#27 - Why We Haven't Responded

Good Morning!

It has been commented on that the Ranch has not responded to Jill Koehler's petition for cancellations before the Trademark Trial Board.

The answer to that is simple - we haven't been served. No service, no response. I found out about the proceeding when I got the standard scheduling order in the mail about two weeks after she filed the petitions.

Despite Jill signing her name to the following statement:

“The undersigned hereby certifies that a copy of this paper has been served upon all parties, at their address record by USPS Express Mail Post Office to Addressee on this date.”

She evidently forgot the most important part, putting the 'this paper' in the mail with my address on it. So, even if I hadn't gotten notice via the back door, I wasn't required to file a response. Any default judgment wouldn't have stood. No service. No lawsuit. It's that easy.

Jill should know that. She was served with a lawsuit on August 4, 2008.

I called her on it and she claims that she misunderstood and thought that the Trademark Board would be mailing it to me. Instead of conferring with me as she is required to do by law and practice rules, she went straight to filing a response to a sanctions motion that hasn't even been filed yet.

So, I filed the motion. That same link that Rhonda is passing around will take you to all of the new documents. For anyone not on their mailing list, you can find it all here.

What part of that statement about service she signed was so difficult to understand?

In the response she filed on 08/25/08 with the TTAB, Jill neglected to attach a certificate of service and I can only assume that she will fail to serve this document on me as well.

So as a public service, I am making the following statement:

::cue the public service announcement warning tone::

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JILL - EVERY DOCUMENT YOU FILE VIA THE TTAB SYSTEM MUST CONTAIN A CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE AND MUST BE SERVED ON THE RESPONDENT. THERE ARE NO EXCEPTIONS.

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End public service announcement.

She also neglected to follow TTAB rules by not reporting that the trademarks are the subject of a federal lawsuit. Jill claims that she doesn't think the two proceedings are related. She doesn't get to decide what does and doesn't get reported. It all gets reported - that's very clear in the TTAB rules.

This is going to be a long ole hard slog. I anticipate it taking at least a year just to get the pleadings in order. When you file a lawsuit in any court, especially a federal court, you are bound by the same rules and standards as every other practitioner.

Gotta get to work now. Terri