Dear Friends and followers,
Imagine if someone tried to take something from you -- something important to you, something through which you found fulfillment, something through which you thought you were making a positive contribution, something in which you had invested years of your life. In doing so, they smeared your reputation, cut you off from friends, and reported you to the FBI. That's what happened to me and my Louise Brooks Society.
I am posting this to let everyone know what's been going on.... For the last three years, the Louise Brooks Society has been subject to some rather nasty online harassment. It has been a stressful, frustrating, costly, and sometimes discouraging experience.
In short, an individual tried to destroy all that the Louise Brooks Society has built up over the last 30 years. After things got really bad -- and after the Louise Brooks Society website was threatened with a take down notice, I was forced to seek legal help. I was desperate, and getting a lawyer to stop this harassment was my only remedy. After a two-and-a-half year legal battle, justice has prevailed.
At the heart of the matter was an I.P. (intellectual property) "dispute" / tug-of-war concerning Louise Brooks, the silent film star I have been researching, writing about, and promoting for three decades. Seven years ago, an individual wrongfully trademarked and later copyrighted Brooks' name, and then used their registered trademark as a means to harass not only the Louise Brooks Society, but as well others in the community of silent film fandom. If you think it's strange that someone would trademark and even copyright the name of a long-dead celebrity (someone to which they are unrelated -- no matter that one cannot copyright a proper name), and then try and prevent others from using that name -- you're right, it is strange, and IMHO kinda sad. It's also wrong on so many levels.
The attacks on me had little if anything to do with intellectual property. Rather, it was personal. The individual in question never took me to court or initiated any kind of legal action, rather, he simply filed complaint after complaint after complaint after complaint with various social media and e-commerce platforms -- and let them do his dirty work. As one lawyer told me, this person was using his trademark as a weapon. It was a means of trolling. To stop him, I initiated action with the USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) in October, 2023 to have his trademark cancelled, and thus "dis-arm" him. I was warned it would be a long and difficult process, and it was, but I had no other options. After numerous delays, this person's trademark has been cancelled thanks not only to my efforts but those of Vincent Lesh.
Among other things, the various Louise Brooks Society social media profiles -- including its longstanding Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts -- were permanently taken down following bogus claims of trademark infringement. (My original Facebook and Twitter accounts dated to 2009 / 2010 and each had accumulated more than 5000 followers.) Additionally, following yet more meritless complaints from this same individual, pages from the Louise Brooks Society website were removed from both Google and Bing; there were, as well, complaints filed against the my YouTube, LinkTree, Tumblr, Etsy, CafePress, Post and Patreon accounts -- with the result some were taken down. Others survived, though damaged. This individual even claimed the Louise Brooks Society LinkedIn account, which pre-dated his trademark by more than a decade, somehow violated his intellectual property rights. How utterly asinine! Thankfully, LinkedIn agreed.
[The worst platforms, in regards to their handling of this situation, were Etsy and LinkTree. Both were abysmal. I have blogged about my Etsy experience before; see my December 17, 2022 post "A COMPLAINT against Etsy's intellectual property policies". My experience with LinkTree was just as ludicrous, and just as frustrating. At one point, LinkTree would not let me link to the Louise Brooks Society website (its URL was banned because of a complaint by you know who), nor would they let me link to a workaround link, a Google search result for my site. The person I dealt with at LinkTree was unsympathetic, and rather petty.]
For months on end, I would wake up wondering what he would attack next....
Not only were many of the LBS social media accounts deleted, so were MY PERSONAL social media accounts. Why? Merely because I mentioned something about Louise Brooks or posted a picture of myself wearing a vintage, store-bought Louise Brooks' t-shirt. (Seemingly, this person thought he had exclusive rights over all Louise Brooks merchandise -- even products made decades before he registered a trademark.) Sadly, as a result of the deletion of my social media accounts, I lost 15 years of friendships, followers, posts, messages, history, and pictures because of these bogus complaints. When it comes to Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, there is seldom anyone home, and no effective way to appeal. I was judged guilty through mere accusation. And I was erased.
