Ted Frank (OverLawyered) reports:
Michael J. Zwebner, the CEO of penny-stock holding company Universal Communication Systems, is unhappy that he’s being flamed on the RagingBull.com message board, run by Lycos. He may have a legitimate beef to some extent. . . .
[But] Zwebner’s litigation methods . . .are questionable. He’s filed five lawsuits in federal court in Miami, against anonymous posters, against Lycos (for, among other things, “trademark violations” for naming a message board after the ticker symbol UCSY), and even a couple of purported class actions. He’s especially upset at one anonymous poster, who has the especially credible username of Wolfblitzzer0 [sic].
So, Zwebner has sued . . . CNN and the real-life Wolf Blitzer! It seems, according to Zwebner’s view of the world, that Blitzer is supposed to be on the lookout for anonymous posters using similar names, and should be held liable for such posters’ postings when he fails to police the use of such usernames. . . .
Appalling. First, I doubt that Blitzer even had a legal right to stop Wolfblitzzer0 from his posts; unless the posts were commercial advertising (which I doubt), Blitzer wouldn’t have a right of publicity or trademark claim against Wolfblitzzer0. And I doubt Blitzer would have a libel claim (on the theory that Wolfblitzzer0 is hurting Blitzer’s reputation by posting things under his name) because few readers would really think that the poster is Wolf Blitzer.
But second, Blitzer certainly has no legal duty to spend his time, money, and effort litigating over every schmoe’s misuse of his name — even if he had a legal right to stop such misuses — especially when readers would realize that the poster isn’t the real Blitzer. (Under the doctrine of “apparent authority,” A may sometimes end up bound by contracts that B made on his behalf, when reasonable observers would assume that B actually has the authority to act for A; but that surely isn’t the case here.)
Sounds like a sure loser of a case to me, perhaps even sanctionable (though that’s a tougher call).
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