A Demon-Eater's Perspective

The Cuss is Cussing again.

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:00:22 GMT

I often find myself being disparaged as a has-been. It annoys me to have the accomplishments of a life time reduced like that. As if I had never done them.

I recovered from a fifteen year writer's block on fiction and found the world of publishing had changed. I also found that I no longer fit into it -- at least where the majors are concerned.

It is a given that things change.

It is also a given that we get old.

I will be 55 in October, ten days before Halloween (which is the day I prefer to celebrate my birthday). I still have all the drive that I had in my youth, but I no longer have the kind of energy I had then. Between the post polio syndrome and the fact that I have cataracts, it gets harder to push like I used to.

I've been told that what keeps me out of the majors is not the quality of my work, but my obsessions with relevance. I can't write simple tales of hidden princes and magic swords. I put all the nitty gritty of life into my stories. I consider that honesty.

I'm not hurt by those statements about my being a has-been at this point, but it annoys the hell out of me. It's rather like having a yapping chihuahua follow you down the street. At some point you just want to kick the holy hell out of the little beast.

My layout man for Daverana and Flashing Swords has been in and out of hospital for the past few months. Most of it is due to the need to repair the repairs they did on him following his wounding during Operation Desert Storm.

We have two books available from Daverana at this point, and will soon have more.

Kynyr's War

Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:51:48 GMT

Like all of the books in the Lycan Blood series, Kynyr's War (book four) was a victim of the original publisher, Renebooks. I dropped entire threads that contributed to the conclusions of the last and second to last books in the series, because if they went beyond a certain length the publisher, Jean Marie Stine, would chop them up into components like she did the first three books in my Dark Brothers of the Light series.

I just finished revising and restoring over 40,000 words to Kynyr's War. The Doherty family is now back in the books as they were originally meant to be instead of appearing (almost) out of the blue in the final two novels.

I have pitched it back to the editor and now wait on his reactions to it. There were a few places where I did not make the changes he asked for, and instead requested that he clarify what he wanted a bit more. The final version will come when I have that clarification in hand and can work on it.

And of course, he has to approve all of the added material.

Apology from Andrew Bernstein

Wed, 06 May 2009 17:15:38 GMT

I, Andrew Bernstein, hereby unreservedly apologize to Ms. Janice "Janrae" Frank, to those of my company "Polymancer Studios", and to all others this matter has come to the attention of; for my over-zealous defense of the trademark owned by the company. No malice nor compensation was intended by my actions.

Sincerely,
Andrew Bernstein

--

Andrew Bernstein
Polymancer Studios, Inc.

_________________________________________________________________________

I would have added "misguided" but that's just being nitpicky.

So far I and my staff are concerned the matter is now ended.

Summation

Wed, 06 May 2009 11:15:39 GMT

Tim composed the first letters that I sent under my own name. He also made the first phone contact.

This bought me time to get focused enough to figure out how best to handle it. I had initially gone into an "I'll rip your throats out" anger mode.

Because I made my decision in the late hours of the night and the early hours of the morning, I did not have an opportunity to alert Tim that he had just become good cop to my bad cop before I started work on the situation.

The biggest challenge initially was proving prior usage by a sufficient number of writers to demonstrate that the word individually and in all contexts of usage pre-dated their trademark and that the trademark was good only in the context for it was granted.

I phoned Tim to let him know that I had sufficent evidence and documentation to nail them to the wall if it went to court. Tim was not available, but his wife informed me that Andrew had been calling his home that day (Tuesday) and the day before (Monday) at all hours in an obsessive fashion.

So I said "I'll take care of it." And then I phoned Polymancer. I went in guns blazing, expecting it to be Andrew on the other end of the phone. The voice sounded young, which seemed to confirm my belief that it was Andrew.

He said, "Hello?"
I said, "I've got you fucking assholes by the balls."
He said, with a nervous giggle, "Pardon me? Who is this?"

It turned out that I had gotten, not Andrew, but Chris Lang, the owner. We ended up having a very nice conversation that included a discussion of Weird Tales and pulp magazines. And I was repeatedly assured that I would receive an apology from Andrew in email. I was also told to call Chris back if I had not received it by Friday.

I then went upstairs to Natalie's place. We ordered pizza and watched old Marx brothers movies. When we carried my share of the leftovers to my apartment, we arrived just as I received a call back from Chris, who again assured me that Polymancer's trademark applied only to the context of a magazine. He also told me that Andrew had been 'demoted' and I would receive that apology today.

Hopefully this is the end of it.

Hopefully my final post on this matter

Tue, 05 May 2009 15:52:37 GMT

Okay, I am going to list (for the benefits of the eejits at polymancer) why they can't win.

While I would love to take everything they own from them in a lawsuit, I would rather that the silliness just ended.

1) The date of application is not the go by date in a lawsuit. The date that the trademark is granted is. And that date is August of 05. My first novel with polymancers in it was published in March of 04. The magic system shown on my website is based upon those novels. The short fiction in which I mentioned polymancers goes back to 1980.

2) The precedence that would be set if they won would create a dangerous situation for the publishing industry at large. Therefore I would easily have every writers organization and publisher behind me in going up against them and could easily get the ACLU involved. Language belongs to the people. Even the Supreme Court agrees with that. If a trademark can retroactively remove a writer's use of a term that writer (or previous writers) coined then most works of speculative fiction could be destroyed by anyone who cared to acquire the author's word for their trademark.

3) Neither a trademark nor a copyright removes a word from the language. A trademark applies only to the object it is applied to and the statement in their application is that they are trademarking it as the title of a magazine. Title of a magazine. Nothing more.

4) No one over at EN World has ever heard of them.

5) Copyrights do not remove a word from the language either. Witness how many authors have battlemages, orcs, and dragons in their work? Or how many times you see Greek and Latin used to create new hybrid words? It's commonplace and fails to take the word out of the language. A copyright relates not to the words in the text individually, but to the entire aggregate of those words.

