Scotland has been hit by a Trade Mark scam which has swept
America in recent years. In 2005 the New York Times wrote an
article on Leo Stoller, a business man dubbed the
‘Trade mark Troll’ due to his notorious
Trade Mark scams. He claimed he was an Intellectual Property
Entrepreneur and threatened many companies by claiming
ownership to the word ‘stealth’ amongst
various other generic words.
It now appears that the UK has its own Leo Stoller in the
form of John Blanchard, who in recent months has been targeting
Juice companies in Scotland by claiming that they are
infringing his trade marks. He is registering names of existing
businesses then demanding money to lease or sell the trade mark
back to the company who were using the trade mark in the first
place.
