INVESTIGATION CASE STUDIES

The Naked Truth

Our goal was to expose the intent and scope of misuse of our client's trademark for purposes of nude beauty pageants. We were given the names of two women and one phone number. We checked various business directories and the relevant secretary of state's office but found no listing for the company associated with these women or the phone number. Cross-referenced telephone directories listed a telephone number under a man's name. Internet research revealed an industry site linking the women in that they owned a "pageant series" related to the mark in question. We called the phone number and spoke with one of the women who disclosed that her use of the trademark in question was not for nude beauty pageants, but a "title her dancers were awarded based on points earned throughout the year". She promised to send us word of future pageants, provided her business number and then declined to answer further questions. Calls to the business were not returned, but a recording listed the name of her production company, which held itself out as sponsoring a beauty pageant as well as a domestic exotic dancer series. Using cross-referenced telephone directories, new secretary of state information, and additional business databases; we located the current owner's home address, business details and contact information for a third partner. Our findings were sent to our client in a timely report. Our client then did what they do in the privacy of their own offices.

Kick In The Grass

We received a request to investigate an organization of riding lawn mower racers and their use of a trademark. Business directories showed that the organization lists 5 employees and their commercial description as "lawn and grounds maintenance". The Internet yielded an article describing a banner year for lawn mower racing. It touted televised coverage of 4 races, divided into road and oval track classes as well as three "Grass Eliminator" drag racing divisions. Racing classes start with your off the shelf stock mower with speeds of 10 miles per hour all the way up to something called "Factory Experiment", clocking in at a whopping 50 mph. The article stated that the sport is growing, is largely being built on fun, and that they still race for trophies, bragging rights (and one would assume 39 gallon, thick-ply lawn and leaf bags). The organization's web site offered the "mow down" on all you could want to know about lawn mower racing -- including how to start up and run local chapters, race hosting guidelines as well as links to news groups that provide answers to technical questions, as well as a section on brand equity recognition. We found several references to the mark in question, and provided the client with earliest dates of stated use as well as relevant domain name registration info. And sure, maybe the cased closed at that point, but we'll never be the same again anytime we happen by a garden center. Somehow, there will always be the temptation to just chuck it all and ride!!!

Dogs And Burgers And Such

Our office received a request from a client in the spring to investigate a company selling a product popular at summer barbeques. The product was being passed off as coming from one part of the world when it actually was being manufactured in and shipped from China. Our mission was to determine which U.S. port was receiving shipment of these goods. What made this particular assignment sticky was not only the ticking clock of the approaching barbeque high season, but that our client had recently hired another P.I. firm to solve this dilemma without success. We checked business directories, Secretary of State records, online news archives and the target company's Web site for corporate background, culture, product, distribution channels and contact information. We then spoke with four different customer service representatives who couldn't help us and left messages with a media relations number that were not responded to. Finally, we reached a product development person, who gave us a sales history of this product, the product market trends, the development of the relationship with the Chinese manufacturer through the company UK parent, the strategy in design and naming of the product, the date the product was first introduced in the United States, other products the company sold using the product name, as well as the various retail locations around the country where the product could be purchased. She then told us that the products were shipped to both coasts and that the West Coast shipments were delivered to the company warehouse by truck, the East Coast by rail. After consulting with her company "transportation guy" she then gave us the specific port cities and the times the product would arrive. Case closed.

The Agoraphobic Pimp

We were tasked with locating an individual offering escort services and other prurient activity using one of our client's marks. That done, we were to lure the "perp" to a meeting spot under the pretext of a business transaction in order to serve him papers. Through the dogged efforts of our investigator, we not only learned that the individual in question had mail and telephone services bouncing between 3 cities, but after managing to make contact, determined that the guy was agoraphobic and had a deathly fear of going outside. We were able to draw the man out of his domicile and to a nearby hotel by posing as talent scouts looking for...well...talent. The escort service provider bragged that a "stable" of local talent was one thing he was in abundance of, to which our investigator replied, "yeah, but can they act?" That was the ticket that got the man to go to the hotel to get served.

Put a Sock in it Buddy

Our target this time was a troubled fanatic who was distributing misguided stock information about our client's company on a personal Internet page. We were provided with an IP number as an address for the page which the fanatic was hosting on his home DSL line. We sifted through the information on the fanatic's site and found several posts referring to the site's owner by two different aliases. We discovered the use of these aliases on another site featuring posts about our client's company, marks and stock symbol. We were able to determine that the fanatic was using a third alias on this site to mock and harry other people posting there, stating that he could pin point their location by his log-tracking traps, which he claimed he was distributing to strangers. The fanatic also insinuated that he was aligned with our client and suggested that they would employ similar tactics in an effort to do the other posters harm. We then visited our client's Web site and found a post by the fanatic (using this third alias) congratulating the company on their programming skills, and that he had been browsing the site for 10+ hours the night before. At this point, we knocked back a few cups of joe, and stayed up the next night as a visitor in our client's investor chat room. We managed to get a particularly opinionated chat room denizen there (using yet another alias) to identify himself as the owner of the fanatic's Internet site in question. Later in the evening we were able (through conversations in the chat room and through emails exchanged during the session) to obtain the fanatic's first and last name, the fact that he lived with his parents and the town and state he lived in. With that information we used personal profile databases to confirm his exact address, verified his date of birth, social security number as well as his father's name and social. Bullseye. End of horror show. And yes, another satisfied customer.