[accessibleimage] Re: A bit OT, but Freedom Scientific suing, over the word "freedom?"

The blind bloggers, especially Darrell Shandro and Jeff Bishop (Blind Access
Journal and Desert Skies respectively) are jumping all over FS on this
issue.  Serotek, a very innovative company who, about two weeks ago
demonstrated to me what I believe is  likely the biggest jump forward in
screen reader technology in years has few resources on which to fall back
and may be bankrupted by this legal action.

FS came into being in Spring 2000 and started using its trademark then.
Mike Calvo started using the Freedom Box name in Fall 1999 but never
registered the mark.  Thus, a court, shown the documentation, would probably
rule in Serotek's favor if they had the cash to hire a decent legal team.
Unfortunately, they may have to fold their hand because the ante is too
high.

Darrell and Jeff started an online petition on this matter that, if you
agree, you should sign.  I've heard talk that some people are putting
together a legal defense fund to help Serotek and any other small players or
individuals who find themselves in lawsuits that seem more like
anti-competitive actions than real legal concerns.

***

Unrelated:  I haven't posted much here lately as I've been traveling a bit
(twice to NY, once to Boston and to India for ten days).  I've also found
two new half time jobs and one came directly from the post I made to this
list so I thank you folks for helping me during a time when things looked
pretty grim.  Once I settle back in, I'll start thinking about art and other
cool stuff again and discussing some of the work I'm doing to do audible
mathematics at CUNY.

Enjoy,
cdh

-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of David Poehlman
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 7:36 AM
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: A bit OT, but Freedom Scientific suing, over
the word "freedom?"

or maybe they fel threatened?  as a result of their recent investor 
acquisition, maybe they want to ensure their product in the market place. 
As for the blind getting confused, I know a lot of blind confused people but

this type of suit has nothing to do with the blind.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tina E" <tina-e@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <Blindad@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; 
<blindcraft@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; <VIP-Ewes@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, May 21, 2007 4:26 AM
Subject: [accessibleimage] A bit OT, but Freedom Scientific suing, over the 
word "freedom?"


Hello there to all,

Though this might be a little off topic, I strongly believe that this
issue is very important to all of us, the blind community as a whole,
as informed consumers of adaptive technology products.

It is my understanding that Freedom Scientific, makers of Jaws for
Windows, PacMate, and so on, is suing a smaller yet fairly well
established company, Serotek Corporation, makers of the FreedomBox,
because of potential consumer confusion over the word "freedom."
Coincidentally, Serotek also now as of a couple of months ago, has
developped two incredibly innovative software solutions, Remote Access
Management and Remote Incident Management, rather cutting-edge
software products that enable a blind or sighted technician, for
instance, to control the computer of another from a remote location,
in a fully accessible manner.

Why are they suing?  Over the word "freedom."  Apparently FS has the
idea that people could get FreedomBox, one of the products by Serotek,
confused with Freedom Scientific and their product line.

FreedomBox as a product, has been around for at least several years.
Why on earth would we, the blind and visually impaired consumers, all
of a sudden have such issues with word comprehension, just now?

I quote from the introduction to the petition:

"On May 14, 2007, Freedom Scientific, Inc. filed a trademark
infringement complaint (case 8:07-cv-00829-SCB-TGW) against Serotek
Corporation in United States District Court, for the Middle District
of Florida, Tampa Division. An accessible, text copy of the complaint
is available at
http://www.shandrow.com/fs_vs_serotek_complaint.txt
We, the undersigned, ask Freedom Scientific, Inc. to cease their
trademark infringement lawsuit against Serotek Corporation."

To read more, and to sign the online web-based petition, discouraging
Freedom Scientific from pursuing what I would personally consider a
rather frivolous lawsuit, let alone potentially alienating some of us
in FS's own customer base, please go to the following links.

Direct link to petition, on PetitionOnline.com
http://www.petitiononline.com/serotek/petition.html
Or,
http://www.SaveSerotek.org

Please join me, and other blind consumers of adaptive technology
products, in supporting healthy competition and continued innovation,
as opposed to one company bullying another over the word "freedom.".

This sort of action certainly does not support freedom for those of us
who are blind!!

Please express your support, and let's collectively let Freedom
Scientific know that  we as blind consumers, will not tolerate sharks
eating smaller fish in the adaptive technology industry!!


Tina E
Please feel free to visit my blog,
Tina's Virtual BackPack:
http://tvbp.wordpress.com
tina-e@xxxxxxxxx

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