San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Thursday (#3)

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greg
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San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Thursday (#3)

Post by greg »

THURSDAY (07/14/2005):

Thursday was the first full day of the convention. We walked across the street
from the hotel to the trolley stop and visitors' center. We purchased
four-day passes for the trolley system, and rode from Chula Vista to the
central station connecting the blue line and orange line of trains.

On the ride, we met another convention-goer who was primarily interested
in pirates. Evidently, "Pirates of the Caribbean" was the main influence,
but any generic pirate-based theme was enough for her.

Since she had been to the convention before, she acted as something
of a tour guide for the trolley ride and walk to the convention center.
Thursday's morning session of meetings included "Comic Book Law School 101",
a 90-minute session from 10:30am-noon conducted by Michael Lovitz, in Ballroom 4.
Thursday morning's walk to the convention center

Justin, Chris S., and I found seats in the front row. Mr. Lovitz provided
the crowd (which grew to 150-250 participants) with handouts summarizing
key points of copyright and trademark law. At one point in the discussions,
Mr. Lovitz used Defiant Comics as an example of a case where trademarks
were involved relating to the comic book industry, and stated that Jim Shooter's
win in that particular case was justified because there was little chance
that the public could be confused by "Plasm" (or "Warriors of Plasm") and
the Marvel UK title "Plasmer". In fact, the judge in the case was not at all
happy that Marvel had taken action against Defiant in the first place.
Comic Book Law School 101, front row crowd

One statement of particular interest to me was that "copyrights protect
copyright owners, while trademarks protect the public". Toward the end
of the session, I asked whether the public would be able to oppose
a trademark application, if they knew that it was likely for a trademark
to create confusion. Mr. Lovitz's response was somewhat lengthy,
but amounted to a "no", the public could not oppose trademark applications.

Justin was wearing a Valiant t-shirt, but I'm not sure if Mr. Lovitz
was aware that my question was mostly based upon Valiant-related trademarks.
Chris S. left the session about midway, in order to return to the convention
and make progress for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation fundraiser efforts.
Justin's t-shirt

Wanting to follow-up on this discussion as the session ended, Justin and I
remained in the hallway while Mr. Lovitz handled about two dozen other
participants who had questions, or were interested in purchasing a comic book
that he had written explaining copyrights and trademarks.

Once everyone had left, I introduced myself as a Valiant fan, and as the
administrator of the ValiantComics.com and ValiantFans.com websites.
(I pointed to Justin's t-shirt, as he was standing next to me as well.)
Knowing that we might want to discuss the particular case details of
VIP LLC, Mr. Lovitz clarified that we could only continue the discussion
as a matter of fan-to-fan conversation, and not as a situation were
I was discussing the case with the attorney of record.
This was no problem for me, because I am not a member of either
party, VIP LLC or the Kothari-Kothari-Shamdasani group.

I expressed that I felt confident in stating that the 'public',
as it relates to Valiant products, does not consider the prospect
of Valiant-named products as 'acceptible' if they do not include the
characters, stories, situations (copyrights), of the company
known as Valiant from 1991-1996.

A situation in which known Valiant titles (as they were from 1991-1996)
might return to production without those copyrights would be duplicitous
to any prospective buyer hoping to purchase a new Valiant product.
Products where the storyline was 100% new would not be worthy
of association with words/trademarks established years ago
as meaningful to Valiant as it was 1991-1996.

In particular, the fact that the trademark filing entity, VIP LLC,
did not participate in the Acclaim bankruptcy auction was especially
unnerving, since a fan of Valiant would not consider anything but
the copyrights themselves as a legitimate asset.

Mr. Lovitz indicated that he was prepared to attend the
Acclaim bankruptcy auction, but was notified in the last 24 hours
prior to the sale that he should not bother attending on behalf of VIP LLC.
His preparations for the sale were completed, and I got the impression
that it was a personal disappointment, from his perspective
as a fan of Valiant, to miss the Acclaim auction.

On multiple occasions, I described what I felt was a "blackmail situation"
regarding the VIP LLC trademark applications, due to the near-certainty that
those actions must be delaying progress by the new copyright owners.
Mr. Lovitz was clear to state that he was not a party to blackmail,
whether in this case or in others, because he does not have to represent
clients which present him with situations he opposes.

It is my own interpretation of our discussion which leads me to believe
that if Mr. Lovitz were approached today regarding this case, and had
not yet been involved with either side of the situation, he would be
more likely to select the side which aligns with the fans' perspectives.

I personally feel that there are no scenarios under which a reasonable
assessment of VIP LLC's actions could warrant labels that would not
include the concepts of "opportunistic", "duplicitous", "bad faith",
and "troublesome". However, this was not a court proceeding,
this was a fan's discussion with another fan in the hallway
of a comic book convention. It was only what it was.

The length of our conversation was somewhere between 45-minutes and one hour,
so it is not possible for me to recollect all dialogue that occurred.
Looking back, I am happy to say that I was not combative nor confrontational,
but I did speak from the honest perspective of at least one Valiant fan.
Justin was also present the entire time and can correct me if I am
in error in anything I've stated above.

