WIPO Decision Delayed to Entrepreneurs

Concord, New Hampshire Dec. 15, 2015 World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced a delay in decision for a case filed by Verizon IP Holdings out of Virginia against the owners of FiosFinder.com. WIPO did not issue reason or extenuating circumstances as described in their WIPO Dispute Rules

HERE IS THE COMPLAINT FILED BY VERIZON and ANNEXES

Verizon IP Services claim that owners of of FiosFinder.com (Respondent), James Seavey (Concord, NH) and Robert Tanguay (Manchester, NH), New Hampshire entrepreneurs started their business in 2009, and provide email record of Verizon contacting them on January 20th of 2012, almost 4 years before filing the complaints. What is unique about this case is it’s main defense in their response – a claim of squatters rights, saying Verizon knew about the website for years, allowed Seavey and Tanguay to build web traffic and search engine rankings to FiosFinder.com and are now trying to take the website domain name from them in bad faith, and without compensation for work done the website that was legally bought February of 2009 from GoDaddy.

HERE IS RESPONSE FILED BY FIOSFINDER

“Defend yourself and support others in the defense of their property and rights. Many people loose by being scared and not responding to legal claims and damages caused by others. ” said Tanguay, who also added that he did not do well in school, received his GED instead and opened several businesses on his own and with others, like FiosFinder and SatHookup and InstallEco.

“Society gives preference to titles unduly and without merit. I’ve been in full courtrooms in California where I was the only defendant. That means everyone else lost by default because the didn’t show or didn’t know. Still, I’d get bullied by some judges, or set to the end of all the cases when for tickets so they could deal with me alone.” said Robert Tanguay, “One judge was very fair, and a prosecution made a deal with me for trumped up 8 year old charges I received while riding my bicycle on a sidewalk that were dropped due to non-compliance of the 3 foot rule” seen here: bikes on the sidewalk . Tanguay wanted to make clear that he was not guilty or at fault of any charges or legal claims. “When you attempt to make the world a better place, you step on some toes, the incumbents get angry, and come after you. Usually, they have no legal grounds, but rely instead on the odds you will default.”

Upon Verizon IP Holding’s receipt of FiosFinder’s response, they (Verizon) responded by requesting that it not be accepted as “it was unsolicited” . FiosFinder responded with the fact that there was a spot on the application to add other concerned parties, which Tanguay was added. WIPO accepted the Response and additional communication (will be added here shortly), but pointed out that only items guaranteed for consideration in the rules are the complaint and response.

Decision Due Date has been set for release by WIPO on January 6th of 2016.

Seavey and Tanguay of FiosFinder.com are somewhat skeptical of the fairness of the WIPO hearing and are reaching out for press coverage in hopes of finding legal assistance should they loose the site and to draw more attention to the inequities of Intellectual Property Law and bad faith tactics used by large corporations behind closed doors. They plan on filing suit for damages to web traffic and revenue should FiosFinder.com get transferred to Verizon without compensation.

“Verizon paid $1,500.00 to WIPO to have this case heard, WIPO appointed an IP lawyer as a panelist, and has delayed the decision without reason why. While this doesn’t mean that we won’t get a fair trial, and they might just be researching this landmark case, it does raise some concerns, and we want the public to take notice, possible putting this issue in the political arena.” , said Tanguay “It is disheartening that Verizon didn’t simply hire us and use our technology to get more subscribers, especially since we were re-sellers at one point, before they shut down the program.”