Miami Studios planning to (ONCE AGAIN) rip off an Eon Films movie

[EonFilms_Rocky]

Hey everyone.

This word just came to me yesterday from a VERY reliable source that John Flanagan of Miami Studios is planning to cast and film a movie called "The Dicks of Hazzard" and to release it while my movie is still in Editing, BEFORE it is allowed to hit the market.

This is not a new tactic for Miami Studios. Many of you recall that he did the same thing with "Ashton's Eleven" when we filmed that. As soon as our movie was in editing, Flanagan had his movie filmed and out within a couple of weeks.

Now, I have no love lost for Flanagan. I have been very open about my dislike for him, his practices and his company. But I have never tried to steal a movie title from him or anyone else just to spite that person or to try and piggyback from their sales.

Needless to say, I own the trademark to "The Dicks of Hazzard", as well as thedicksofhazzard.com.

We are being distributed through White Tiger Releasing and have some very nice write-ups on our movies coming very shortly.

The first post in this forum regarding the name "The Dicks of Hazzard" as our next big movie announcement, complete with pictures of the models who appear in the movie in costume, was made on May 30th, 2006.

I find this action by Miami Studios to be beyond deplorable. I just wanted to let everyone know that "The Dicks of Hazzard" is undeniably an Eon Films production, and any knock-offs from a studio, especially Miami Studios, are not a form of flattery, but of greed and foul intentions to confuse the marketplace in order to handicap our sales.

Rocky

[DEVELISH]

Hi

did you actually register the name "The Dicks of HazZard" with the US Patent Office classified for "DVDs and products thereof; movies" etc?

DEVELISH

[Lee]

Well that sucks

Hopefully you'll be able to do something about Miami Studios especially if they have a history of doing this

You may also want to keep any future projects you have off the public forums until they are ready to launch.

Regards,

Lee

[EonFilms_Rocky]

Hi

did you actually register the name "The Dicks of HazZard" with the US Patent Office classified for "DVDs and products thereof; movies" etc?

DEVELISH

Last night, as soon as I heard the news.

R.

[EonFilms_Rocky]

Well that sucks

Hopefully you'll be able to do something about Miami Studios especially if they have a history of doing this

You may also want to keep any future projects you have off the public forums until they are ready to launch.

Regards,

Lee

OR I will just trademark every fucking title before I even cast the movie.

R.

[DEVELISH]

Dude,

if you make money with your titles and there is some sucker who constantly steals... do it with every movie you produce - here a TM costs as low as EUR300 - so, "peanuts" to your production costs I bet

TM infringements totally suck

DEVELISH

[EonFilms_Rocky]

Hi

did you actually register the name "The Dicks of HazZard" with the US Patent Office classified for "DVDs and products thereof; movies" etc?

DEVELISH

I just got off the phone with them and they just started to process it this morning. The actual website registry information is not updated for 5-15 days after they begin processing.

:-)

Rocky

[dwaynered]

My suggestion is to keep your productions top secret until you're ready to do a full marketing blitz. That even includes the title of the film. This is the porn industry after all. Content is very easy to take and last minute trademark or copyright registration is not optimal.

Create a checklist for each concept you come up with before you start rolling the cameras. You'll always have your butt covered.

[gaybucks_chip]

Trademark applications take anywhere from 12 to 24 months to process, usually about a year before the first examination of the application happens, and the us is a "first use" country. So if Flanagan actually has a real product that exists before you do, he can legitimately claim first use of the title and get the trademark.

*Filing* a registration for a trademark is nearly meaningless in the US. All it shows is that you have an application pending, not that you have any rights to that mark. The owner of Cobra attempted to file a trademark on "Brent Corrigan" a year ago almost and the application hasn't even been examined (first of many steps).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I agree with dwaynerd, the only way to have any sort of protection on is to be able to show use of the trademarked name in commerce over a period of time, and so your best bet is to not mention the title anywhere until it is actually shipping (or at least until the title actually exists and is available for sale.) I'm not a trademark specialist, but I don't think that marketing vaporware counts as "use".

Flanagan is the only person in the industry I can think of that I've never heard a *single* positive word about from anyone. It's sad that he feels the need to be so petty, but the truth is, if your product is better and distribution is decent, yours will win out in the market anyway.

[maxpower]

It is sad they have to go around ripping off ideas after all they are a big company, I think it the are going to take a idea the Passion of the Christ one is what the should have done maybe even a bit of the Exorcist throw in like the scene with the cross and the girl on the bed would have been cool. :develish:

[EonFilms_Rocky]

Trademark applications take anywhere from 12 to 24 months to process, usually about a year before the first examination of the application happens, and the us is a "first use" country. So if Flanagan actually has a real product that exists before you do, he can legitimately claim first use of the title and get the trademark.

*Filing* a registration for a trademark is nearly meaningless in the US. All it shows is that you have an application pending, not that you have any rights to that mark. The owner of Cobra attempted to file a trademark on "Brent Corrigan" a year ago almost and the application hasn't even been examined (first of many steps).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I agree with dwaynerd, the only way to have any sort of protection on is to be able to show use of the trademarked name in commerce over a period of time, and so your best bet is to not mention the title anywhere until it is actually shipping (or at least until the title actually exists and is available for sale.) I'm not a trademark specialist, but I don't think that marketing vaporware counts as "use".

