My Weblog

We Win!!!

It's finally over.

After months and months of legal negotiations, Shea Homes has finally agreed to allow me to use the words "Highlands Ranch" for my website and in connection with my real estate marketing. In exchange, I had to drop my cancellation action against their trademark rights (See the form here).

I wish I could have done more to free up the words "Highlands Ranch" for the entire community, but Shea is a big company with a lot of attorneys. To be fair, Shea never got personal and their President , Chetter Latchum, was very pleasant to deal with.

I would like to thank my attorneys, Leyendecker & Lemire, LLC for all of their help. These guys were great to work with.

I would also like to thank all of you that supported me, made phone calls, sent emails and did all that you could to help me out. It meant a lot to me, and the overwhelming response directed at Shea was the only thing that made all of this happen.

Well, now that I'm through here, I wonder what other Mega-Corporation I can upset...

6 Months Later...

Well all, it's now been a full six months since Shea and myself agreed to a stay on the cancellation action so we could try and work things out.

I spoke a few times with Shea and suggested a few alternatives (using the website as a charity website for the community, starting a charity to serve the community and using this site for that purpose, etc). As of Friday, our 6 month stay with the courts expired so my attorneys needed to file an amended petition to cancel Shea's trademark.

In short: it's back on.

We haven't heard anything yet, but you know I'll keep you all posted. If you have a chance, read the cancellation petition. It's pretty convincing.

YourHub.com Criticism

Many of you saw an editorial on YourHub.com today criticizing my "facts" in last weeks article.

Here is my response:


On July 14th, Bernie Greenberg wrote a letter to the editor of YourHub.com regarding my article entitled "Who Owns Highlands Ranch?" In it, Mr. Greenberg stated that my article was inaccurate and wrote, "A phone call would have revealed several errors in the story and the financial interest of the author in those errors." He also calls into question your paper's credibility for allowing my story to be published.

I responded with a post on your site asking Mr. Greenberg to please list the "several errors" he was referring to so that both your readers and I could decide if I was indeed lying to benefit only myself. Mr. Greenberg responded with the following list of errors:

1.) Shea has never sought a royalty from any Highlands Ranch resident or their nephew for any lemonade stand in the communities's (sic) history.
2.) The Highlands Ranch Cycling Club has never had any license or contracts forced upon it by Shea Homes. The club originally sought a license from Mission Viejo.
3.) A semicolon cannot be trademarked, as it is a form of punctuation, not a name.

I would like to respond to all of Mr. Greenberg's concerns here:

My Financial Interests

I thought it was very clear from my article that I wrote it because of my financial interests and how Shea's claim to the words "Highlands Ranch" affects me. This subject applied to my business and the business of hundreds of other Highlands Ranch residents. This issue directly affects my financial interests, and if I was not clear on that, I apologize.

In all fairness though, I would appreciate the same transparency from Mr. Greenberg. According to Mr. Greenberg's own site (http://www.bhgreenberg.com/Biographies.htm) he is the founder and director of The Highlands Ranch Cycling Club. A quick link to the Cycling Club's website will show that Shea Homes is the clubs #1 sponsor. (http://www.highlandsranchcycling.com/sponsors.htm).

The Highlands Ranch Cycling Club has never had any license or contracts forced upon it by Shea Homes. The club originally sought a license from Mission Viejo.

While the cycling club does have, and is required to maintain a license from Shea homes, the license was first obtained by the club directly from Mission Viejo. If I implied that the license was "forced upon" the club by Shea I was mistaken. If by replacing the word "required" with "enforced" I mislead you, the reader, I apologize.


Shea has never sought a royalty from any Highlands Ranch resident or their nephew for any lemonade stand in the communities's (sic) history.

Mr. Greenberg is absolutely correct. To my knowledge I know of no person who has tried to start a Highlands Ranch lemonade stand, whether a nephew, niece or simply a resident, and been impeded by Shea Homes. I don't feel this detracts from my point since, if your nephew was to attempt to start a "Highlands Ranch Lemonade Stand," he would indeed be required to get a license from Shea Homes. If I have overlooked the fact that you do not personally have a nephew, again, I apologize for misstating the facts. In such a case, your nephew would have bigger problems than Shea filing an injunction on his stand.