6) Now, they wish to claim libel and slander in my posts here and elsewhere. I freely claim my right to refer to them as 'polyfuckers' but that falls under a different rule. This is the US and we are free to express our opinions, especially of public figures. Owning a trademark and attempting to enforce it inappropriately is subject to ridicule in many places. And it's legal. Not even the President of the US can stop people from ridiculing him if they so desire to.

I could go on, but I'll stop here for an editorial.

Mr. Bernstein, if you are smart, you will now walk away quietly and we will both forget this ever happened. If you really want to give me all of your worldly goods, then please continue and make good on your threats. I would not mind owning all of your stuff. (Except, of course, your dirty underwear. Please wash it first.)

Journalistic investigations Internet Style

Tue, 05 May 2009 07:53:16 GMT

Dear Mr. Bernstein,

I will no longer respond to you in private.

I await your registered letter to turn it over to my attorneys.

As a former MPAA Accredited Journalist (retired), I did my homework and launched an investigation of your company.

I also hired an attorney and spoke to various experts on the situation.

So the ball is in your park now. Send me that letter.

Janrae Frank

More Polyfuckers

Tue, 05 May 2009 07:38:27 GMT

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dear Ms. Frank (and others),

I will begin by saying that this e-mail is being sent to you in the strictest confidence as legal correspondence. Its contents and allusions thereto are not to be posted to any public forum, mailing list, blog, LiveJournal, or other social networking web site, web app, or web service on the Internet.

We were encouraged by the e-mail quoted below, which was sent to us by Mr. Tim Willard on the evening of Sunday May 3 2009. We were encouraged by your clear intention to resolve this dispute amicably, as well as by your understanding of the issues at hand. Through all of this, it was our understanding that Mr. Willard is legally authorized to represent you and Daverana enterprises and to negotiate on your behalf. This is why we were shocked and flabbergasted when the following blog and Twitter posts had come to our attention, most of which were dated after the time of our correspondence with Mr. Willard:

* http://twitter.com/cussedness/statuses/1694024757 (" #polymancer a word I came up with on my own. My books made the rounds for years, were finally published, and I feel like I'm being raped")
* http://twitter.com/cussedness/statuses/1694020136 (" Many, many years ago I created a word, polymancer, and now I'm being informed that I can't use it any longer and must rip it out of my work")
* http://twitter.com/kaolinfire/statuses/1691347280 (" twtpoll, RT and answer? What does "polymancer" mean to you? http://twtpoll.com/r/pvpng3")
* http://twtpoll.com/r/pvpng3 (which includes embedding code)
* http://therustynail.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/polymancer/ (Folks, if any of you can recall where and when you first came across the word polymancer, please let me know. A link or two to back it up would be really sweet. In the meantime, poly-wannaquacker?)
o Which includes a number of libelous comments about the company
o Which also includes a full text citation of the US Copyright Act's (aka Title 17, United States Code) "fair use" section; which is odd, because what you have done is a trademark violation, which is governed under a separate statute (part of Title 18 United States Code) and is a completely separate area of law; do note that nothing in the USCA's "fair use" provisions allow for fair use of a company's trademarks.
* http://therustynail.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/polymancer-2/ ("'polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer, polymancer . . . Oh, and by the way, did I mention the word “polymancer?”')
o Which includes a comment in which the commenter indicated the intention to encourage a friend to write a novella with the title "Polymancer," which would be a trademark violation and to which the original poster offered no countercomment to indicate such or that such action is not encouraged by the original poster.
* http://cussedness.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/copyright-patent-and-trademark-rebellion/ (' Polymancer Studios were “tipped off” by Dagstine that I was infringing their copyright. My use of the word does not show up on a google search until page 65.'
* http://cussedness.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/copyright-patent-and-trademark-rebellion/ ('Daverana has offered them a compromise, and they have told use that it will take a few days for their legal department to go over it I intend to stand my ground, but we’ll see where this goes.')

I can see that you, and individuals associated with you, have been busy instigating a public relations war against Polymancer Studios, Inc.. Do note that we contacted Janrae Frank privately about this matter so that it could be resolved as cleanly and as efficiently as possible, so as to minimize damage and inconvenience to both parties. We are entitled under the Trademark legislation of the United States and other countries to protect the word that we use to conduct business in good faith and we lose the right to use our trademarks if unauthorized use effectively genericizes it.

My impression from our telephone conversation with Mr. Willard on Sunday, May 3 2009, was that you had the good faith intention to resolve this issue amicably and professionally, and not resort to antics on the Internet which, quite frankly, are as immature as they are unprofessional; not to mention, which could be used as evidence in litigation against you, both for trademark violation and for defamation (i.e., libel and slander). A question needs to be asked: do you truly wish for this to proceed to litigation? If so, all owners, officers, and employees of Deverana Enterprises can be held liable for both the infringement and for defamation; possibly, said individuals would have cause for action against Ms. Frank in such a case. Do you really want to take it to that point, as these vindictive, unprofessional, and defamatory posts seem to indicate?

The very last post quoted above alludes to Mr. Willard's e-mail to Polymancer Studios, quoted below, and a compromise position which has the potential to resolve this matter favorably for both sides; though you do claim in the same sentence that you intend to "stand your ground." This implies very strongly that you do not have the sincere intention to abide by a written agreement with Polymancer Studios. Is this the case? If so, then we must ask: What cause do we have even to consider the offer quoted below? If you have no intention of living up to it, then even considering it seems pointless.

I should further note that the use of the word "rape" to describe a business practice which is both legitimate and required under the law (i.e., protection of one's registered trademarks) is obscene, egregious, and offensive; if you question this, I invite you to explain this usage to a real-world victim of actual sexual assault. You would be expected to take actions no different from ours had some hypothetical third party made use of the name "Jan Frank" or "Daverana" in publishing without your consent, and hardly would you be faulted for such.