I knew I had to get a lawyer when the individual in question went after my longstanding website. He sent complaints to my ISP (internet service provider) demanding what he claimed was infringing material be removed from the Louise Brooks Society. In turn, my ISP sent me a notice that this materiel had to be removed within 72 hours or my entire website would be taken down. Among the infringing material was my Gift Shop page (recently restored), which was by-and-large composed of amazon.com links to Louise Brooks and silent film related books and DVDs. I will never understand how someone in the "compliance department" could think links to legit products from companies like Random House, Rizzoli, Kino Lorber, Fotofolio, etc... could infringe on a third-party trademark. Of course, they didn't -- and if they did, why didn't he go after amazon.com, or Random House?
The person in question (aka you know who) also objected to and complained about a statement on my homepage referring to the intellectual property protections which my website rightfully claimed. My statement originally read, "This website and the wordmark 'Louise Brooks Society' are under copyright and common law trademark protection." As a result, under threat of another takedown, my ISP required me to alter the statement. I did so, under protest, not because I admitted to having infringed the intellectual property rights of the dude who filed the complaint, but to get my ISP off my back. The altered statement read: "This website and the wordmark “Louise Brooks Society” are under XXXXXXXXX and XXXXXX XXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXX."
There was more, lots more.... Through a series of disparaging blog posts, this same individual spread innuendo and falsehoods about myself and my LBS website -- including the suggestion that I didn't write my own books (I have a team of ghost writers, no less), that this blog promoted sexual material and sexualized Louise Brooks (it didn't), that I was single-handedly manipulating Brooks' reputation, and bizarrely, that the "Louise Brooks Society" website either doesn't really exist or if it does it is some kind of scam, etc.... I can assure everyone that it does exist, as is indicated by the historical & now legal record additionally documented though hyperlinked newspaper clippings (USA Today, New York Times, etc...), mentions in books, the Wayback Machine, and more.
Thanks to mindless A.I., some of these disparaging slop posts found their way into internet search engines, with the result being my online reputation was tarnished....and the LBS was deemed "controversial". ("Oh my" as George Takei once said.) This person called me a grifter, fraud, charlatan, pseudo-intellectual, "boomer" and worse -- there was even mention of necrophilia; and would you believe, he reported me to an internet regulatory agency (ICANN) -- who thought his claims inappropriate, as well as to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Yes, even the F.B.I..... And, what's more, he used this meaningless report as "evidence" of my wrongdoing. Not surprisingly, they have never bothered to follow-up on his ridiculous claim that I was a cyberbully. Au contraire.
For example, this is what Microsoft's Co-Pilot had to say when queried in 2024. The source of Co-Pilot's information was the previously mentioned slop blogs. Here is just one example. I have others. (Click to enlarge the image.)
All this was just the tip of the iceberg, as I would discover time and again. For example, through Microsoft's BING, this person filed 33 complaints of copyright infringement against 33 different pages on my longstanding website -- as if I would want to copy any of the banal material found on his now defunct site. The result was these 33 pages were removed from the BING search engine, no questions asked, and my web traffic fell off. There were also complaints of copyright infringement filed against the Louise Brooks Society on Google, with the result being pages from my site were either removed or demoted on Google. I was never notified, and had to find this out on my own write appeals to these companies DMCA agents, which was another frustrating time suck.
I have come to see the Louise Brooks Society as my life's work. It's a passion project I have shared with the world since 1995, when I launched my site. Over the years, I have spent a lot of time and money on the LBS. What I found gratifying was connecting with other fans, finding some obscure article or image, helping to get films released, bringing attention to other's projects, writing an article, or simply sharing my enthusiasm for the actress, etc.... You can imagine how distressing it was when this individual attempted to destroy all that I had built up when he tried to have my website taken down. The actions taken against me are unforgivable.
