pjroberge

Actually, I had consulted with several trademark attorneys over the years who had the same opinion. TWI can only enforce their trademarks by making it too costly to pursue justice. TWIM most likely saw the tremendous waste of their time and resources which TWI was more than happy to spend, and decided that the battle was not worth the cost. On trademark issues, TWI has lost in a few trademark cases I will be posting in the next weeks. Again, if TWI's trademark "The Way" was so defensable, TWI would not have needed to register 4 new trademarks for "The Way International". Their trademark for "The Way" should have been sufficient without needing the new trademarks.

The judge's decision and order was dated July 7, 2004. The hearing as to the evidence was scheduled August 16, 2004.It is obvious that the judge made a decision before the evidentiary hearing was held.

From My ENE pleadings pages 2&3 1. TWI Has No Rights In The Mark "The Way" R*berge has always been of the contention that TWI's trademark "The Way" has been invalid and unenforceable due to it being public domain. Whether TWI likes it or not, they are not the owners of the mark. The Christian church as a whole are the rightful owners with common law trademark rights. TWI used the legal process to try to obscure this reality, but TWI only has the same right as any other church group to the use of the mark. B. TWI's Mark "The Way" is Generic in A Religious Context And "The Way" Is Also a Generic Term in Society A search of trademarks with the search term "The Way" yielded 3055 trademarks incorporating TWI's "mark." For TWI to represent to the court that their trademark "The Way" is famous or unique or any other description is beyond the truth of it being generic, and is not zealous representation of a client, but rather is misrepresentation. A generic term is the genus or basis of a group of marks, and "The Way " is that genus. The term "The Way" is generic in religious circles, because it is the central theme or common denominator in the name of over 400 churches, 2700 religious books and over 100 websites. TWI has absolutely no way to defend against this very overwhelming reality. The Way is also a generic term in society as evidenced by so many trademarks. Whether TWI's mark was generic at the time of the The Way International v. King's Way Center in 1984, it certainly is now twenty years later. There has been a resurgence / revival of church beliefs going back to earlier biblical roots. In earlier times, followers of Jesus Christ were called followers of The Way before they were known as Christians. This is even acknowledged by TWI in their court pleadings. "To allow trademark protection for generic terms, i.e., names which describe the genus of goods being sold, even when these have become identified with a first user, would grant the owner of the mark a monopoly, since a competitor could not describe his goods as what they are." CES PUBLISHING CORP., v. ST. REGIS PUBLICATIONS, 531 F.2d 11; 1975 "A "generic" term is "one that refers... to the genus of which the particular product [or service is a specie". McGregor-Doniger, Inc. v. Drizzle, Inc., supra, at 599 F.2d 1131"

From my ENE brief: 1. TWI Has No Rights In The Mark "The Way" Roberge has always been of the contention that TWI's trademark "The Way" has been invalid and unenforceable due to it being public domain. Whether TWI likes it or not, they are not the owners of the mark. The Christian church as a whole are the rightful owners with common law trademark rights. TWI used the legal process to try to obscure this reality, but TWI only has the same right as any other church group to the use of the mark. B. TWI's Mark "The Way" is Generic in A Religious ContextAnd "The Way" Is Also a Generic Term in Society A search of trademarks with the search term "The Way" yielded 3055 trademarks incorporating TWI's "mark." For TWI to represent to the court that their trademark "The Way" is famous or unique or any other description is beyond the truth of it being generic, and is not zealous representation of a client, but rather is misrepresentation. A generic term is the genus or basis of a group of marks, and "The Way " is that genus. The term "The Way" is generic in religious circles, because it is the central theme or common denominator in the name of over 400 churches, 2700 religious books and over 100 websites. TWI has absolutely no way to defend against this very overwhelming reality. The Way is also a generic term in society as evidenced by so many trademarks. Whether TWI's mark was generic at the time of the The Way International v. King's Way Center in 1984, it certainly is now twenty years later. There has been a resurgence / revival of church beliefs going back to earlier biblical roots. In earlier times, followers of Jesus Christ were called followers of The Way before they were known as Christians. This is even acknowledged by TWI in their court pleadings. "To allow trademark protection for generic terms, i.e., names which describe the genus of goods being sold, even when these have become identified with a first user, would grant the owner of the mark a monopoly, since a competitor could not describe his goods as what they are." CES PUBLISHING CORP., v. ST. REGIS PUBLICATIONS, 531 F.2d 11; 1975 "A "generic" term is "one that refers... to the genus of which the particular product [or service is a specie". McGregor-Doniger, Inc. v. Drizzle, Inc., supra, at 599 F.2d 1131"

Actually, they didn't lose the case just getting a restraining order. They decided to back out at that time because their name did include International I would suspect.Long Gone: Your venomous rhetoric again leaves me wondering what your stake in this is, and why you are virtually silent on this board until I post about the lawsuit. You make a big deal out of my statement about the Judge not being a lawyer which I had been told and should have verified myself. Point well taken. However, the judge did prematurely come to a decision before having an evidentiary hearing on the matter to weigh the evidence. That was a mistake. As far as legal precedent in my case, TWI used this case in their pleadings. I also pointed out to TWI's attorneys that this was not a full blown decision after a trial, but was for a restraining order. Further, most citations for court purposes are of appellate decisions and the ones that carry real weight are the appellate decisions from the same circuit, as any first year law student knows. TWI apparently lacked any "victories" in court over their trademarks as I know of 3 cases where they lost. Oh, by the way, why did TWI feel the need to file for 4 new trademarks for "the way international" if their trademark "The Way" was not generic and was defendable? Did they just want to add to their collection of 128 other trademarks?