It is our understanding that Mr. Willard has taken ill and that he may not be capable of corresponding with us in order to deal with this issue at any time in the near future. This is deeply regrettable. In the absence of any other representative of Daverana Enterprises, we direct our concerns to you, Ms. Frank. If you want to continue with the process of resolving this matter in the manner that Mr. Willard proposed, then you are directed to remove all blog posts and similar Internet actions about this subject post haste. In the case of Twitter, you are directed to take down the poll and to post a notice informing all who "follow" you on Twitter that you are in negotiations with Polymancer Studios, Inc. to resolve this matter amicably. You are further directed to cease and desist any and all such statements as well as any and all actions to elicit such from your correspondents on the Internet. It needs to be emphasized that this is not only for your protection, but also for that of your well-meaning fans, as it is established under Common Law that the mere repetition of a libel carries the same guilt as originating a libel.

Please note that these statements made by yourself, including the act of eliciting similar statements from your correspondents, constitutes libel and slander as such statements are made with malice and with the expressed intent of damaging the reputation of the company. This is legally actionable and we will take appropriate legal measures to protect the reputation of Polymancer Studios, Inc..

Do conduct yourself accordingly.

Sincerely,

--
Polymancer Studios, Inc.

cc// Legal

On 5/3/09 7:01 PM, Tim Willard wrote:
> Mr. Bernstein;
>
> Hello and good evening. We spoke on the phone about an agreement allowing us to use the words "polymancy" and "polymancer", and I would also like to suggest we add "polymagus" to the list of words that both companies will strive to guard.
>
> I suggest, initially, that we proceed as follows:
>
> Daverana Enterprises
>
> * Does not contest the existence and strength of Polymancer Studio's trademark of "Polymancer" and "Polymancy" as a brand name, product line, and line of goods.
> * Agrees not to use the words "polymancer", "polymancy", "polymagus" in the titles of books.
> * Agrees not to have the concept of "polymancy" be a central and solely defining point of character definition in the future works of fiction, all though it is allowed to be part of a character's definition.
> * Defends and maintains the use of the word polymancy in previously released works of fiction, and future works of fiction as already defined in copyrighted material.
> * Agrees not to arbitrarily change the definition and usage of polymancy and polymancer in future works of fiction in such a way as to weaken or contest Polymancer Studio's trademark.
> * Agrees not to allow the use of "polymancer", "polymagus", "polymancy" in any stories published by the Daverana Enterprises subsidiary "Flashing Swords Magazine" or any future magazine publications with the sole exception of fiction written by Ms. Janrae Frank that is set in the pre-existing setting that utilizes polymancy. In addition, any such short story or article shall not have "Polymancy", "Polymagus", "Polymancer" in the title or subtitle of the work, although it is permissable in the body text.
>
>
> Polymancer Studios
>
> * Maintains and defends their possession of the Trademark "Polymancer" and "Polymancy" in regards to brand name, product line, and line of goods.
> * Agrees to allow Daverana Enterprises to continue to use the words "polymancy", "polymancer", "Polymagus" in works of fiction providing that those concepts are not the sole defining characteristics of characters, although it is allowable to be one of several or many defining characteristics.
> * Agrees not to contest the existing usage and future usage of the words "polymancy", "Polymagus", or "Polymancer" by Daverana Enterprises (Specificially Ms. Frank) in works of fiction where previously copyrighted works of fiction have already established the usage of those terms within the fictional setting.
> * Agrees to allow Daverana Enterprises to use it as a minor character definition, providing the character has stronger definitions beyond the contested terms.
> * Agrees not to demand that previously existing works by Ms. Frank and Daverana Enterprises be removed from publication and pre-existing products be destroyed.
> * Agrees to allow Daverana Enterprises to maintain the "Polymancy", "Polymancer", and "Polymagus" entries of the Daverana Lexicon, providing that a footnote annotation be added that leads to a footnote stating "Not to be confused with the trademark Polymancer, which is a trademark of Polymancer Studios"
>
>
> Finally, both companies agree:
>
> * That Polymancer Studios holds sole Trademark to the word Polymancer.
> * Daverana Enterprises and Ms. Frank hold copyright usage in previously published works.
> * That both companies developed the words, concepts, and ideas seperately due to parellel research, and each was unaware of the others concepts, ideas, and definitions.
> * That both parties will seek to ensure that both parties copyrights and trademarks are defended by each other and do not seek to weaken one another's copyrights and trademark through third parties through action or inaction.
>
>
> Please bear in mind this is an initial, non-legal language agreement that shall be used for the basis of negotiation on a final resolution that allows Polymancer Studios to retain all rights to their registered trademark and allows Daverana Enterprises to retain all rights to their copyrighted works.
>
>
> OK, shall we get down to negotiating the terms. Please, at this time, let all communication go through me in order to streamline this effort.
>
> Remember, guys, that none of us are the bad guys, this is just an example of codiscovery/codevelopment that happens now and then. Let's work out something that makes everyone happy, and strengthens both companies rather than weakens us.
>
> --Tim Willard
>
>

Here's the reply to my previously posted email

Tue, 05 May 2009 07:31:00 GMT

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Dear Ms. Frank,

You replied to our notice regarding your infringement upon our trademark of the word "Polymancer". It needs to be re-iterated: the word "Polymancer" is not an ordinary word but one that was created by Polymancer Studios, Inc. for the purpose of doing business under that mark. While consisting of two root words from the Ancient Greek language, their placement together as a single compound is by no means a common use. For example, the word "Polymancer" is not currently in any dictionaries.

The purposes of trademark law include the protection of members of the public from any possibility of mistakenly attributing the origin or endorsement of a product or service. Your use of the word "Polymancer" as a type of character does have the potential to so confuse members of the public for the following reasons:

* Polymancer Studios's principle business activities are publishing and printing. Your use of the word "Polymancer" is in a published book.
* Much of Polymancer Studios's published oeurve appeals to fans of science fiction, fantasy fiction, and horror fiction. Your use of the word "Polymancer" is in the context of fantasy literature.
* Polymancer magazine itself is concerned with roleplaying games, a hobby in which the participants generate characters, often characters who have specific functions and definable roles. Your use of the word "Polymancer" is for a specific kind of character, in such a way that is highly similar to character typology in roleplaying games.
* A search in Google and other popular search engines for the word "Polymancer" results in the URL referenced in our previous communication to you. This could cause Internet users to mistakenly believe that there is an association between Polymancer Studios, Inc. and yourself.

