300 if you want to do so.
You don't have to send her anything.
If you want to give away $300, I'm sure you know of many worthy charities that would be very grateful for the contribution.
Click to expand...

Yes I do get it. I was simply passing on all of the info. As I am not an lawyer, I thought that the fact the client is associating themselves to her that it might make a difference. Just trying to cover all of the bases to get the best advice available. I do appreciate you all taking your time to answer the posts.
I don't plan on sending anything. I may not be an attorney, but I am not stupid ( Although I did typo Laywer instead of Lawyer in the title :) )
While I agree that she would appreciate a charitable contribution, I don't plan on paying for her X-mas presents. Thank you all again for your immediate responses.
Here's a question if she has no authority, can she mail something to me demanding money? There has to be a law against that. I would love to turn this around on the slimeball!
 
scdina said:
Yes I do get it. I was simply passing on all of the info. As I am not an lawyer, I thought that the fact the client is associating themselves to her that it might make a difference. Just trying to cover all of the bases to get the best advice available. I do appreciate you all taking your time to answer the posts.
I don't plan on sending anything. I may not be an attorney, but I am not stupid ( Although I did typo Laywer instead of Lawyer in the title :) )
While I agree that she would appreciate a charitable contribution, I don't plan on paying for her X-mas presents. Thank you all again for your immediate responses.
Here's a question if she has no authority, can she mail something to me demanding money? There has to be a law against that. I would love to turn this around on the slimeball!
Click to expand...




No worries, I didn't mean to sound demeaning, but some people believe these scams over real legal advice.
That's how these con-people steal billions every year.

I suppose you might be able to cause her a little grief.
But, this turdball is operating on the fringe of the law.
It would be very hard to get her prosecuted.

Now, if she sent you a letter through the US Mail demanding you you pay her tribute, there is something that can be done.
But, that is precisely why she uses email and not US Mail.
If you managed to get her to send you a letter through the mail (to a PO Box, not your HOME address); you could then take that letter to the US Postal Inspectors.
They could do something about this rogue, thug lawyer!

In fact, you could get her to send the letter to you, and NOT risk exposing your personal details, by telling her to send it to you; via General Delivery.
Here is how you would have her address it:

Cupcakes For You
(ATTENTION: Cuppy Cupcakes)
In care of General Delivery
My City, Mystate 00000
 
Had this same situation happen to me...I counseled with my dad's friend who is a lawyer with 35+ yrs experience, and he basically told me the same as above. Her approach is overly aggressive and intended to intimidate you but that's all - If you are a small fish in the pond - you should not worry. Just tell her that you have no products bearing her clients name, and have stopped all sales.
 
I received the same letter about the Chipmunks and paid her. Now I have one for Olivia the Pig.

Also, I have this wording on all my listings, does it actually mean anything or protect me?

Attention Vero & Customers:


All characters used for example, have a maintained copyright. These are permitted for a 1 time use for personal events. Payment & sale in this auction is for the Creative Service being provided, to include the customers text and customization to be printed for personal use only.

We ARE NOT selling the Characters.

Makaty Designs does not claim ownership over the characters used in your customized item as they belong to their respective copyright holders. We DO NOT sell the characters or clipart. These items require wording and customer information to be used for permitted purposes for PERSONAL use such as birthday parties. This item is not a licensed product and is consistent with private sale according to the first sale doctrine.
 
Hi - I just rec'd the same type of letter from this "attorney". (regarding Olivia the Pig) The same duplicate form letter. I told her that they were pulled and no sales have happened. She then proceeded to send another email and said that the client has record of at least 48 sales. I don't even have a record of that. I have no way to get a print out of exactly what was sold and to whom so how did she??

It then made me wonder that if this is such an intense legal matter, WHY didn't I receive a certified letter in the mail? Does she think that I'm stupid and am just going to believe an email? Anyone can send an email....

So I responded (before I saw this site) that I don't have record nor do I know how to get record. I don't have record of 48 sales of those items...but if she responds, what should I do? Ignore her? or ask for it in writing?


Thanks so much!
 
Hi - I just rec'd the same type of letter from this "attorney". (regarding Olivia the Pig) The same duplicate form letter. I told her that they were pulled and no sales have happened. She then proceeded to send another email and said that the client has record of at least 48 sales. I don't even have a record of that. I have no way to get a print out of exactly what was sold and to whom so how did she??

It then made me wonder that if this is such an intense legal matter, WHY didn't I receive a certified letter in the mail? Does she think that I'm stupid and am just going to believe an email? Anyone can send an email....

So I responded (before I saw this site) that I don't have record nor do I know how to get record. I don't have record of 48 sales of those items...but if she responds, what should I do? Ignore her? or ask for it in writing?


Thanks so much!
 
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