Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice, there is a bunch of legal stuff herein ‘as I understand it’.

This morning I received a call from Congressman Jim Himes’ office requesting I brief them on the status of MTA vs StationStops after I had brought their attention to the matter a few weeks ago.

The discussion was specifically focused on the inability for small businesses like myself and Joe Moore to ignore fraudulent IP C&D letters from litigious organizations such as MTA due to the increasing presence of online fulfillment houses like Apple, Zazzle, CafePress, etc, which largely fulfill any properly-formatted C&D without qualitative analysis or discussion with the artist, photographer, or developer.

Indeed, Apple to date has never responded to either my own or my lawyer’s written requests to discuss the cease and desist, and has never returned any calls to any of the press organizations which have contacted them for comment to the best of my knowledge.

I noted how MTA has deliberately and repeatedly exploited this loophole with other entities in order to enforce ownership of intellectual property it does not own – citing Joe Moore’s case as the the most egregious and disturbing.

This emerging problem shifts the burden of proof to the recipient, such as myself, and requires them to incur significant legal fees to even analyze the claim by professional IP counsel regardless of claim legitimacy.

The law is designed so that the recipient’s first protection from such litigation is to ignore it if it is without merit, forcing the claimant to file suit and prove the legitimacy of the claim.

The cost to StationStops in legal fees and lost sales in response to MTA’s C&D is approaching $3000, and this does not include a tremendous amount of Pro Bono work on the part of nearly a dozen lawyers, law professors, and law students who have expressed interest and offered assistance in my case.

It also does not include the hours I have personally put into grassroots action that I would have spent developing better mobile solutions for MTA passengers.

I am hoping Himes office will continue to consider research and legislation to include safeguards to protect small businesses such as those in place in the UK, where fraudulent IP C&D’s may be contested in court and ruled on as to their legitimacy before action is taken and damages are incurred (this is my understanding as an IP lawyer has explained to me).

I referred Hime’s office to Brooklyn Law Professor Jason Mazzone, who is at the forefront of research on this topic, for further study.

Jim Himes lives in my neighborhood, and I welcome him to stop by at any time to discuss the subject in detail.