A semicolon cannot be trademarked, as it is a form of punctuation, not a name.

Again, Mr. Greenberg makes a poignant point. A semicolon trademark would absolutely never be approved by our government. I thank Mr. Greenberg for bringing this to my attention, and I will stop my trademark attorney from filing the necessary documents. I guess I'll have to move on to more realistic schemes to make my millions. The good news is, a man from Zimbabwe just emailed me and he needs my bank account to stash his fortune and is willing to pay me a 20% fee. I just sent him my account number, and just in case he needed it, my social security number and PIN number as well. I'll be in Cash City in no time! (Note: Mr. Greenberg, there is indeed no Cash City.)

As I tend to try and make my points with various literary forms, whether it be hyperbole, personification, allegory or just exaggeration, I would like to take a moment to clarify for both Mr. Greenberg and your paper's general audience a few literary devices and examples I may use in the future:

1.) If I start a joke with "Knock, knock. Who's there?" or any variation, PLEASE do not get up and answer your door. There is in fact no one visiting you. 2.) If I start a paragraph with "A duck walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a fish," please rest assured that there is no need to contact the county health board or to report said bar for a health code violation. In truth, no bird or animal has walked into any bar or eating establishment, and for me to imply so would be wholly irresponsible.
3.) When I was a child I had a dog who misbehaved quite frequently. My parents told me they sent him to a farm where he could run around and play all day long. If I, or anyone else, ever tell you they have sent your dog to this farm, understand that both: a.) There is no farm, and b.) Your dog is not playing. It's a cruel world we live in, and sometimes people say things in a way that make sense to most people, but not to a few of us.

I hope this clears up any misunderstandings and returns your papers credibility in the eyes of Mr. Greenberg.

Personal Attacks Aimed at Me

What has amazed me over the past few days is that two people have decided to attack me personally over the Shea Homes situation.

At first I was caught off guard. One attack came from a YourHub.com article saying my facts were "inaccurate." The second attack came last night on my discussion board.

After looking into the two attackers, I found the following: A.) The gentleman on YourHub.com is the director for the Highlands Ranch Cycling Club, the clubs founder and their attorney. What's important however, is that Shea Homes is listed as the clubs #1 sponsor. B.) The second person was more troubling to me, as they made false statements about me and completely fabricated stories of me impersonating Shea Homes. In addition, they personally attacked several other posters on my site. After doing a quick IP search of this second poster, I found out that the post came from Arizona.

Now why would someone in Arizona post on these events? Well, the only people I know of in Arizona that have any interest in Highlands Ranch are Shea's Attorneys. You can check their return address on the PDF documents contained on this site. Very, very disturbing.

I have received hundreds of emails on this subject, and only these two people have had anything negative to say. What's interesting is that instead of presenting facts, they go straight for the personal attacks. I think that speaks volumes about Shea's position on the issue.

As I have posted everything on my site and have made every effort to keep all the facts out in the open, I do feel that I should address the false statements to clear up any rumors that Shea or its affiliates are trying to start.

1.) At no time prior to Shea contacting me have I ever had a Shea picture, logo or any reference to Shea on my site. Since Shea contacted me, I put a disclaimer link on my site linking to Shea's website. In fact, I actually took time out of my life to bring ANOTHER REALTOR in front of the Denver Board of Realtors because HE was presenting himself as a Shea employee and it caused confusion to the general public and to one of my clients. I won the action against the other Realtor and he had to take 3 ethics classes because of it.

2.) With regards to the number of people who have ever even asked me about Shea or if I was affiliated with them. The total number is zero.

3.) In my 4+ years in business, I have never had one complaint filed against me. You can check disciplinary records for ever single Real Estate agent on the Colorado Secretary of State website.

I welcome everyone's posts to the discussion board, whether they agree with me or not. I'm not going to delete anything. But, if you want to post there in the future, please keep you arguments to facts and try and stay away from personally attacking others on the site.

