November 18, 2008

Another Email: Earth Class Mail, Money Does Not Equal to Your “Legal Right”

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Today, I received ANOTHER email from this $21M company Earth Class Mail. In this email, they continue to pressure and strong-arm me to shut up and get an attorney so they can talk to the attorney instead. Otherwise, they “promised” me that a lawsuit would be filed against me in the federal court in Seattle, WA.

Hey Mr. Earth Class Mail, before you sent me the 1st nasty lawsuit-threatening email, I never mentioned anything negative about your company on my personal blog. You are abusing your so-called “legal right” to take action against me on very “thin” reason – trademark violation.  You know that won’t stand in court, but you still continue to threaten me anyway.

The following day, after receiving your second nasty email, you hired Perkins Coie, a Big Time Law Firm, to write and send me a “formal” letter.  Indeed, you abuse your so-called “legal rights” so much that you even pushed the cease and desist deadline ahead by two days JUST to show me you are in control, and that you have every power to do so.  And you even attacked me on a personal level.

Second of all, you can sue me, but you cannot stop others or me from talking about your “wrongdoings” on blogs, twitter, or any other social media. Do you know how many websites have already published your “wrongdoings” regarding this blog? Are you going to file a lawsuit to every website and every blog out there to shut them down? In your email, you make it very clear that you will take any necessary means to shut me up. How can you stop anyone to freely express their OPINIONS about any company? It seems that for your company, $$ MONEY = How Much Legal Right You Have.

You falsely accuse me, defame me and even bring in the big shot Law Firm to threaten me with legal lawsuit. Why do you continue to waste your investors’ money on this nonsense lawsuit?  Why do you continue to use your legal knowledge to try to manipulate me?  What kind of willful harm and intent are you planning to do to me?

You may not need to answer to me since I am not your boss.  However, I am sure your investors would like to know how you are wasting their investment on this gibberish lawsuit. Continuing to harass and threaten me will force me to fight back.  By then, you can definitely expect a protest and demonstration by me and others in front of your headquarter in Seattle, WA, or the upcoming Angel Capital Expo. Are you going to file a lawsuit for that too?!?!

I’m willing to stop talking about your “wrongdoing” on this blog if I can get a formal apology letter from your CEO Ron Wiener just like the “incident” that happened on TechCrunch.  FYI, Earth Class Mail employees POSED as users and posted FAKE COMMENTS talking up their own services.  Ron Wiener, the CEO of Earth Class Mail, came out and apologized.

I am also demanding that you post the apology letter on your blog to clear up all these false accusations and willful defamation on my CHARACTER and this website.

To all my readers out there

Yes, I am very scared and worried, especially after reading some really scary letters from those who know about Earth Class Mail or used to work there.  But I will not back down!!  And neither will my readers who follow me and care about me doing the right thing.

Season 1 Recap

$21.4M Company Earth Class Mail Threatens Me With Lawsuit. What Have I Done?
Season 1 Finale: Earth Class Mail, I’m Still Standing!
Season 2 Premiere: T.I. feat. Rihanna – Live Your Life (Nevermind what haters say, ignore them ’til they fade away.)

Here is my address for you to send the lawsuit papers:

J. Clayton
PO BOX 24B58
11000 WILSHIRE BLVD.
LOS ANGELES, CA 90024

Days to Season 2 Premiere:  2~3 (waiting for some important emails to arrive)

_________________________________________________________

Anyone who wants to join me in Seattle or Silicon Valley, please email me.  Drive-by support is also welcome and appreciated!

Get updates instantly with Twitter

EarthMailFree Update http://twitter.com/earthmailfree
TOKIDOKI Friends http://twitter.com/CiaoJ

Email me all feedback and comments at jclaytonj@live.com

 

November 10, 2008

Season Finale: Earth Class Mail, I’m Still Standing!

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Earth Class Mail, I’m still standing.  This video says it all.

I’m Still Standing by Elton John

Season 1 Recap

$21.4M company Earth Class Mail threatens me with lawsuit, what have I done?

Story Needed

If you are a previous/current employee, associate, colleague, investor, or Earth Class Mail user, I want to hear your story. Please send your experience to me anonymously.

Don’t miss this great opportunity to speak directly to Earth Class Mail. They are a big fan of my blog.

Season 2 Premiere & Highlights

What should the CEO of Earth Class Mail write in his apology letter to me?