The elected judge who is not a lawyer made that ruling without reviewing the evidence. There was an evidentiary hearing scheduled in a few weeks. 6 trademark attorneys I consulted with said the way was unenforceable because it was invalid/generic. You may want to ponder why TWI has just registered 4 new trademarks for "The Way International". Answer as stated in TWI's pleadings: the combination of generic terms into a new trademark makes a non generic mark. Yes they were.That is why they went through great trouble to try to build a case against the websites and asked for injunctions against the websites.Again, the domain name was not the main issue. Why are you so thick headed about that. The domain name arbitration board would have resolved the issue for under $1000.00 if that was the case. Are you saying that 4 lawyers were too stupid to go the cheapest route? The sale was a joke as most people understood except those that took twi's slant on it. That's what the new websites are for. By the way, you may consider the fact that despite a huge onslaught of paperwork and over 40 filings with the court, TWI only got the domain name when they politely asked me for it. They were not the ones who decided, I decided.

TWI didn't shut down the two websites, the reason for bringing the action in Federal Court instead of the arbitration board. Believe what you want. You made up your mind without considering all the facts first...

I didn't spend @$50,000.00 to have virtually nothing to show for it.... And TWI wasn't able to shut down the two websites

1. I was not fighting for the right to use the way of christ. I changed the name 4 years ago and it is now known by it's present name which means the same thing. 2. TWI had 4 new trademarks for specifically "The Way International" so in lite of that change there was no reason to keep the domain name I was getting rid of anyway 3. As far as being able to use the way, it has been well established that trademark of TWI's is unenforceable because it is generic.The information learned from this experience will be made available for free to every church that I find out about that TWI bothers about the way trademark. 4. Again, you wrongly assumed TWI really wanted only the domain name which was the reason for the lawsuit. If you were right (which you are not), TWI should have gone to the domain name arbitration board where the issue would have been settled months ago at about 1/50th the cost. 5. TWI wanted injunctive relief or in other terms to shut down the two websites that were "infringing" which they were not able to do.That was the real reason for the lawsuit. Your erroneous theory of a domain name being the issue would have had the court refer the issue to the arbitration board. TWI knew my finances going into this and still insisted on keeping their costs at a minimum of @$50,000.00 Some minimum....

Shellon: If you don't want to ask on the board, email me at pjroberge2@prowebtechs.comNo question is stupid and the issues were very complicated. I will do my best to answer them for you. If you wish a brief (12 pages) outline of the issues the ene statements on www.twisucks.com are a good place to start.

In all fairness to TWI, I don't know if this was the deciding factor or not. But it certainly made a jury trial a lot less appealing

Actually, TWI misrepresented to the court that thewayinternational.com infringed on a TWI trademark for the way International and stated that it was identical to the domain name.Unfortunatly, TWI "forgot" the real trademark says: "the prevailing word the way international new knoxville ohio ephesians". This is not the same. TWI did not have a valid trademark for the way international until midway into the case.

I stood up to their threats and have gotten a great legal education. I also now know their litigation strategy and what will be effective in a future lawsuit to cancell their trademarks. I will make this information available free to any church TWI bothers in the future...Also, the information about TWI I am putting up at www.twisucks.com will be indexed by the search engines and come up when someone does a search on TWI

Not true. If TWI only wanted the domain name, they could have resolved the dispute with the domain name arbitration board for under $1000.00TWI wanted injunctive relief (shut down the websites)against the two websites that they claimed infringed on their trademarks. The domain name issue was only a small part of the story. Actually, I think you have it the other way around. I was going to trial period if they didn't offer to settle.

whitedove: TWI wanted a lot more if you read their complaint. I fought 4 lawyers and their legal teams to only a minor concession of a domain name I didn't want anymore, and a new one I hadn't used yet. Total value of $27 versus TWI's $50, 000.00 in estimated costs. Your abs at work...

On October 13, TWI made an offer to settle at a joint conference held in front of a neutral evaluator. The particulars of the settlement are at: http://www.twisucks.com/twi_v__roberge.htm And no Raf, I was not spanked, TWI was for an estimated $50,000.00 in costs...

ex: I posted about it and the censor put it into moderation. You can read the documents at www.twisucks.com under lawsuits

I had an encounter with a RCMP officer during a blizzard I was driving through. He pulled me over and politely asked me if I thought it was prudent to be driving 89 mph in a blizzard considering the conditions with almost no visibility. He made a valid point...

TWI now is about $50,000.00 poorer after our lawsuit. Your abs at work...

I recently talked to Hayes and he said that when TWI lost their tax exempt status over this issue that TWI probably lost millions....

B.G. Leonard was at corps week and the ROA in 85. Corps people were being ministered to and being healed left and right. B. G. was going to teach at the ROA but LCM was so incensed at the healings that he gave B. G. Leonard, (Wierwille's teacher) the bums rush and wouldn't let him teach...

Before "I serve a risen savior he's in the world today, I know that he's living what er men may say" Now: I serve a powerless taskmaster he's absent from the world today, I know that he's absent what er men may claim"

It didn't.

CC: I withdrew my trademark application 2 years ago because it was too costly to pay a lawyer at $250/hr for a $300 trademark. Today, doing it myself, I might have pursued it although it wasn't a big issue anyway. The website name means the same. Path also means way in the dictionary.

Raf: They only agreed to do so in the United States. Almost all of TWIM's activities are in other countries where they can still use their name. This was TWI's concession.Both sides made compromises to avoid the long drawn out litigation that could result. Both of TWIM's principals ran large law firms and time is money.... TWIM also settled before an actual hearing was made on the evidence. I intend to go all the way to a jury trial. I have ex-members who want to testify about their experiences in TWI, and two police officers who are going to testify about investigations they have done of TWI :)-->