The Plot Thickens . . . . #16

Be sure to read post #15 first, it is the lead-in for this post. New Ranchers might want to go all the way to the bottom and read your way up to get the full picture.

The letter posted by spam-queen references a Missouri lawsuit styled "American Plastic Equipment, Inc. v. Toytrackerz LLC." But . . . wait . . . I thought Toytrackerz had sued American in Kansas??

Yes we have and that lawsuit has been pending since January 2006. However, things weren't looking too good for American and its minions in Kansas. They were facing a default judgment and had pretty much been told by the judge that he was going to dismiss Noah and I, as individuals, from the suit for lack of service.

They had also LOST at the federal level when the trademark court decided to uphold the default judgment that cancelled Jay's registration in the trademark 'MARX.' I repeat, Jay Horowitz and American Plastic do NOT hold the Marx federal trademark registration. It is as dead as the proverbial doornail and has been for some time. So, my friends, interpret those ads and sales that claim to be 'Officially Licensed' Marx items with this information in mind. I could give you a 'license' to sell the Brooklyn Bridge or I could say I am 'licensed' to sell the Brooklin Bridge. Just how much is that really worth.

But, I digress. Things are not going well in Kansas and at the federal level for American. So, what did they do? They jumped the border to Missouri and filed their own bright shiny lawsuit against us, using essentially the same documents. Yes, a Florida corporation based in Ohio sued a Kansas company in Missouri. . . . .

In order to do that, they claimed we had done business in Missouri. Jay's attorney also made sure we did business in Missouri by calling up one of his lawyer buddies across the border and having one of his people buy something off of our website the night before he filed the papers. I guess his motto is "If you don't have jurisdiction and venue, then manufacture it!!" Personally, I think it gives a good idea of who we are dealing with. What do you think?

So, instead of dealing with the actual merits of the arguments and finishing up the Kansas case, I've been embroiled in filing motions to dismiss and to transfer the case back to Kansas and other technicalities.

The Missouri case was pretty obviously filed for a number of reasons:

1. Things were going downhill for American in Kansas. They jumped the border in an attempt to clean the slate and get a fresh start.

2. They are trying to avoid paying all the fees needed to properly stand up and litigate at the federal trademark court and 'sue on the cheap.'

3. They left out a LOT of very material facts [such as the fact that the old Marx company had been sold at least twice between Louis Marx and Jay Horowitz] in an attempt to make themselves look better. I say it was to deceive the court and try to obtain an advantage.

4. It is an obvious attempt to harrass and intimidate and take back the initiative. Well, that failed. I regularly check up on Jay's lawyer and how his other cases are going [not well, I might add] and found his little 'surprise' on the Missouri database the day after it was filed. That gave me a month to register to practice in Missouri, do my research and meet with other lawyers to make sure I knew what I needed to know to litigate in another state. So, when my friend, the deputy, showed up at the front door with the papers, it was no surprise, just the opening bell in another round. I came out swinging. So much for the element of surprise . . .

Several motions are before the Missouri federal court and will take as long as they take to get decided. What about the poor little orphaned state court case? Stay tuned, it will have some updates soon.

I'll close with what I've said before. The only two people who have the whole story are myself and Jay's attorney. Listening to anyone else is just speculation, gossip and venom. This case is in state and federal court, not the court-of-public-opinion and people who pretend to know things, like spam-queen, are just pontificating. If you have any questions, drop me an email and I'll answer them to the best of my ability.

Thanks again for your continued support - Terri