Louisiana Drug Warriors Bungle Surveillance So Badly Their Target Catches Them Placing A Tracking Device On Her Car
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You'd think a team of highly trained professionals working in the narcotics enforcement field would be a bit more careful than this. (via Jalopnik)A woman who was recently arrested for drugs said she found a tracking device on her vehicle over the weekend. She said she watched law enforcement officers place it on her car Friday.The device was found under the passenger side of her car. It's a black box with a lithium battery inside and a large magnet. The woman, Tiara Beverly, was arrested last month on "serious drug charges." A few days after her arrest, five officers showed up at her door to ask about someone she knew. She had no answers for them and went down and filed a complaint against the state troopers because she felt they had treated her poorly during this interaction.Two days later, she saw people hanging around her car. A day after that, she found the tracking device. Not sure what it was (she thought it might have been a bomb) and not particularly keen to interact with law enforcement again at that point, she spoke to the NAACP to find someone to approach law enforcement for her.That's when law enforcement finally decided to open up about the device now in Beverly's possession:Eugene Collins [Baton Rouge NAACP President] said State Police contacted him Monday demanding the return of the device."They asked me to return the box," Collins said. "It could make the situation more difficult for me." Why this would make things "more difficult" for a third party not actually in possession of the tracking device is unknown. Either way, the device was ultimately returned to law enforcement after it was found attached to a utility pole across the street from a local middle school.But the device wasn't found by the agency demanding its return or by the investigators unwilling to speak about the super-sensitive tracking device because doing so would jeopardize the investigation officers were currently bungling. It was found by WBRZ reporters following up on Tiara Beverly's story.At least the statement provided to WBRZ says the State Police got a warrant for the tracker. That at least appears to comply with Supreme Court precedent. But everything else about it appears incredibly amateurish. Warrant or not, investigators would be better off not being seen attaching tracking devices to criminal suspects' vehicles. It kind of defeats the purpose of surreptitious tracking when the installation is less than surreptitious.This isn't the first time a surveillance target has discovered, removed, and, consequently, received threats from law enforcement for "taking" something investigators willfully attached to someone else's property. But judging from that viral experience, there's not much in it for the target of this attempted surveillance either.A Redditor who found an FBI tracking device attached to his car received a visit from agents after he removed the device and asked questions about it on Reddit. The FBI made angry noises about any lack of cooperation from the target of its failed surveillance attempt being perceived as its own criminal act, but in the end, no additional charges were filed. Unfortunately, a lawsuit brought against the FBI failed because it wasn't clear at that point that warrants were needed and all other privacy violation allegations were dismissed because the person chose to bring it to the attention of Reddit, which soon brought to the attention of journalists and commentators all over the nation.This is just officers being bad at their job. They're probably not going to get another chance to turn Beverly's vehicle into rolling probable cause. They had a shot and they blew it. Then they got angry and never even bothered to track down the current location of the device investigators said should be immediately returned to them because of their ongoing investigation.
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posted at: 12:00am on 27-Apr-2021
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Ocean Spray Seeks Declaratory Relief After Soda Company Threatens It With Confused Trademark C&D
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While we've seen plenty of instances of confused attempts at trademark bullying backfire on a company, this post will deal with one of the worst I've seen. Most of you will likely be familiar with the company Ocean Spray, best known as a purveyor of all kinds of cranberry-infused fruit drinks. You will likely be less familiar with Wedge Water, LLC, a company that makes fruit juice infused water products. The company also does business as Wave Soda, promoting its soda-alternative drinks. Well, according to a lawsuit filed by Ocean Spray seeking declaratory relief that it did not infringe any trademarks with its own "wave" branding, Wedge Water / Wave Soda sent a cease and desist notice to Ocean Spray demanding that it cease using its own federally registered trademark. More on that in a moment, but here is what the complaint notes about the C&D.The Letter accuses Ocean Spray of infringing “Wave Soda’s” trademark and trade dress rights through Ocean Spray’s line of OCEAN SPRAY WAVE products. According to the USPTO database, there is no registration for the mark NEW WAVE owned by an entity named Wave Soda, LLC. As noted above, according to the USPTO database, Wedge Water, LLC is the owner of record of U.S. Registration No. 5571632 for mark NEW WAVE. The Letter advises that Wave Soda, LLC, is a “rapidly growing beverage company based in San Marcos, California.” A search of the database of the California Secretary of State, however, reveals no record for an LLC named Wave Soda, LLC in San Marcos, California, or at all. Despite the fact that there are many brands of sparking water with fruit juice and a small amount of caffeine for sale on Amazon, Mr. Levine’s letter claims that his client “pioneered an entirely new product category.” The Letter emphasizes that the surfer motif is an important part of Wave Soda’s branding: “Wave’s growing team shares [the founder’s] passion for beverages and an active lifestyle—the Wave Soda Surfboard and VW van are not just for show” (emphasis added). It goes on from there. The complaint, which includes the C&D letter in full, notes that the notice didn't offer any specifics as to what was infringing, offered no possibility of a settlement other than the cessation of Ocean Spray using its own mark, and that the letter in general is "utterly confusing as to who owns the trademarks and trade dress claimed in The Letter." All of this, the complaint goes on, has led the company to seek declaratory relief.Frankly, the C&D is fairly shitty as far as these things go. But the actual legal claims, based on the suit, seem to be even more confused. This dispute led Ocean Spray's legal team to start looking into the trademarks claimed by Wedge Water. The complaint notes that Wedge Water applied for a mark for "New Wave" on a variety of goods, but the "intent to use" application failed to demonstrate that the applied for marks were actually in use in commerce. Instead, Wedge Water's attorneys appear to have supplied some art renderings of what the branding would be. In other words, Wedge Water wasn't actually using the marks in question before July of 2018. The filing notes that Ocean Spray was using its federally registered "Wave" trademark since at least 2013.Plaintiff Ocean Spray requests an order declaring that its use of the marks WAVE as part of the mark OCEAN SPRAY WAVE, and the OCEAN SPRAY WAVE trade dress do not infringe Wedge Water’s alleged trademark and trade dress rights. With respect to the word marks WAVE as part of the mark OCEAN SPRAY WAVE and OCEAN SPRAY WAVE, Ocean Spray asserts priority over Wedge Water. Even if the marks are confusingly similar, (which Ocean Spray does not concede), Ocean Spray has prior rights and is not infringing any claimed rights of Wedge Water. And because of that priority, and likely because of Wedge Water's attempt to play trademark bully, the lawsuit includes a second count beyond the declaratory relief, seeking also to cancel Wedge Water's trademark in favor of Ocean Spray's.Ocean Spray has standing to request cancellation of the NEW WAVE Registration because it has reason to believe that it will be injured by the continued registration of same. Ocean Spray has reason to believe that it will be injured because Defendant/Registrant or its alter ego, the purported Wave Soda, LLC, has asserted in The Letter that Ocean Spray’s use of its OCEAN SPRAY WAVE trademark infringes the NEW WAVE mark. The Letter asserts, and thus admits, that there is a likelihood of confusion between OCEAN SPRAY WAVE and NEW WAVE. Whoops. What retort could Wedge Water possibly have? Its own C&D letter suggested that there would be public confusion between the marks...and the trademark registrations sure do indicate that Ocean Spray's mark was registered first.Live by the trademark, die by the trademark and all of that. You have to imagine at this point that Wedge Water is regretting having ever sent that threat letter to begin with.
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posted at: 12:00am on 27-Apr-2021
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