Polymancer Studios, Inc. has been using the word "Polymancer" as a unique identifying mark (as per US and other trademark legislation, a word is a "mark" that can be used in business; the potential for confusion in identification is in no way restricted to visual logos only) in commerce and in the specific context of publishing since late 2003. Your use of the word "Polymancer" is subsequent to this date and is not done, in the language of US trademark law, for the "bonifide purposes of conducting business under the mark." Please note that our registration of the trademark "Polymancer" applies to the actual word "Polymancer" and not to a logo or to any particular physical manifestation of the word "Polymancer."

Your use of the word "Polymancer" is in a context that is substantially similar to the use of that word by Polymancer Studios, Inc., particularly with regards to the fictional context of your work and the specific population of your intended audience. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, an infringement has occurred with your use of the word "Polymancer" and we restate that you are directed to cease and desist any and all use of the word and references thereto within 30 calendar days of receiving this communication.

Do conduct yourself accordingly.

Sincerely
Polymancer Studios, Inc.

cc// Legal

Janrae Frank wrote:,

> Dear Sir or Ma'am;
>
> You recently contacted us regarding what you felt was the infringement of your trademark of the word Polymancer. However, contrary to popular belief, trademarked words are, according to Chief Justice O'Connor: "Not removed from the public lexicon due to being trademarked" and thus the word can still be used. Additionally, it appears that the word was both published in fiction books as a noun and adjective with a specific, almost singular, usage and trademarked by your company.
>
> While I applaud your desire to aggressively defend your registered trademark, you have made several errors regarding Daverana use of the word "polymancer" and your trademark Polymancer.
>
> Trademark Infringement occurs when the following occurs:
>
> Infringement may occur when one party, the "infringer", uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers.
>
> Seeing as our word "Polymancer" refers to an individual who may use multiple types of magic, and is used as both a noun and an adverb for fictional characters, not a product or service provided by Daverana, there is no trademark infringement on that point.
>
> Additionally, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of the US Judiciary Branch has established this test:
>
> 1. Strength of the mark
> 2. Proximity of the goods
> 3. Similarity of the marks
> 4. Evidence of actual confusion
> 5. Marketing channels used
> 6. Type of goods and the degree of care likely to be exercised by the purchaser
> 7. Defendant's intent in selecting the mark
> 8. Likelihood of expansion of the product lines
>
>
> You have excellent strength of mark, regarding Polymancer Magazine, however, Daverana does not try to market any product using the word Polymancer in its title, leaving your strength undiluted and therefor no damage occurs to the strength of you mark, as it refers to your magazine, nor will anyone consider a character from within a Daverana novel to be a magazine rather than a person who is skilled in "polymancy"
>
> Proximity of goods is widely separated, seeing as Polymancer is a type of person, often used as a noun, where your Polymancer is a company and an RPG magazine. We do not have proximity, and there would be no confusion by consumers.
>
> Similarity of the mark: This does not come into play, as we are discussing a word, not a trademarked symbol.
>
> Evidence of Actual Confusion: I do not believe this has come in to play, as I doubt either of us have customers who are likely to confuse a fictional character with a real and existing company.
>
> Marketing channels used: Since Daverana does not depend on marketing of the word Polymancer, marketing channels are wildly separated.
>
> Type of goods and degree of care: Once again, it is doubtful that anyone will purchase a novel or visit the web-page, and confuse the Polymancer magazine with "Abelard the Polymancer" and attempt to contact Daverana with the intent of purchasing Abelard for their own use.
>
> Defendant's Intent: Was not to capitalize on your trademark, but rather using a very common sense melding of two words: Poly, meaning multiple, and mancer, which means caster. This was not done with the intent of infringing on customer faith and reputation of Polymancer Magazine.
>
> Likelihood of Expansion: Daverana does not even plan to use Polymancer in the title of any novels at this time.
>
> According to these guidelines, the use of Polymancer by Daverana does not constitute a trademark infringement according to those guidelines.
>
> While we here at Daverana understand your desire to aggressively defend your trademark, and thus your brand name, and your desire to keep others from cashing in on your hard earned customer faith, loyalty, and reputation, the use of "polymancer" by Daverana does not constitute a infringement upon your trademark under United States of America trademark law or the statutes of the Paris Convention of Trademark Law.
>
> We would like to make sure that this matter is settled without hurt feelings on either side, and welcome a dialogue with you regarding your concerns and questions regarding our use of the non-trademarkable form of "Polymancer" in order to calm any concerns you have about loss of reputation, customers, or brand strength.
>
> Sincerely;
>
> Janice R. "Janrae" Frank
> CEO Daverana Enterprises
>
>
>

Here's the original email I got from Polyfucker's editor

Tue, 05 May 2009 07:29:58 GMT

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Polymancer Studios, Inc.
Sent by: Andrew Bernstein
20 Weredale Park
Westmount, QC, H3Z 1Y6, Canada
514 667 1585

Janrae Frank
973 Main St., Apt 10
Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420
United States
978 345 7239

Re: TRADEMARK
Dear Janrae Frank:

We are the owners of the trademark "Polymancer" (registered in the US under the serial number 78287975) and we are writing to you about your infringement on our trademark; the use of "Polymancer" and the plural thereof as originally publicized on the web page http://www.janraefrank.com/noteook/magic.html (" Polymancers, also called pan-elementalists") and contained within the larger work(s) that said web page refers to.

A registered letter will follow this e-mail. You have 30 calendar days to remove all references to and uses of the word "Polymancer" from any and all works in which it is used or reference is made to it.

We hereby notify you that Polymancer Studios, Inc. will take all necessary and appropriate action to protect its valuable trademarks and request that you immediately cease and desist the use of the word "Polymancer". Please respond to this correspondence, confirming our request by May 5, 2009.

Do conduct yourself accordingly.