I also have to commend Mr. Lovitz for "staying around" throughout the
discussion. At any point, he could have stated a need to be elsewhere,
and I would not have thought negatively of him. It was a busy trip, and
either of us could have needed to be somewhere else by a certain time.

Following the discussion, which ended around 1:30pm, Justin and I
walked down Sixth street to find a source of food more reasonable
that the concession vendors within the convention. A mall was
located about three or four blocks from the convention center,
and we entered through Nordstrom's and found our way to the food court.
A pretzel-dog (for me) and a couple slices of pizza (for Justin) later,
we were heading back to the convention center. Both of us took the
opportunity to call our wives, and to reflect on our conversation
with Mr. Lovitz.

Once we returned to the convention, we found a dealer with a copy
of Harbinger #1 priced at $60, Justin was snapped in a photo with
Princess Leia (in slave girl attire), and we both stopped in
at Jim Calafiore's table to peruse his stack of original art.
We were told that Brian Wells (betterthanezra) had "first dibs"
on the pages, while Magnus had requested the opportunity to
purchase leftovers. Justin put his name down for "third".
$60 Harbinger 1 (used to be $50), Jim Calafiore

Before long we were meeting up with Brian Wells and his wife Heather
(Serenity) at the booth were he set up a fundraiser for books
for the military. Soon Chris S. and Magnus (with the kids)
had joined us at the same booth. At some point Justin managed
to elbow young Lucas in the back of the head, so if I had been
paying closer attention I could have heard the translation
of "I'm really sorry" into Swedish, from Justin to Magnus to Lucas.

Howard Simpson had arrived in his trademark sunglasses in artists' alley,
so we met him at some point on Thursday, as well as meeting Sean Chen and
Tommy Lee Edwards, who were located in the same booth with Bernard Chang.
By the end of the convention (at 7:00pm) we had agreed to follow
Brian and Heather back to their hotel room in the Omni.
Dino joined us at the hotel, which was my first chance to meet him,
and we all talked about Valiant for a bit before heading out to supper.

Brian had brought some of his original art collection with him,
so we reviewed several pages including an uncensored, rejected
page from Acclaim's Shadowman title. At one point, Dino made an
offer of PSI-Lords for Unity Reds, which I declined, but it was
a funny situation to say the least. Brian mentioned that the
Magnus graphic novel by iBooks was already for sale at the convention.

The six of us (Knightt_333, architect, Dino, betterthanezra, Serenity, and myself)
walked to a pub called "The Blarney Stone" and entered through wide open
double-doors on the streetfront side of the building. Little did
we know that it was all downhill from there.

Service at the Blarney Stone (which is using the term 'service' loosely)
was nearly non-existent. The tables were wet, with what we hope was water,
and it was probably fifteen minutes before we saw a waitress.
Our food orders were somehow lost (in a nearly empty restaurant)
and I got the impression that the waitress was too flustered to have
handled more than two tables anyway. It was almost as if the restaurant
had been the scene of a crime, where the police took the kitchen staff
away for questioning, and the manager was requiring the remaining staff
to pretend as if nothing was wrong and business as usual. It didn't work.

We had hoped to meet up with Bernard Chang and Sean Chen later in
the evening, and there was a possibility that Kevin VanHook and/or Billy Tucci
would also attend. At about 9:30, calls to Mr. VanHook and Mr. Tucci
revealed that neither would be able to join us, most likely due to
the length of time it took to receive nothing more complicated than sandwiches
and french fries. Magnus was able to find us, however, and surprisingly
found a curbside parking spot in an otherwise nearly impassible area of town.
(Perhaps the hypothetical police car had occupied the same spot just before him.)

The group of now seven were to meet up with Bernard Chang, Sean Chen, and
Tommy Lee Edwards in the lobby of the Marriott Hotel on Sixth street.
That seemed easy enough, since the Marriott was next door to the Omni
where Brian and Heather were staying, just a few blocks from the Blarney Stone.

We walked the few blocks to the hotel and along the way encountered zombies.
That's right, there were at least three zombies standing on a sidewalk
"recruiting" for the mid-July Haunted House located downtown and open
for business (at $10.99 per person). While I would say most of us in the group
were aware of the somewhat convincing actors on the sidewalk, Dino did not
notice that a zombie was right next to him until he looked directly into
his face from only a couple inches away. I guess he could tell someone
was a little too close, but didn't expect an undead. The rest of us were quite amused.

Upon arriving at the Marriott, we called Bernard to confirm that we would
be waiting in the lobby. They said they'd be down in a few minutes,
so we dropped into lobby chairs and continued our various discussions.