Flanagan is the only person in the industry I can think of that I've never heard a *single* positive word about from anyone. It's sad that he feels the need to be so petty, but the truth is, if your product is better and distribution is decent, yours will win out in the market anyway.

Oh our product is better by far.

Two orangutan scratching each others nuts on a rainy afternoon is better than the garbage Miami puts out.

Ou rmovie will be out very, very, very soon. Marketing and promotion has already started with our distributor and you can expect to see this cover in catalogues, video stores and PPV in the very VERY near future.



Rocky

[DEVELISH]

IF the US is a country with "first use" - then EON has the trademark rights since EON first used "The Dicks of Hazzard" in a business intent when posting the intention to film that movie - IMHO first use is also applicable when they did castings. In Germany you have to prove that you used the TM in a busines manor (letters, claims in newspapers, something official). Forums do count here too.

But Chad should be there any time now ....


DEVELISH

*fingesCrossed*

[gaybucks_chip]

I don't think Chad does much with intellectual property issues, but I could be wrong. Patent and trademark law is a subspecialty with a lot of nuances... I know because a company I worked for was involved in a trademark dispute a few years ago. It's a pain in the ass, and the USPTO moves with speed that can only be described as glacially slow.

US is a "first use in commerce" country as opposed to say Mexico which is a "first filer" country. But I am near certain that "use in commerce" doesn't mean ripping out a few ads and postings when you've heard that someone else is ripping your mark. My understanding is that it's similar to what you describe in Germany... printed matter advertising a product THAT EXISTS and isn't vaporware.

Honestly, this is definitely not a claim that would be worth litigating even if Rocky gets a trademark registration (which will be issued long after the title is back catalog and no one is interested any more... there's little long-term life for adult DVD titles...) The cost to litigate a trademark claim could easily be over $100,000, so it's a battle best fought in PR.

IF the US is a country with "first use" - then EON has the trademark rights since EON first used "The Dicks of Hazzard" in a business intent when posting the intention to film that movie - IMHO first use is also applicable when they did castings. In Germany you have to prove that you used the TM in a busines manor (letters, claims in newspapers, something official). Forums do count here too.

But Chad should be there any time now ....


DEVELISH

*fingesCrossed*

[EonFilms_Rocky]

I don't think Chad does much with intellectual property issues, but I could be wrong. Patent and trademark law is a subspecialty with a lot of nuances... I know because a company I worked for was involved in a trademark dispute a few years ago. It's a pain in the ass, and the USPTO moves with speed that can only be described as glacially slow.

US is a "first use in commerce" country as opposed to say Mexico which is a "first filer" country. But I am near certain that "use in commerce" doesn't mean ripping out a few ads and postings when you've heard that someone else is ripping your mark. My understanding is that it's similar to what you describe in Germany... printed matter advertising a product THAT EXISTS and isn't vaporware.

Honestly, this is definitely not a claim that would be worth litigating even if Rocky gets a trademark registration (which will be issued long after the title is back catalog and no one is interested any more... there's little long-term life for adult DVD titles...) The cost to litigate a trademark claim could easily be over $100,000, so it's a battle best fought in PR.

I actually started posting about this movie waaaaay back in April. The promo pics have been coming isnce May 30th. Posting abou tmy movie is nothing new, nor is it a knee jerk reaction to the news that some company was planning to release a movie with our title.

For those who know (JustMe is one of them), I have been planning this movie since October, when Josh Tucker and Jarett Fox were originally cast as Bo and Luke Dick. I wrote the script in March, started casting in April and did principal photography in May, which is how I had the box cover done and the promo images of each model, and I still have more of those coming.

So this movie has been in pre-produciton for a few months. It goes into full production at 9am, pst on Friday June 23rd, which is tomorrow.

I talked to the US Patent and Trademark Office about your earlier posts, and they agreed, yet they also said that once my application is processed (and it has been), then I can begin using the trademark symbol (a circle with a T)
on the movie after the title. Once it is approved, I can use the registered trademark symbol (a circle with an R). They also said that any company who tries to obtain a trademark after I applied needs to prove that they had rights to the title before we began to use it with an intent to use in commerce, which was in March, whcih we also have proof of. Miami Studios does not, nor does any other studio. I made sure that there was no way any other company could claim rights to the name before I completed my application (they required a copy of the box cover, which I had ready thanks to the photos I had already taken, as listed above).

So yeah... I had this shit a LOOOONG time ago. This isn't just me reacting to some rumor or bad news. I've been plannign this movie and getting it ready AND PROMOTING it for a long long time.

Rocky

[hdkbill]

Hi

did you actually register the name "The Dicks of HazZard" with the US Patent Office classified for "DVDs and products thereof; movies" etc?

DEVELISH

I've gone through the trademark game with the USPTO and it generally takes months and a great deal of money to get a trademark issued on a mark, much more difficult to get it issued on a name of a film, and very expensive.

Very few studios ever go to the trouble, time and expense of attempting to trademark a name of a film.

Perhaps he mean copyright, but then, a copyright cannot be applied for until the film is released to the public. At least, to the best of my knowledge.

Bill