Email me If you have any great ideas to help the CEO of Earth Class Mail write this letter.

Season 2 will also broadcast over multiple channels and across the globe.  If you can help me translate this blog into different languages, please contact me.

Days to Cease and Desist: -5
Days to Season Premiere: 3

Email me all feedback and comments at jclaytonj@live.com to spare me from possibly more legal issues.

Get updates instantly with Twitter

EarthMailFree Update http://twitter.com/earthmailfree

TOKIDOKI Friends http://twitter.com/CiaoJ

 

November 5, 2008

“In Time We Hate That Which We Often Fear”

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“In time we hate that which we often fear.”

William Shakespeare (1564-1616)

After a long journey, my fight for the “love of earth” resulted in “hatred” from Earth Class Mail Corp.  Today is the day that Earth Class Mail wants me to cease and desist.  But the American people have spoken.  Today is the day that all Americans should cherish.  It is the day we put down our differences and unite as one!

2 Days to Season Finale, Satisfaction Guaranteed.

Email me all feedback and comments at jclaytonj@live.com to spare me from possibly more legal issues.

Get updates instantly with Twitter

EarthMailFree Update
http://twitter.com/earthmailfree

TOKIDOKI Friends
http://twitter.com/CiaoJ

 

November 5, 2008

Congratulation Americans! Together, We Will Write a Great Chapter in U.S. History.

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“…those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”

44th President Barack Obama’s Victory Speech

Email me all feedback and comments at jclaytonj@live.com to spare me from possibly more legal issues.

Get updates instantly with Twitter

EarthMailFree Update
http://twitter.com/earthmailfree

TOKIDOKI Friends
http://twitter.com/CiaoJ

Days to Cease and Desist: 0
Days to Season Finale: 2?

 

November 3, 2008

$21.4M Earth Class Mail Corp. Threatens Me With Lawsuit. What Have I Done?

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[2] Comments 

I’d like to first thank you for all the support and feedback I have received since the $21.4M company, Earth Class Mail Corp., made this blog into a nasty battleground for someone like me who is trying to help people  stop junk mail and save trees.

Since I do not have enough time to reply to each individual about this possible lawsuit, I have put together some answers to top questions that readers had asked me in their feedback.

  1. Is your site sponsored by any company?

    This site has always been non-commercial and free.  There are no Google or sponsored ads.  I also do not endorse any of the services in any way and none of the services I mentioned or reviewed on this personal blog sponsored me.

  2. How did it all start?

    When I received my first email (also via certified mail, which I never received) from the General Counsel of Earth Class Mail Corp., their false accusations and absurd demands to have me hand over my domain name at MY cost does indeed sound fishy to me.  However, to avoid possible lawsuit, I retracted the appropriate statements after I received another email  (and later 2 overnight legal letters) from Perkins Coie, a huge international law firm that represents the company.

    After performing a more in-depth research into Earth Class Mail, along with some helpful links from readers, I found more unpleasant information about Earth Class Mail. So I thought to myself, “What did I possibly do to piss off a $21.4M company that seems determined to take me out using any means necessary?“  None of my reviews about them were that negative.  You should see my review on Shoeboxed to see the difference.  Well, some reader suggested that I should be the one to file a legal lawsuit to Earth Class Mail.  Maybe I should take that under advisement.

    Well, here are just a couple shocking posts regarding Earth Class Mail’s business practices:

    $13.3 Million For Startup That Wants To Kill Snail Mail – Read Michael Arrington’s comment after the article.

    I Hate Earth Class Mail – My Review – Evan Fell, a real user of Earth Class Mail services, had the following to say:

    “My official Earth Class Mail Review is 0 out of 5 mail-bags. I hate it. I wish I never signed up. If they were only honest and upfront about how their service operated things might be different. I have called and cancelled my account. If those paychecks don’t show up somewhere they will have a very angry Evan Fell knocking on their front door in Oregon.”

  3. What about the trademark infringement issue?

    I will leave the trademark infringement issue to the lawyers without any discussion here. However, in the words of 2600 publisher Emmanuel Goldstein in regards to the landmark case about the domain verizonreallysucks.com:

    “We call on INDIVIDUALS around the world to criticize Verizon on as many domain names as possible and to exercise your rights to free speech.”

