The Oakland Raiders' Lester Hayes knew the true definition of sticky
Buried in the back of the new May 2012 issue of Electronic Retailer Magazine, is a small blurb about Telebrands Corp. announcing that they were recently issued 3 patents for its Sticky Buddy product. According to the short paragraph, Telebrands claims to have several more pending patents, that may be used to inhibit the sale of other similar products ("knock offs") out there.
On my original January blog of this year titled Schticky or Sticky Situation?, a person identifying themself as Tylor Ross commented to me that he was the inventor of the Sticky Buddy product and was currently working with Telebrands at bringing the Sticky Buddy to market...so, with the ER Magazine info, I did a quick search through the USPTO and found 3 newly issued design patents for hair/lint roller type products listing the inventor Tylor Ross of Edwardsburg, Michigan...thus giving some creedence to Mr. Ross' blog comments.
D654,699 Portable hair/lint roller
D654,698 Hair/lint roller
D654,697 Hair/lint roller
I also received a comment from someone named Dan@ SHove it on that same blog piece, maybe someone too close to this unfolding drama or someone trying to sway consumer sentiment, instructing me to check out a new product called The ShoveIt! at www.goshoveit.com. At first view, I couldn't tell if this was an infomercial parody of the Schticky or a real competing product with vengeful undertones (still not sure)...Per someone's comments on the video, it looks like Lindsey Brooks may be the pitch woman for The Shove It!.
More trouble can be found if you go online to the YouTube video for The ShoveIt!, where a person named Shaun from Goldin Entertainment commented (two weeks ago, according to YouTube): "I am the guy who produced this whole infomercial. Lindsey is refusing to pay me. This is a pirated copy of my video. Please take this off, you do NOT own this until you pay me". You can't believe everything you read on the internet, especially YouTube comments, but a quick search online will at least find you a video production company called Goldin Entertainment, with Shaun Goldin, principal, out of Pennsylvania.
Stepping back to the beginning of this year, a timeline of events goes like this:
Lindsey Brooks, CEO of Boardwalk Brands and Ingo Van Styn of EuroShine Inc., released a press wire on January 10th of this year announcing their release of the Schticky product, along with securing Vince Offer as pitchman for the new product. Fast forward a full month later in a February 9th, 2012 article in HomeWorld Business, and Emson USA had secured a partnership with Offer's Square One Entertainment "to propel distribution" of the Schticky product...Somewhere in that month, it looks like pitchman Offer and product Schticky switched from Boardwalk Brands to Emson USA.
And based on a copyright lawsuit filed in February 23rd of this year, it shows there are some sticky discrepancies between the following companies (Square One Entertainment Inc et al v. Lindsey Brooks et al - Plaintiffs: Offer Vince Shlomi and Square One Entertainment Inc Defendants: Boardwalk Brand Inc, Lindsey Brooks, Does, Euro Shine USA Inc, International Housewares Inc and Ingo Van Styn).
Current trademark searches show Offer's Square One Entertainment "Schticky" word mark is registered with the USPTO as of 4/24/2012 (from an original filing in May 2011). You also will find Boardwalk Brand Inc.'s filing request for the "Schticky" word mark in December 2011 (under different goods and services used in Offer's filing) and the latest info for that filing show the USPTO issuing a non-final office action (shown as requesting more information and/or making an initial refusal).
And in the same May issue of Electronic Retailing, Jordan Whitney lists the Top Traditional Short Form Houseware Categories for March 2012, where the two different lint roller type products faced off in real time: The Schticky was listed as #1 and the Sticky Buddy came in at #3.
As you can see, this unfolding drama contains all three of the intellectual property mainstays: patents, trademarks and copyrights. We'll see if Telebrand's newly issued design patents around The Sticky Buddy product are strong enough to shut down Offer's Schticky and other silicon type lint roller products currently on the market. And a California court may settle the copyright lawsuit between Vince Offer's company and Lindsey Brooks, et al (listed above), with the winner holding some sort of Schticky copyright intellectual property. And will the Schticky indeed Go ShoveIt?
I'm just looking at this from the outside in, but I've seen firsthand that desperate people and/or companies can do desperate things in desperate times ...If you listen closely, you may be able to hear the faints sounds of paralegals typing legal filings.
This is just a guess, but a big sticky legal battle may be brewing...