Sincerely,
Polymancer Studios, Inc.

--
Polymancer Studios, Inc.

//cc Legal

SHAKEDOWN RPG STYLE

Mon, 04 May 2009 15:23:47 GMT

More and more this thing with Polymancer Studios is shaping up to look like a clumsy attempt at a shakedown.

1) the person who contacted me turns out to be the 'editor' Andrew Bernstein.

Now, if they really had a legal department, why is it that the editor contacts me and not someone more in line with this type of adventure?

2) they claim to be monthly, yet they have produced only 15 issues since December 2004

3) most of their website is devoted to vanity action.

4) they pay in royalties only when they actually bother to pay someone.

5) they altered the dates on their site according to a long time gamer, and pushed back some of them so that it looks like they happened first. That smells of entrapment.

6) "According to the home page for Polymancer Studios Inc, http://www.polymancerstudios.com/ the page is copyrighted from 2003-2008 and Polymancer is a registered trademark.

"BUT according to their website here: http://www.polymancerstudios.com/polymancer/content/view/16/32/ the page is copyrighted 2002-2009 and Polymancer is a registered trademark. Apparently their first site got hacked and they had to re-do it. But the whole pushing back the copyright is suspicious." from an anonymous tipster and verified by me.

7) FourthRight and Polygraff do not appear to exist and never have.

8) In 2007, they announced that they were expanding due to acquisition of a distribution company, Distant Horizons, and a gaming/software firm, Rubicon Development Inc. However, Distant Horizons' website is a placeholder. No sign of Rubicon Development Inc. can be found in Canada. The on in the UK has nothing to do with Polymancer.

9) It appears they are full of grandoise ambitions and nothing accomplished.

__________

However, I have a referral to an attorney specializing in the creative arts and am in the process of getting an appointment to speak to him.

Who'd a thunk it?

Mon, 04 May 2009 10:58:58 GMT

There are an enormous number of words ending in "mancy"

There are an equal number of words beginning in "poly"

This, in my opinion makes polymancy an inevitable word in fiction. My two experts are convinced that they will have found at least one or two places in the older novels and short stories where it is used.

Polyfuckers beware, you did not do something original.

And language belongs to the people.

LET THE PEOPLE AND THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE BE HEARD

Dear Sir or Ma'am;

You recently contacted us regarding what you felt was the infringement of your trademark of the word Polymancer. However, contrary to popular belief, trademarked words are, according to Chief Justice O'Connor: "Not removed from the public lexicon due to being trademarked" and thus the word can still be used. Additionally, it appears that the word was both published in fiction books as a noun and adjective with a specific, almost singular, usage and trademarked by your company.

While I applaud your desire to aggressively defend your registered trademark, you have made several errors regarding Daverana use of the word "polymancer" and your trademark Polymancer.

Trademark Infringement occurs when the following occurs:

Infringement may occur when one party, the "infringer", uses a trademark which is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark owned by another party, in relation to products or services which are identical or similar to the products or services which the registration covers.

Seeing as our word "Polymancer" refers to an individual who may use multiple types of magic, and is used as both a noun and an adverb for fictional characters, not a product or service provided by Daverana, there is no trademark infringement on that point.

Additionally, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals of the US Judiciary Branch has established this test:

1. Strength of the mark
2. Proximity of the goods
3. Similarity of the marks
4. Evidence of actual confusion
5. Marketing channels used
6. Type of goods and the degree of care likely to be exercised by the purchaser
7. Defendant's intent in selecting the mark
8. Likelihood of expansion of the product lines

You have excellent strength of mark, regarding Polymancer Magazine, however, Daverana does not try to market any product using the word Polymancer in its title, leaving your strength undiluted and therefor no damage occurs to the strength of you mark, as it refers to your magazine, nor will anyone consider a character from within a Daverana novel to be a magazine rather than a person who is skilled in "polymancy"

Proximity of goods is widely separated, seeing as Polymancer is a type of person, often used as a noun, where your Polymancer is a company and an RPG magazine. We do not have proximity, and there would be no confusion by consumers.

Similarity of the mark: This does not come into play, as we are discussing a word, not a trademarked symbol.

Evidence of Actual Confusion: I do not believe this has come in to play, as I doubt either of us have customers who are likely to confuse a fictional character with a real and existing company.

Marketing channels used: Since Daverana does not depend on marketing of the word Polymancer, marketing channels are wildly separated.

Type of goods and degree of care: Once again, it is doubtful that anyone will purchase a novel or visit the web-page, and confuse the Polymancer magazine with "Abelard the Polymancer" and attempt to contact Daverana with the intent of purchasing Abelard for their own use.

Defendant's Intent: Was not to capitalize on your trademark, but rather using a very common sense melding of two words: Poly, meaning multiple, and mancer, which means caster. This was not done with the intent of infringing on customer faith and reputation of Polymancer Magazine.

Likelihood of Expansion: Daverana does not even plan to use Polymancer in the title of any novels at this time.

According to these guidelines, the use of Polymancer by Daverana does not constitute a trademark infringement according to those guidelines.

While we here at Daverana understand your desire to aggressively defend your trademark, and thus your brand name, and your desire to keep others from cashing in on your hard earned customer faith, loyalty, and reputation, the use of "polymancer" by Daverana does not constitute a infringement upon your trademark under United States of America trademark law or the statutes of the Paris Convention of Trademark Law.

We would like to make sure that this matter is settled without hurt feelings on either side, and welcome a dialogue with you regarding your concerns and questions regarding our use of the non-trademarkable form of "Polymancer" in order to calm any concerns you have about loss of reputation, customers, or brand strength.

Sincerely;

Janice R. "Janrae" Frank
CEO Daverana Enterprises

What defeated Sony and the limits of the internet

Mon, 04 May 2009 07:01:36 GMT

I has been so long since I felt a cause burning in my veins, but this one has been a long time coming.

Back when the current war got underway in Iraq, thousands of people tried to trademark and copyright the term "Shock and Awe" but the government owned it.

Trying to take a word out of the lexicon of the English language is wrong. And this is in effect what I am faced with.