Some time later, we discovered that we were in the Marriott on Sixth street,
but not the Marriott on Sixth street and Broadway, which is where Bernard,
Sean, and Tommy Lee had been waiting on us. So, we moved as quickly as
possible up Sixth street to find the (Courtyard) Marriott on Sixth and Broadway.
A visibly tired group of Bernard, Sean, and Tommy Lee were waiting for us
to arrive, and our group of ten finally headed west to Westgate, in hopes
of making the Mirrormask event. We arrived at nearly 11pm, and after some
confusion about the precise location of the event, we were on the
balcony of the Westgate Hotel third floor.

It was determined that the party was "unofficially over" at 11pm, so we
had just missed the timeframe, but there were still a number of people
lingering as it was still a nice place to be. I felt sorry for Tommy Lee,
Sean, and Bernard, since they would have been on time had it not been
for our confusions and delays. Our group of ten separated into talking groups,
and I was lucky enough to join in on a conversation between Sean Chen,
Brian, and Magnus. Sean believed that a number of Valiant art pieces
were potentially fraudulent, because the production staff was known
to "leak" their own inked or colored copies of original art into the market.

Those of us listening found this quite interesting as there have been
cases of Valiant art which were probably not original,
probably not card art, and still existed for no apparent reason.
Personally, this revelation reminded me why I have hesitations
about collecting original art.

After Bernard, Sean, and Tommy Lee had left for the evening,
the remaining seven enjoyed the location and each other's company
as we discussed whatever, for however long we were there.
I remember it was a nice night, with comfortable seats,
and a relaxing way to unwind about "halfway" through the week.
We found out that comic artists Brian Michael Bendis and Peter David
were also at the same party... but I didn't see them personally.
(It was more of a "Do you know who that was?" scenario...)

Magnus was able to give Justin, Chris S., and me a ride back
to our hotel. Magnus also handed me a copy of TV Tornado,
a 1967 British magazine that included a Magnus, Robot Fighter story.
I appreciate it for its "strangeness", as I'm not sure what
it has to do with TV, given that there were no Magnus television shows.

At some point in the day, I had heard about a possible layoff
at the company that I work for... so I did my best to check email
when we returned to the hotel. As far as I knew, my job was still intact,
but 4% of the workforce was being let go. As of this writing (7/22/2005),
I do not believe that I will be let go, but it might be August before
I am sure. It was 4:00am again before the lights went out.
Last edited by greg on Thu Sep 22, 2005 1:17:18 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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Unblessed
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Re: San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Thursday

Post by Unblessed »

greg wrote:
On multiple occasions, I described what I felt was a "blackmail situation"
regarding the VIP LLC trademark applications, due to the near-certainty that
those actions must be delaying progress by the new copyright owners.
Mr. Lovitz was clear to state that he was not a party to blackmail,
whether in this case or in others, because he does not have to represent
clients which present him with situations he opposes.

It is my own interpretation of our discussion which leads me to believe
that if Mr. Lovitz were approached today regarding this case, and had
not yet been involved with either side of the situation, he would be
more likely to select the side which aligns with the fans' perspectives.

I personally feel that there are no scenarios under which a reasonable
assessment of VIP LLC's actions could warrant labels that would not
include the concepts of "opportunistic", "duplicitous", "bad faith",
and "troublesome".
However, this was not a court proceeding,
this was a fan's discussion with another fan in the hallway
of a comic book convention. It was only what it was.
Well said. Well said. :thumb:

~The Unblessed Soul

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magnusr
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Re: San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Thursday (#3)

Post by magnusr »

Best.updates.ever

/Magnus

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Post by ckb »

Yes, thanks Greg. The content here was wonderful. Still over 1.1 quintillion questions that need to be answered, but it's a start.

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Daniel Jackson
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Re: San Diego 2005: Greg's journal - Thursday (#3)

Post by Daniel Jackson »

greg wrote:THURSDAY (07/14/2005):

At some point in the day, I had heard about a possible layoff
at the company that I work for... so I did my best to check email
when we returned to the hotel. As far as I knew, my job was still intact,
but 4% of the workforce was being let go. As of this writing (7/22/2005),
I do not believe that I will be let go, but it might be August before
I am sure. It was 4:00am again before the lights went out.

Wow, sorry to hear about that, I seem to remember you talking about being laid-off for a short time last year too. I hope everything works out for you Greg.

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Post by betterthanezra »

I would also like to THANK magnusr for his generosity.....he also presented me with an Inked page of VH-2 Magnus by Mike McKone......

I can't tell you how wonderful that suprise was to me...and a real pleasure in meeting you and your kids.


Thanks you again.

-Brian
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My Valiant story here

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6932" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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betterthanezra
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Post by betterthanezra »

Dino wishing that Damn Zombie (that scared the *SQUEE* out of him) back to HELL :D :wink:

Image

-Brian
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My Valiant story here

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=6932" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Post by Daniel Jackson »

Yikes, I didn't know Dino has only two fingers on his right hand.

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Post by depluto »

M-80 accident ...

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Post by Daniel Jackson »

Poor guy.

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tcolli
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Post by tcolli »

That is great for a heavy metal listener though! :lol:
I do chicken right!


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