    So I, too, call on INDIVIDUALS around the world to criticize Earth Class Mail on as many domain names as possible and to exercise your rights to free speech.  Perhaps I should register the following domain:

    EarthClassMailShouldSpendMoreTimeFixingItsServicesAndLessMoneyOnLawyers.com

  4. What does TOKIDOKI Adios has to do with this?

    Nothing. I just love them.

Grand Price Question

Why would Earth Class Mail want to threaten you with legal lawsuit at first place?

Good question.  If you have time, google around, you will find the answer to this question.

Email me all feedback and comments at jclaytonj@live.com to spare me from possibly more legal issues.

Get updates instantly with Twitter

EarthMailFree Update
http://twitter.com/earthmailfree

TOKIDOKI Friends
http://twitter.com/CiaoJ

Days to Cease and Desist: 3
Days to Season Finale: 5?

 

October 31, 2008

Back Off, Earth Class Mail! You’re Barking Up the Wrong Tree!

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“….you will transfer ownership of the domain name to us [, Earth Class Mail], at your cost, we will be obliged to review all legal options”

- Quote from email received from General Counsel of a $21.4 million company that likes to spend time and money trying to shut me up.

Days to Cease and Desist: 6

Days to Season Finale: 7

As usual, this site continues to remain commercial free since it was used for non-commercial use from the beginning.

jclaytonj (at) live (dot) com
http://twitter.com/earthmailfree

 

October 31, 2008

“Sounds like a fishy business” Considered a Defamatory Statement?

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Earth Class Mail / Perkins Coie Legal Letter Page 1 Snippet

Earth Class Mail / Perkins Coie Legal Letter Page 1 Snippet

Days to Cease and Desist: 6

jclaytonj (at) live (dot) com

 

October 30, 2008

My Legal Battle With Earth Class Mail

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Since my first post regarding junk mail stats, I have set the tone for this blog as the place to discuss how to stop junk mail and save trees.  With this, I came up with a name, EarthMailFree, meaning to help the earth free itself from mail.  I write this on my own time, discuss a topic that I care about, and I don’t make a dime out of this.  The world needs our help, and I’m here trying to put our strengths together for a better cause.

And yet, here I am, talking about the continuing progress of my current battle with Earth Class Mail over violating their trademark.  As of now, they have confirmed that this is for real and an email was sent to me from their legal counsel, Perkins Coie, LLP, yesterday afternoon.  Needless to say, I am quite upset by the emails I’ve been getting from Earth Class Mail.  In their last legal mail, they want me to cease and desist the use of this domain name “EARTHMAILFREE.” the “designation EARTHCLASSMAIL.”

Email Reply From Earth Class Mail to My Previous Post

The followup post from Mr. Cameron Powell of Earth Class Mail was received in my email inbox at 11:02am yesterday morning, October 29, 2008.  Herein lies the content of the email (numbers, address info omitted):

_________________________________________________________

Dear jclayton,

I’ve noted your blog posting of today, in which you question the authenticity of my email to you, cast unsupported aspersions on unspecified business practices of our company that you imply are somehow related to our demands regarding our trademark rights, “smell more stinky fish,” and request feedback and legal advice.

I will not offer legal advice, except to say that I must counsel you to locate, expeditiously, a competent specialist in trademark law.

You have said you are, and appear to be, a technically-savvy individual.  You know as well as I do how to determine if an email comes from who it purports to come from.

Your first certified letter is on its way.

And because you have indicated a willingness to tiptoe up to and perhaps over the line of business libel and defamation, you will shortly receive another letter, this time from our outside counsel.  Your deadline for compliance in handing over the infringing domain name will be moved up to Wednesday, November 5.  And the cost-free nature of the settlement terms already proposed will naturally change with any additional time or money we spend on this matter.

Sincerely,

Cameron Powell | General Counsel

_______________________________________________________________________

Legal Email From Perkins Coie, LLP

Later that afternoon, Perkins Coie, their legal representation, sent me the following email at 4:02pm, October 29, 2008.  Original file was in PDF format, now converted into individual images.  Click through to see the enlarged sizes.

Perkins Cole Legal Letter Page 1

Earth Class Mail / Perkins Coie Legal Letter Page 1

Perkins Cole Legal Letter Page 2

Earth Class Mail / Perkins Coie Legal Letter Page 2

My Response To Earth Class Mail

In regards to your request to cease and desist the use of this domain, I will consult an attorney on how best to proceed.

