LOL, this is AWESOME. You have to click on the link to read the letter but trust me - it's worth it!

When retainer attorneys employed by Big Deals send out scary cease and desist letters to nobodies on behalf of their Super Important clients, it's typically a pro forma matter.

That is to say, they don't expect to hear back.

And they certainly don't expect the Small Fry recipient to lawyer up and send out a takedown letter of his own.

But that's exactly what happened in Jake Freivald v. West Orange.

Freivald, a resident of the northeastern New Jersey township, had been running the practically nonexistent website westorange.info as a place to provide anyone who happens to get lost while looking for porn with a no-frills way of finding information on the place where Thomas Edison once lived.

"It doesn’t look like a site that’s sponsored by West Orange in any way, shape, or form — unless the town hired middle schoolers to create its online presence," writes Staci Zaretsky at Above the Law.

Nevertheless, the township still saw fit to sic its attorney, Richard D. Trenk, on Freivald, claiming his "use of the Township’s name...is likely to cause confustion [sic], mistake or to deceive the public and may be a violation of the Township’s federally protected rights."

Trenk's cease and desist demanded that Freivald shut down his site, and "that you cease all current and future use of the Info Domain, or anything else confusingly similar thereto."

In response, Freivald hired Stephen B. Kaplitt, who in turn responded to Trenk's letter with the following work of art, which will no doubt be submitted to NASA for inclusion in the next Voyager Golden Record:

http://gawker.com/this-is...gn=morning

That. Was. Awesome.

wow...wonderful!!!! If he gets disbarred he has another career in the comedy field.

There's some debate about whether that letter was the best-ever response from a lawyer, or this one is (again, you'll have to click the link):

http://deadspin.com/57160...=afternoon

Have mercy, I wish someone had hired this guy when Mr. Y'all Know Who was all C&D happy. I bet he could have topped this response, tenfold.

I am going out on a limp and spoil your party here.
This is NOT how you respond to a Cease and Desist letter.

Not as a profesionally acting attorney anyway.

Granted, the way he responded is quite funny, from a layman's point of view.

And of course, as an outsider, I find it amusing to read as well.

But this attorney made some serious mistakes.

It may seem like smart, free advertising, but he could get into trouble over this.

The fact of the matter is that his response is needlessly over the top, consdescending and personally offensive to his confrère. That could be considered as improper behaviour by the bar.

Especially since he choose to let his letter not to remain private, but to have it published widely on the internet, in an effort to let it go 'viral' and ridicule the issue even further.

Which is peculiar, because the entire gist of his reponse to the townships' attorney has to do with how baseless and frivolous the claims of the township are.

So the claim is completely baseless and frivolous, yet you still find it necessary to not just spend much of your expensive time, "pro-bono", on writing such a response to such a frivolous claim, you also found it necessary to go public with it.
Exposing not just all the parties identities, also your own and that of your confrère, who might just decide to file a complaint against you now, because of your careless and needlessly offensive actions against him.

A profesional attorney, acting in his right mind, would not have done that.

Moreover, such an attorney would have also considered the more likely possibility now that this completely frivolous case will still go to court, even if it is such a waste of time and money.

He takes this risk, because he made it personal and escalates it all by going public with his letter. And then it might not be such a piece of cake after all.

How will a judge view all this and the publicity his client is giving to it? Did he consider that?

And will he still be handling the case "pro bono" if it does go to court?

Did he consider the possibility that his client might not have such a strong case after all? It is true that there are dozens of domain names out there with "west orange" in it. That's his best defense, along with the fact that the township is the government.

However, unlike all the other domain names, his client's domain name is exactly the same as that of the township, with only one difference, which is the ".info" instead of ".org". Tho'not necesarily unlawful, that in itself is potentially confusing and that is not the case with the other domain names, who all have added words to "west orange".

Also, just because there are dozens of websites carrying the words "west orange" in their domain names, doesn't mean that those aren't unlawfull also, nor that the township didn't also send them cease and desist letters.

Moreover, his client's domain name has only been registered early May 2013. That's much later than the township, so the township in principle has older rights.

Last but not least, for what purpose did his client register this domain name? By its name, at the surface his website seems to be about information on the township, and then it shows that it actually is, but that it focuses on criticising the government. Criticising the government isn't unlawful, but because the first impression matters most with regards to domain names, it could very well be considered to have the potential to confuse visitors who are simply looking for information on the township and/or its administration. Not to end up at his politically affiliated website.
Even when his client can claim First amendment rights and the government can't claim trademark rights to its name, this therefore still has the potential for a claim of unlawful behaviour.

Mr. Kaplitt should have never acted this way. Instead he should have either reacted in a professional and only midly sarcastic manner, or he should have written a letter of this kind for his client and let his client send it himself. And then let him publish that.

I think I know what I would do if I were the township's attorney.





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[Edited 6/22/13 7:18am]

^Oh.

Well, what do you think about the other letter - the one from the Cleveland Browns to the attorney concerned about paper airplanes?

THANKS Tremolina