Mar 4, 2009
The search for Funky Black Chick
Remember the federal trademark infringement case of Funky Brown Chick v. Funky Black Chick?
Well, for all the publicity that attended the lawsuit’s filing in November, next to nothing has happened since.
Not that the four big-firm lawyers who have entered their appearances on behalf of New York writer Twanna Hines, their paralegal, two process servers and the U.S. Postal Service have been idle.
For nearly four months, Funky Brown Chick Corp. or its agents have tried to officially notify Funky Black Chick Yesha Callahan of the pending suit against her. But despite following up numerous home and work address leads and eventually reaching Callahan by phone, they have not properly pinned her down. (Maybe “fungkeblakchik” could change her name to Elusive Black Chick and the whole thing could be settled?)
With a Mar. 13 deadline looming, Hines’ attorneys at Fish & Richardson P.C. filed a motion Monday for alternative service — by the U.S. Marshals! — so they can get on with the substance of their claim against the Odenton defendant.
If you thought this was a frivolous dispute between two bloggers that has spawned a sillier cat-and-mouse game, think again: the plaintiff’s motion detailing the exhaustive efforts to serve Callahan is 132 pages long!
Make no mistake: when it comes to policing her brand, this plaintiff’s not faking the funk.
BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer
the brown chick sounds ill informed if she had it in a foreign language would she want that too? she needs to purchase domian names like other – this america nothin g is free and she waisting tax payer loot in a recession sad
Funky brown chick has a frivolous lawsuit, she trademarked her name after the funky black chic had her sites established for over a year, if not years. If not worse, she contacted the defendant about her site, told her to stop, then went and got her site trademarked. Sounds to me like the the plaintiff is either hard up for cash or just a Johny Come Lately that is trying to bully somebody. If the plaintiff was serious about wanting to own all the derivatives of her name, she should buy it, cash money, instead of trying to STEAL it through the legal system.
So this is how my MD tax dollars will be spent?? On a blog battle??? And after my own research, it looks as though the ‘mark’ is only on FUNKY BROWN CHICK, and after looking at both sites, they are clearly two different genres of blogs!
FUNKY BROWN CHICK is a FUNKY HOT MESS for filing that law suit! It’s not like this is a logo or a sign on a store where it could be confused. It’s a freaking website where you have to spell the name. The names are not even close when written. every part of the name is spelled different:
FUNKY VS FUNGKE, BROWN VS BLAK, CHICK VS CHIK!
Even if you search Funky Brown Chick, the only time funky black chick’s site comes up is in regard to the law suit. Way to publicize FUNGKE BLAK CHIK’s site, Brown Chick. WOW! What if this is just a publicity stunt to blow up their sites!!! Not bad ladies!
Wow, what a waste, of time space and money!!! Fighting over a blog name. Someone has entirely too much time on their hands. Everyone wants to sue everyone, maybe we should sue her for using Brown, because my last name is brown. People, really need to get a life.