In regards to the second item, as a sign of good faith, I will retract the statements that relates to “fishy business”, even though this is perfectly within my rights to offer and express my opinion.

To the World – Looking for Attorney Reference

I’m just your average Joe with a day job.  Legal jargon is unfortunately not my strong suit.  So this is my shout out to the world to offer some advice on how I should proceed.  I live in Los Angeles, California, so if you happen to be a lawyer specialized in trademark infringment and have taken an interest in representing me in this case, I urge you to contact me privately at jclaytonj (at) live (dot) com.  I will of course look for my own representation at the same time. But whatever I decide to do, everyone on the Internet will be able to see how this progresses and ends.

Meanwhile, just to make sure that my continued posting does not get interrupted, I will be creating additional blogs on WordPress containing full copies of all my posts here, minus any possible “false and defamatory” statements, if any, about Earth Class Mail.

This is not a newspaper.  Neither is this a publication.  This is a pure and simple blog where I can exercise my First Amendment rights to speak my mind.  So I will continue to voice my opinions and write about what I believe is right.

 

October 29, 2008

Are You For Real or a Scam, Earth Class Mail???

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Yesterday, my sysadmin forwarded me an email that he received from a company that I had written about on this blog, Earth Class Mail.  I must admit that I am quite surprised to get such a letter from them.  It is a mail accusing me of infringing on their trademark name. And on top of that, they want me to hand the domain over to them.  Sounds like a fishy scam.

I’ve written a number of reviews about various online web services related to helping people reduce junk mail and save trees.  I get great comments from people running those websites, even from Shoeboxed who offers FREE accounts, and I have never received anything like this until today.  So I was quite dubious about the authenticity of this email.

I did a bit more research on Google and various other sites relating to Earth Class Mail, and I was shocked to discover the posts and comments out there regarding their business practice.  I smell more stinky fish here. Before I actually post my findings, I will wait for a confirmation from them or until I receive the certified mail.

But if this is for real, then I am going to get quite PISSED about this and will fight back using any means necessary.

Anyone can contact me directly at jclaytonj (at) live (dot) com to give me feedback, offer me support, and/or offer legal advice.

UPDATE (10/30/2008): At 11:02am yesterday morning, I received an email stating that this is real.  At 4:06pm yesterday afternoon, I received an email from their law firm, Perkins Coie, LLP, demanding that I “retract and remove these comments from your website immediately” and also cease and desist the use of this domain.  Since they have authenticated this letter, I have retracted the requested statements.  I write more about the new developments in the next post. Read it here ->

_____________________________________________________________________________

By Email and Certified Mail

Re:         Notice of Trademark Infringement

Dear EarthMailFree.com,

Forgive us the impersonal salutation.  As with the website at MyPostalMail.com, we could not find the name of an identifiable person on your website.

As you are aware, Earth Class Mail Corp. uses the term “EARTH CLASS MAIL” (and the domain name earthclassmail.com) in commerce as an identifier of the unique online postal mail service that it invented and has made famous in the relevant marketplaces.

You are employing the term EARTHMAILFREE as a domain name and an organizational designation in discussions of the online postal mail services with which the market overwhelmingly associates Earth Class Mail Corp.  Such use constitutes an infringement of our trademark rights in EARTH CLASS MAIL.  First, the marks themselves are similar.  Your mark shares with EARTH CLASS MAIL two of its three terms, from the most distinctive of all, EARTH, to MAIL.  Your addition of the generic word FREE does little to distinguish the terms and, indeed, is simply likely to be construed as an exhortation for our service to be free (which, coincidentally enough, is the business model of newcomer MyPostalMail.com).  Moreover, some customers and potential customers of our service already call our service “Earth Mail”.  Finally, your use of the term occurs in the context of a website expressly-built for the purpose of opining on the online postal mail service and market created by Earth Class Mail Corp.  The likelihood of confusion as to the source, sponsorship, or endorsement of your site is manifest.  It constitutes trademark infringement and unfair competition under the Lanham Act and state statutes.

Even without a likelihood of confusion, your use of EARTHMAILFREE dilutes the distinctiveness of our trademark, which is famous in the industry it created and among postal operators worldwide, and which is therefore protectable under the anti-dilution statutes of state and federal law.

Finally, to the extent your organization is affiliated with or sponsored by MyPostalMail.com – and we have numerous less-than-obvious grounds for believing it is – these knowing infringements amount to bad faith, and thus warrant not only actual damages but attorneys’ fees.