You can find all three silicon lint roller type products below, as well as several other companies selling very similar products in the distant past on the web....let's revisit sometime in the next six months to how this sticky situation unfolds...
https://www.officialschticky.com/
http://www.stickybuddy.com/
http://www.goshoveit.com/
On my original January blog of this year titled Schticky or Sticky Situation?, a person identifying themself as Tylor Ross commented to me that he was the inventor of the Sticky Buddy product and was currently working with Telebrands at bringing the Sticky Buddy to market...so, with the ER Magazine info, I did a quick search through the USPTO and found 3 newly issued design patents for hair/lint roller type products listing the inventor Tylor Ross of Edwardsburg, Michigan...thus giving some creedence to Mr. Ross' blog comments.
D654,699 Portable hair/lint roller
D654,698 Hair/lint roller
D654,697 Hair/lint roller
I also received a comment from someone named Dan@ SHove it on that same blog piece, maybe someone too close to this unfolding drama or someone trying to sway consumer sentiment, instructing me to check out a new product called The ShoveIt! at www.goshoveit.com. At first view, I couldn't tell if this was an infomercial parody of the Schticky or a real competing product with vengeful undertones (still not sure)...Per someone's comments on the video, it looks like Lindsey Brooks may be the pitch woman for The Shove It!.
More trouble can be found if you go online to the YouTube video for The ShoveIt!, where a person named Shaun from Goldin Entertainment commented (two weeks ago, according to YouTube): "I am the guy who produced this whole infomercial. Lindsey is refusing to pay me. This is a pirated copy of my video. Please take this off, you do NOT own this until you pay me". You can't believe everything you read on the internet, especially YouTube comments, but a quick search online will at least find you a video production company called Goldin Entertainment, with Shaun Goldin, principal, out of Pennsylvania.
Stepping back to the beginning of this year, a timeline of events goes like this:
Lindsey Brooks, CEO of Boardwalk Brands and Ingo Van Styn of EuroShine Inc., released a press wire on January 10th of this year announcing their release of the Schticky product, along with securing Vince Offer as pitchman for the new product. Fast forward a full month later in a February 9th, 2012 article in HomeWorld Business, and Emson USA had secured a partnership with Offer's Square One Entertainment "to propel distribution" of the Schticky product...Somewhere in that month, it looks like pitchman Offer and product Schticky switched from Boardwalk Brands to Emson USA.
And based on a copyright lawsuit filed in February 23rd of this year, it shows there are some sticky discrepancies between the following companies (Square One Entertainment Inc et al v. Lindsey Brooks et al - Plaintiffs: Offer Vince Shlomi and Square One Entertainment Inc Defendants: Boardwalk Brand Inc, Lindsey Brooks, Does, Euro Shine USA Inc, International Housewares Inc and Ingo Van Styn).
Current trademark searches show Offer's Square One Entertainment "Schticky" word mark is registered with the USPTO as of 4/24/2012 (from an original filing in May 2011). You also will find Boardwalk Brand Inc.'s filing request for the "Schticky" word mark in December 2011 (under different goods and services used in Offer's filing) and the latest info for that filing show the USPTO issuing a non-final office action (shown as requesting more information and/or making an initial refusal).
And in the same May issue of Electronic Retailing, Jordan Whitney lists the Top Traditional Short Form Houseware Categories for March 2012, where the two different lint roller type products faced off in real time: The Schticky was listed as #1 and the Sticky Buddy came in at #3.
As you can see, this unfolding drama contains all three of the intellectual property mainstays: patents, trademarks and copyrights. We'll see if Telebrand's newly issued design patents around The Sticky Buddy product are strong enough to shut down Offer's Schticky and other silicon type lint roller products currently on the market. And a California court may settle the copyright lawsuit between Vince Offer's company and Lindsey Brooks, et al (listed above), with the winner holding some sort of Schticky copyright intellectual property. And will the Schticky indeed Go ShoveIt?
I'm just looking at this from the outside in, but I've seen firsthand that desperate people and/or companies can do desperate things in desperate times ...If you listen closely, you may be able to hear the faints sounds of paralegals typing legal filings.
This is just a guess, but a big sticky legal battle may be brewing...
You can find all three silicon lint roller type products below, as well as several other companies selling very similar products in the distant past on the web....let's revisit sometime in the next six months to how this sticky situation unfolds...
https://www.officialschticky.com/
http://www.stickybuddy.com/
http://www.goshoveit.com/