There is a rebellion brewing among the masses over it.

People with money to throw around grab up every little thing that might potentially have value. Trademarks originated as a way to establish the creatorship of the item, usually weapons. My franco-prussian war cavalry sabre has a solingen trademark stamped into the steel. It's good steel and that was one of the things that Solengin was famous for.

But their name was not removed from the language, it became part of the language.

About ten years or more ago, Arthur C. Clarke and another author simultaneously and without any knowledge of what the other was doing came up with the same concept and wrote a novel on it. Being gentlemen, they publicly acknowledged this and a phenomena was recognized called "an idea whose time had come."

However, in the case of the word polymancer, the simple and obvious bringing together of two traditional words often added together with others, was inevitable.

Now, I have never had much to do with the RPG world. I did write some pieces of Flying Buffalo back in the early 80s, but that was it. I had my taste of their world and walked away. I don't play or keep up with RPGs except for computer games to some extent and I do play Warcraft.

So when this email shows up in my box, I am angered and astounded to discover that someone else had my word and was threatening me over it. It's a word, damnit. It's just a word.

I went through something similar with my intelligent equines, the wynderjyn. An author thought they were too similar just because they existed. However, on research I discovered that such creatures went all the way back to the 1920s (if not earlier, remember Pegasus was intelligent).

If it had been another novelist, so long as the similarities otherwise were not too close, I would have shrugged and gone my happy way. That's always been the way it is done in genre publishing.

However, clearly they do it differently in the RPG world.

It's not a matter of money to me so much as it is a matter of principle. Oh dear, here I go again. Remember the last times that I let a matter of principle lead me onto the warpath.

It was the Strikethrough 2007.

Remember that one?

There is a revolution coming. I can see the stirrings in various actions taking place right now at the Hague.

For the past two decades the creative world had been more and more divided up like a pie by those with money.

They are taking our language away from us bit by bit with trademarks, patents, and copyright abuses.

I can imagine a day coming when all of the nouns will be stripped from our language by trademarks.

There was a fellow who got a patent on a novel premise. That fact that the patent office was too stupid to recognize the plot of Rip Van Winkle doesn't seem have to have slowed them down, despite their becoming a laughing stock.

But what happens to writers when we dare not invent a new term (and I got the term so far back that my memories of its origins are cloudy) for fear that someone else has taken and trademarked it?

I have often written about how I come up with words. I called it the naming game. I go back through my philogical and etymological dictionary to find the root words (usually either Latin or Indo-European) and then extrapolate forward.

I have been digging through my notes and more and more it looks like just bad luck that it took me so long to sell that novel. Had I jumped on the ebook bandwagon, taken it away from my agent and just got it out there, I would not now be having these difficulties.

$50 Reward for a word

Mon, 04 May 2009 01:48:04 GMT

I am offering a $50 reward to anyone who can remember the author and title of a work in which the author used the word 'polymancer' besides myself and it needs to predate 04.

I am certain that some of you widely read people will recall its usage.

Who owns a word?

Mon, 04 May 2009 01:19:05 GMT

I could use a bit of help here from those who are widely read in fantasy and science fiction. I have been using the word "polymancer" since 1979, and now I am being told that I can't use the word.

I am certain that the word has been around since the Golden Age, but most of my library is in storage.

Out of the blue, I was contacted by a Canadian RPG company claiming that I was infringing their trademark and that I must remove it from all of my published works.

If any of you can find the word in an old zine or book, I would appreciate knowing about it.

Blurbs for Serpent's Quest

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 20:09:01 GMT

I now have two blurbs.

The first one is from Lyn McConchie and I received it for the first edition of Serpent's Quest.

Janrae Frank's books are always something I grab the moment I have the chance. They are wonderful reads, well written, dense and richly evocative. She makes the reader see the worlds and characters which she has created and want always to see more of them as well. Her work is brilliant, hard-hitting, and the sort of thing I for one tend to be reading still at 2am since I can't put it down until I know how things are going to turn out.
Lyn McConchie

The second one is from Bob Freeman and is for the second revised and expanded edition.

"Janrae Frank is more than a writer, she is a world-builder. Serpent's Quest defies the limitations of genre because it is bigger than any one label can contain. It's an epic adventure, filled with unbridled horrors and sweeping romance, but more than that, Serpent's Quest is populated by characters who are visceral and alive. Serpent's Quest captivates you not only because of its larger than life drama, but because you become invested in the world as a living and breathing place."

______

Not bad blurbs for a worn out old has been.

On a personal note, there's a rumor going around that Lawrence Dagstine has volunteered his services to "Simone" to help her investigate me for sins against Scientology.

Free Indirect Style

Fri, 27 Mar 2009 15:56:34 GMT

Validation is always nice. Over the past eight years, since I began to actively write fiction again, several people have tried to get me to mend my ways and write in a different style.

What I do is consistent, but rather old fashioned (or so I am told) and some have called it (erroneously) third omniscient. Luna Black got the closest to it when she called it “Russian Panoramic” but that was not right either.

I tried so hard to tone the style down that I only ended up dissatisfied and unhappy over the past few years. I have a style that is natural to me, which started developing back when I was reading Dostoyevski, Tolstoy, and most especially Nicolai Gogol at 13.

Then yesterday a present from a friend arrived.

It’s a book by James Wood called “How Fiction Works.”

Lo and Behold, the style I write in has a name. The entire book is about Free Indirect Style.

Yes, it is an old-fashioned style; but so long as it works, why fix it?

Fireborn Law

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:54:29 GMT

Fireborn Law will follow Serpent's Quest into print editions from LSI. It has a new cover by Kirsten Maloney.

Daverana News and More

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:13:45 GMT

Angeline Hawkes' book Symphony for the Forgotten is now available for sale at online stores such as amazon.com

That's our first book out.

We have a new cover for Serpent's Quest and it is no longer available at lulu.com where I did my initial test marketing.

We are in the process of uploading it to LSI. It can take up to eight weeks for it to percolate through all the distributors and appear there. But usually it is faster.