We have no legally cognizable objection to the content of your blog, except to the extent that it may be a potentially illegal shill for a service competitive with ours.  Should we be obliged to proceed with legal action, discovery would soon enough turn up evidence one way or another.  You are of course on notice not to attempt destruction of any evidence.

We demand that you cease use of the domain name and designation EARTHCLASSMAIL.  Accordingly, if we do not hear from you by Friday, November 7, 2008, that you will cease such use and refrain from using any term confusingly similar to our trademark, and that you will transfer ownership of the domain name to us, at your cost, we will be obliged to review all legal options.  Subject to applicable law, you would of course be free to move your blog content to a new domain name.

We look forward to hearing from you by November 7.

Sincerely,

Cameron Powell

General Counsel

Earth Class Mail Corp.

Cameron@EarthClassMail.com

 

October 24, 2008

Paperless Virtual Offices, Business Card Scanning, and Postal Mail Via Email

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Many events have occurred during my vacation over the past two weeks.  Let’s not even talk about the fluctuations in the stock market these days.  That only gets me depressed.  My portfolio is on a roller coaster ride.  Fun, but not quite.

On a side note, many tech companies are cutting down their workforce and going through some downsizing.  The magical number appears to be 30%.  Techcrunch has an interesting list that tracks the layoffs.  Even eBay is not immune to the current economy.

But not everything is bad news.  During my absence, some cool new developments are progressing on the green side.  So I’d like to cover this in order from oldest to most recent.

Earth Class Mail’s Postal Mail Thru Email

A bit farther back, Earth Class Mail introduced a new feature that allows you to view your images of your postal mail in your email and lets you process it from there.  It’s convenient to see what mail you are receiving before logging on to their website.  I actually find that to be a nifty feature.  As for the mail managing in the email part, I don’t see that as a great thing.  Being a bit techie myself, I know that you can’t actually process your mail inside.  You click on the button and you’ll get taken to their website to manage it.  Hmm… doesn’t that mean the same thing as me going to the website in the first place?  I could be wrong of course.

Shoeboxed’s Business Card Scanning

Shoeboxed announced over the past week that they now offer business card scanning on top of their receipt scanning.  I have to say that this makes their service more complete and better.  Their published screenshots show a nice user interface.

I also noticed that they have finally updated their website to a new layout with consistent pricing.  I  wish that they could have done this in the first place but my first impression is already tainted.  For first-time users who are checking out their service, I believe you will have a better experience.

MyPostalMail’s Virtual Post Solutions

This is perhaps the biggest and most exciting news of all.  Yesterday, MyPostalMail announced Virtual Post Solutions, a set of postal mail, package delivery, fax, and banking package solution they say will give paperless virtual office a whole new meaning.  I’ll just quickly go over some highlights that I think are interesting.

  • Sending and Receiving Postal Mail – Aside from receiving mail and viewing them online, they are adding the ability for you to send postal mail, similar to the other similar services that I wrote about earlier.  This is quite interesting because someone actually posted a comment in that other article asking about a service that offers you this exact thing.  So Jerick, this is my reply to your comment.
  • Sending and Receiving Faxes – They are also offering you a pay-per-use service to receive and send faxes directly through their system.  There are a myriad web-to-fax solutions out there, so competition will be fierce.  Personally, not so great a feature in my view.
  • Depositing Checks - Very very interesting service.  I can already imagine using this mailbox to receive my rebate checks and then have them deposit the checks for me.  I don’t even have to go to the bank since I rarely hit the banks these days as I do most of my banking online.  Saves me another trip.  And the fact that they support 5 US national banks without the need to use any special accounts is great.  This is the first time I’ve heard of anyone offering such a service.
  • Forwarding Packages – Send and receive packages through them.  The added feature is that they allow you to split and combine different packages into one. I can imagine some good uses for this, especially for people overseas.
  • Eliminating Junk Mail! - They are also doing a junk mail detection feature.  Now, given that this blog is focused on that, I’d love to see how this works… except I have no idea how it works!  The announcement isn’t very descriptive about this, but if this does truly work, it’d give an entirely different meaning to how we manage and eliminate junk mail.

If you are looking for more info, head over to MyPostalMail or their blog to read more about their services.

Back to the Real World

Now that I’m back from vacation, I should have a bit more time to continue writing up more news and reviews.  Nature never rests, and neither should I.

 

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