9:00 on Fox 31

Just got done wit the interview. Its supposed to air on their 9:00 edition. I hope I don't look fat in these shorts. ;)

Highlands Ranch Cycling Club

I was contacted by the Highlands Ranch Cycling Club(HRCC) earlier today. They would like me to clarify a few issues in my article ran by the Denver Post / Rocky Mountain News.

In my article, I mentioned that Shea has "selectively enforced" its trademark on businesses in the community. While it's true that Shea has been selective and inconsistent in its enforcement, the cycling club would like me to make it clear that Shea never "enforced" its trademark on them. Instead, they applied for a license from Mission Viejo in 1991 and that license transferred from Mission Viejo to Shea. The Highlands Ranch Cycling Club wants it known they are proud to be a licensee of Shea Homes.

It was never my intention to suggest the club was concerned about Shea's action or that they were concerned about losing Shea's sponsorship. You can view the club's site here: http://www.highlandsranchcycling.com

Since I am interested in presenting the facts concerning this matter as accurately as possible, I am setting the record straight here.

My attorneys have told me that the facts surrounding the HRCC license as corrected by the HRCC actually improve my case as the HRCC does not appear to mark the “Highlands Ranch” phrase to indicate it is in fact a trademark.  Shea Homes’ failure to require the HRCC to mark is evidence supporting our primary contention that the phrase “Highlands Ranch” is a generic geographic descriptor.

Fox 31 News

I just received a call that Fox 31 News is coming to interview me about this issue. I'll keep you posted as to if / when anything airs.

Thank you all for your support...

I'm still overwhelmed by emails.

This site is getting an average of 150 unique visitors a day and I'm struggling to keep up.

In addition to the YourHub.com posting, we had another brief mention in the Denver Post this weekend. What has amazed me is the number of people who have contacted me with complaints about Shea's overall conduct in the community. I hadn't heard most of these stories. Some of you have posted to the discussion board. For those of you who haven't read them yet, it's interesting. (Click here )

If any of you have similar stories, by all means post it, or send me an email and I'll post it here for you.

UPDATE:

Here's the Denver Post Article:http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_4027083

Yourhub.com Article...

Your hub asked me to post on their website today. Here's the link:

http://denver.yourhub.com/Story.aspx?contentid=102059

What's next?...

.That's what everyone keeps asking me.

According to my attorneys, Shea has 30 days from the date we filed the cancellation notice to respond (So by July 30th). In the meantime, they are free to pursue me for their alleged trademark infringement. As of today, I have yet to be served.

Of course, I'll keep everyone posted.

The Cancelation Action

Here it is.

Wow. On paper its even more impressive than my attorneys said.

Check it out: Cancelation Action

The New Blog is Up...

Thanks to all of you who continue to email me. I still can't keep up.

After many suggestions, and finally having some spare time away from selling homes, I have updated this site and installed some really cool software. This blog space will allow me to more easily keep all of you informed on exactlly what's happening.

Keep watching...

Raffle update

After a few kind emails, it was pointed out to me that we can not hold a raffle for Shea's gift basket. In order to hold a Raffle:

According to the

Colorado

secretary of State an organization needs to be licensed by the state to hold a raffle.  Bona fide organizations include religious, charitable, fraternal, educational veteran’s organizations or voluntary fireman’s organizations.  Additionally, the organization has to be in existence at least five years prior to the application for a license.

So, we will be refunding everyone's money who bought a ticket. If you would like to make a donation to our legal expenses, can still send a check made payable to:

Leyendecker & Lemire, LLC.

And mailed to:

Keller Williams Executives, LLC

200 W Plaza Dr #200

 

Highlands

 

Ranch

,

CO

 

80129

.

Thanks for your understanding.

-Brian

Fighting Back

Hi all-

Two weeks ago you all received my email notifying you that Shea homes claimed to own the words Highlands Ranch and that they were demanding I turn over my domain name to them or they would pursue legal action.

I can not thank you all enough for the support, the phone calls and the hundreds of emails I’ve received. Almost without exception, you all thought that Shea’s actions were “ridiculous” and that “they shouldn’t be able to get away with this”. Dozens of you pleaded with me to fight back.