On a personal note:

This blog fell mostly into disuse during a severe depression. It held me locked in tight from October through January, and then started to fade. I'm still fighting the last bit of it, but I am doing much better now.

What brought me out of it was people. In particular, Tim Willard, Owen Kuhn, and Steven Beeho.

Updates

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 00:33:55 GMT

Monday will be the day that I release the first three books from Daverana Enterprises through LSI

Symphony for the Forgotten by Angeline Hawkes

Serpent’s Quest (Lycan Blood volume 1) by Janrae Frank

Fireborn Law (Lycan Blood volume 2) by Janrae Frank

Other matters:

If Truth Dies has just passed 94,000 words and I still have scenes to add to it. Steven has gone over the outline and approved the additional scenes, which I am now writing.

My previous publisher put a lot of constraints upon my word length. Now, with Steven's input, I am restoring the missing sections to the novels in my Lycan Blood series.

I am just waiting on interior artwork before bringing out Issue #12 of Flashing Swords Magazine.

Fireborn Law

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:01:26 GMT

Fireborn Law is now available

A Guest Post on Autism and Vaccines

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:36:21 GMT

Over at Shocklines there is a thread going about the alleged connection between vaccines and autism. I got polio from the vaccine because my immune system had flaws. That was back in 1962.

So I am cross-posting with permission, the most intelligent of the comments on that thread. Michele Lee knows what she is talking about.

______________________________
I'd like to thank the many, many logical minds in this thread. I know this is a duh to some of you, but I have an 8 year old autistic son. He was vaccinated after TH was removed and never got any "extras" like the flu shot or extra doses of anything. He developed normally until about 3 then just stopped talking. He communicated nonverbally, so we just thought he was shy.

I've had some rather extensive contact with the autism community and the medical community, at least here in Louisville. The only ones blaming vaccines is the parents. Every doctor I've spoken to, as well as therapists, has told me that there is a very slim chance autism is caused by vaccines.

Mike, if you want to find something suspicious how about the other side of this controversy. I mean, what is autism isn't caused by TH? Well then the money goes to research and therapies. But by propagating the belief that autism is caused by vaccines these "doctors" 1) allow the parents, who are stressed and filled with pain someone to blame and to fight and try to destroy rather than focusing on their child, the one who needs the help 2) instigate the false belief that autism can be cured with a a pill or a medicine and 3) open up themselves to profit off the false hopes that gluten free diets or chelation therapy, both of which are VERY expensive and not covered by insurances. Of course doctors who make money selling this crap will push it as a cure to desperate parents. The whole idea that there's a normal kid inside an autistic child, that vaccines "stole the child" and someone should be made to pay for their child not being normal is COMPLETE BULLSHIT.

My son doesn't suffer from autism. He doesn't need anyone to find a cure. He is EXACTLY as he should be. He has things he's good at and things he's not. He is not a disease. Autism isn't all he is.

We may not know what causes autism, but we do know what it is. Plain and simple an autistic's brain works differently. Studies have found no proof to support diets or drugs in treating autism (parents who swear by them are often so desperate for an improvement they "see" an improvement that's not there or the therapy addresses another, unknown problem, ie one of the medical problems that goes hand in hand with autism is food allergies. A gluten free diet might help with intestinal or allergy problems, but it does "cure" or effect the underlying autism), but they have discovered that typically an autistic's brain is physically bigger, chemically functions differently and is physically shaped differently.

Not to mention chelation, the therapy for TH/mercury poisoning has a shady history (detailed very well here), can be deadly and as I mentioned before is very expensive, and it has shown no long term effects. You stop doing it, the child goes right back to where they started.

I am absolutely, utterly exhausted of all this "blame the vaccine companies" "blame the doctors" "cure your kid". What about that kid? What are you doing to them teaching them that someone damaged them, that they're diseased, broken? That someday they're going to be fixed and then everything will be okay? How does that help them now? Autistic children know they're different. The high function kids suffer from horrible self esteem because everyone's always telling them how they're wrong, how they're different. How about saying that they face challenges, just like little Jimmy is bad at math, or little Vanessa who can't carry a tune to save her life. Why are "normal" kids allowed to be good at one thing and bad at another but autistic kids have to be "cured" of their talents and failings? What about focusing on the child rather than a word or a diagnosis?

Autism numbers are rising because autism is is a spectrum disorder. Asperger's, PPD and many other things count as an autism spectrum disorder. ASD is also syndromal, meaning it's likely to go hand in hand with other problems. Autism and mental retardation are two different afflictions, but they sometimes go hand in hand. Autism can also go side by side with physical development problems, and even personality disorders. It's also much, much more common i males than females, which can't be ignored as scientifically speaking males have more problems with social interactions, emotional detection and communicative nuances.

There are many advantages to autism (Discussion here about a pill that could temporarily make a person autistic in order to study for tests, among other things) and many challenges. But sitting around here debating whether vaccines cause it or not, when every professional medical organization has said there is no proof is a waste of time when there are so many more interesting things in the field of autism study to focus on.
_________

Thank you, Michele

AKMmuckraker and Raingods

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 22:37:28 GMT

Cross-posted with permission from Raingods' Blog

AKMuckraker asked everyone to repost this on their blogs, and I’m happy to do so.

Disturbing allegations of new “caging” techniques being implemented by the Republican party have surfaced in Michigan. The Republican Party Chairman in Macomb County, Michigan, (a swing county in a swing state) is planning to use a list of foreclosed homes as a resource to block voters in the upcoming election. Lose you home, lose your vote. And, yes, most of the foreclosed homes in Michigan affect African-American families. The use of these lists is an attempt to challenge that these voters are “true residents” of the state, a requirement to vote.

While this type of Republican tactic is far from surprising, what is surprising is that the Obama campaign is filing suit. They will seek an injunction to prevent the GOP from engaging in this type of voter suppression. Here’s the statement. The Obama campaign:

…seeks declaratory and injunctive relief to challenge the “lose your home, lose your vote” vote-suppression program adopted by the Macomb County Republican Party, in concert with the Michigan Republican Party and the Republican National Committee, as well as unnamed Defendants who will implement the scheme at polling places in Macomb County and throughout the state. This “lose your home, lose your vote” program is part of a broader scheme - misnamed an “election integrity” program - to harass voters and suppress the vote throughout the State of Michigan in the upcoming election on November 4.

Despite the fact that thousands of Michigan voters’ homes have been foreclosed, many residents are still living in them, but will nonetheless be disenfranchised, if the Republican party has its way. The good news here is that the Obama campaign is being proactive. Democrats (and the country) are still suffering from the fallout of the elections of 2000 and 2004. They’ve been burned once…twice… and are positively bristling with a “never again” attitude that will serve them well.

Seeing Obama taking a strong stand on these policies which he refers to as a “national and systematic program” is a good thing. They are taking it seriously. As much as we don’t want to imagine the scenario, Obama needs to be ready to legally challenge the vote in November if the signs of vote tampering/voter fraud rear their ugly heads. They can’t ‘blink’. (I humbly apologize for the use of that analogy)

Many of the same suspect voting machines that were in play in the last two elections still exist. There has been no significant vote reform and there’s nothing we can do about that at this point. What we can do is be the eyes and ears at the polling places.

The election watchdog group Black Box Voting, has sent out the following request. If you are not familiar with this group, you should be. The website is extensive, and there’s also a great documentary Hacking Democracy (available on Netflix) which tells the story of this organization and the amazing woman who started it all. This is possibly the single most important issue facing our country, because without preserving the integrity of the vote, we have nothing.

They also have a downloadable Tool Kit for the upcoming election on the website.

So do what you can. If you’re a blogger, post this. If you’re a tech, read below and get a job. Engaged citizen? Go to the website to learn more. Download a tool kit. Be prepared and know what to look for at your polling place.

It happens everywhere. In 2004 there were districts in Alaska that reported a voter turnout of more than 200%. I like to think we’re politically engaged, but not to the point that every registered voter makes it to the polls twice. These issues have still not been resolved. And who is heading up the division of Elections for the upcoming vote in 2008? Sarah Palin’s Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell.

***************************************************************

Widest possible distribution needed. Please do spread this in blogs, etc:http://www.votersunite.org/info/ReclaimElections.pdf

This post will no doubt produce howls of objection for the vendors that read it. Black Box Voting is encouraging all individuals with a technical background to search and apply for temporary tech ELECTION SUPPORT jobs for the November 2008 election.

Hiring is underway for temporary technicians to help with voting machines this fall. Vendor dependence is undermining the structure of US elections, as described here in the new report by VotersUnite.org:

We want to see You, the People, enter into the vendor mix directly.http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit2008.pdf

HOW TO FIND TEMPORARY ELECTION TECH POSITIONS:

In a presidential election year, voting machine vendors will hire and train thousands of technicians staffed around the country. For example, anywhere that Election Systems & Software has a machine, they are under contract to provide an on-site support tech. Hart Intercivic, Premier (Diebold), and Sequoia also use Election Day support technicians.

Temporary election tech support jobs have been spotted on hotjobs.com, rollouts.com, and local tech temp firms like (in 2006) DecisionOne. The tech services firm may be a subcontractor for the big four voting machine companies. Sometimes you’ll find the positions advertised by your local county.

Sites like Rollouts.com have you register in their E-tech database. They search for techs based on skill set and area. There isn’t much in the way of a skill set needed for the election projects.

QUIETLY APPLY FOR THE JOBS

Anyone with tech skills interested in safeguarding the November election is encouraged to register at technical recruiting sites and apply for any election-related projects.

CONSIDER ASKING FOR TIME OFF ON YOUR FULL TIME JOB TO DO THIS. This November, there may be no better way to watch the behind-the-scenes process than to be a stagehand, so to speak.

It is not the vendor, and not the government, that has the right to elections information, it is the PUBLIC. Citizens have inalienable rights to sovereignty over the government they created and pay for. These rights cannot be honored without mechanisms to see all information related to elections, and ultimately, to have control processes that honor citizen sovereignty.

That said, it ain’t gonna happen this November. Therefore it is entirely appropriate, patriotic, and important, for citizens to apply for temporary positions as voting machine technicians to provide inside public oversight for the process.

There will be nondisclosure agreements, which are not appropriate at all for public elections, but it’s a reality now that vendors are trespassing on citizen right to know. There may be issues that arise which the public clearly has a right to know. When that happens, a decision must be made.

YOU WON’T BE THE FIRST

We have already been in communications with other patriotic volunteers who have successfully obtained these positions in the past, and are doing this for November.

THERE ARE ALWAYS WAYS TO DEAL WITH IMPORTANT ISSUES IF THEY ENDANGER THE PUBLIC GOOD. You, the People, are needed on the inside of the elections industry this November.

This is a public service bulletin from Black Box Voting.

Black Box Voting Tool Kit 2008 - free download here:

Empower more election watchdog actions:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057

Syndicated blog

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 04:18:02 GMT

My primary blog is syndicated to LJ. I only learned about this recently. Seems a certain someone has been reading it this way for a while. :P And he somehow forgot to tell me he had done it.

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/cuss_blog/profile

Good news and bad news.

Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:00:00 GMT

I don't post as often here as I do at wordpress.

However, this post is important enough to merit posting here.

I currently have no books available for sale. This is because a) I demanded and got all the rights back to my ebooks from Renebooks; b) the testing period is over on Serpent's Quest.

However, I do have a Chimquar story in issue Flashing Swords Magazine. This is the last issue put out by CrystalWizard.

Issue #12 will be the first issue since I acquired the magazine and Mike Brendan became editor.

A GUD Meme

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:19:03 GMT

"What if?" creativity: You're creative, but not weird or creepy. Well, at least not usually. Odds are you have your moments of both, but on the whole you live a pretty normal life and see your forays into your imagination as either a hobby or a profession, but not a way of living.

What's your creativity? Find out at GUD Magazine!