Initially, I indicated I would turn over my domain to Shea for $1,000 in transfer costs in order to avoid legal fees and the loss of time a lawsuit entails. Two days later, Shea informed me that I would need to sign a legal agreement I had never seen and that they would not pay $1,000 for the transfer, but only “documented costs.”

Today I rejected Shea’s counter offer and rescinded my original offer to Shea. Not only do I plan to fight any lawsuit they bring against me, but today my attorneys, Leyendecker & Lemire, LLC, filed a Cancellation Action against Shea’s ownership of the words Highlands Ranch. This action would free the words Highlands Ranch not just for me, but for the entire community.

I also want everyone to be aware of a raffle my office is holding. As they do with all big real estate offices, Shea Homes brought our entire office a gift basket full of candy, nuts, etc with fliers to promote their new home builds and get our agents to bring buyers. Yes, you read that right. Shea brought us a gift basket.

While it gave everyone in our office a big laugh, we’ve decided to hold a raffle for the Gift Basket with all proceeds going to pay for legal fees against Shea. Tickets cost 25 cents. Checks can be made payable to: Leyendecker & Lemire, LLC. And mailed to Keller Williams Executives, LLC

200 W Plaza Dr #200

Highlands

Ranch

,

CO

80129

.

This would be a great time to note my many thanks to Leyendecker & Lemire, LLC (www.lld-law.com ). They are a small boutique law firm that specializes in intellectual property and business related legal services. Their expertise and knowledge in this matter has been invaluable and I can’t recommend them enough.

As this legal ordeal unfolds, I will not be sending out any more of these emails. Rather I will be updating the www.FreeTheRanch.com website regularly and will have an email list sign up form on that site so you can “opt in” to future updates on my legal battle. Every public legal document filed, whether from Shea or my attorneys, will be posted to www.FreeTheRanch.com. I want everyone to see exactly how Shea conducts themselves.

Again, I thank you all for your support, words of encouragement and your efforts in spreading this information to your friends and family.

Warmest regards,

Brian Petrelli

Thanks for your support

Hi All-

First off, I want to thank everyone for their overwhelming support. I have not been able to keep up with the emails and phone calls that I’ve received on this matter.

While I am upset the website I’ve worked on for 4+ years will be shut down, I am more concerned at the effect this may have in the community.

In one of the many emails I did receive, one gentleman from the Highlands Ranch Cycling Club let me know that they have a license from Shea Homes to use the words “Highlands Ranch.” This is more disturbing than anything I have heard. The simple fact that members of the community need to have a license is unbelievable. As I noted before, Shea Homes has a trademark for: “Construction services, namely planning, laying out and development of residential and commercial communities.” While it certainly says nothing about selling homes, reselling homes (what I do), or other residential services, it most definitely does not cover: “bicycling, cycling, or any other recreational activity with wheels.”

When does it stop? Shea Homes has many mortgage and lending partners they work with at their communities. Will their trademark extend to Highlands Ranch Mortgages?

Highlands

Ranch Banking? How about services that could be connected with the home building industry? Interior design? Painting? Plumbing? Will Shea Homes simply use its attorneys to bully anyone they don’t like? Will they allow the Highlands Ranch Democrats to use their trademark, but not the Republicans? If this licensing extends to a cycling club, there really is no organization that shouldn’t be concerned.

Many of you have contacted the media. Because of your work, the Denver Post is running an article in their Sunday issue. In addition, The Highlands Ranch Herald is working on a big story. I was contacted my Tom Martino’s team yesterday and told they wanted to air something tonight, but I have not heard back. A similar thing happened with Channel 7 two days ago.

What I’m asking everyone to do, is instead of emailing, please post your comments to the website I’ve set up: www.FreeTheRanch.com. I have started a message board there for everyone to discuss this. In addition, please forward this information to everyone you think may be interested. The more people we get contacting both Shea Homes and all the media outlets, the better chance we have of being able to start a Highlands Ranch T-Ball League without getting sued.

Thanks again,

Brian Petrelli