As mentioned, the damage to my reputation has been considerable, as has been the expense incurred and the time wasted.... Hopefully, the worst is behind me, and I can go about cleaning up the mess created by this individual. And yes, I kept detailed records, including the various take down demands, site bans, and disparaging blogs. I have documented most everything, and am keeping my options open regarding future litigation. Through it all, I have come to realize life is too short to waste on such people, IMHO mere trolls who have nothing but negativity to contribute to the world. He may have set me back, but he did not stop me. I will go on.
While waiting for a judgement -- which was delayed by more than a year due to this individual's numerous objections and stalling tactics (as reflected in the USPTO record), I've kept busy working on the new Louise Brooks Blu-ray, Focus on Louise Brooks, as well as a handful of articles, a couple of books, and lots more. I have also continued blogging and launched a SubStack and rebuilt my Louise Brooks Society website: it is now bursting at the seams with nearly 300 pages of original research and rare content! Recently, my efforts have been recognized.... I am gratified to report that the Louise Brooks Society website was recently chosen to be part of the Library of Congress Motion Picture Web Archive. More on that at a later date.
And BTW: Louise Brooks' 1982 book, Lulu in Hollywood, has recently been released as an e-book for the very first time. I am likewise proud to report I had a hand in making that happen, just as I am proud to have helped bring it back into print back in 2000. (You know who complained about that as well.)
My proceedings against this individual are a matter of public record, and can be found online on the government's official USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) website. They make for "interesting" reading ... though that is NOT the word those who have read them use to describe them. Au contraire.
I won't say more about the person in question, who once described himself in a USPTO filing as the "keeper of the ethereal flame". I have never met him, do not know him, and wish to have nothing to do with him. I cannot think less of a person then I think of him. Contempt is defined as the feeling that a person or a thing is beneath consideration, worthless, or deserving scorn. It is a word whose meaning I have come to appreciate.
In my opinion, the overturning / cancellation of the Louise Brooks trademark (registration no. 5930349) represents a victory not only for the Louise Brooks Society, but also for
the actress' fans, the silent film community, as well as other legacy
estates.
I wish to thank my lawyers at the nation's leading IP law firm, Kilpatrick, Townsend, and Stockton, for their extraordinary help. Without them, literally, I WOULD NOT BE HERE TODAY. I also wish to thank my wife, Christy, as well as my online and real world friends for their support -- especially the late Donna Hill. I owe her so much. I also wish to thank the Estate of Louise Brooks, who has been an ally throughout.
In closing, let me add that my story is not so unique. I believe that what happened to me is part of a larger unreported narrative of how social media, e-commerce platforms, search engines, and internet service providers ignore, tolerate and even enable bad behavior. They FAILED. That's my informed opinion.
Just recently, I received an email from Peter Cowie, the distinguished film historian, biographer and author of Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever. He is a friend, and he wrote to thank me for blogging about his recent memoir, Flashbacks: A Passion for Film. It is a book I recommend. His email came at a time I was feeling a bit discouraged, but what Cowie said lifted my spirits. He wrote, "I honestly believe that without your efforts across the past quarter century, Louise’s name would not be held in such high esteem."
It's time to forge ahead.... Straight on till morning.
Thomas Gladysz
Founding Director, Louise Brooks Society
 |
| This old picture of me got me into trouble on CafePress, and I was banned from using it. Why? Simply because Louise Brooks is pictured in the background — even though it is MY picture of ME showing MY possessions. |
To learn more about the Louise Brooks Society, including its mission statement, history, accomplishments, ambitions, etc..., please check out the About the Louise Brooks Society page of the LBS website.
THE LEGAL STUFF: The Louise Brooks Society™ blog is authored by Thomas Gladysz, Director of the Louise Brooks Society (www.pandorasbox.com). Original content copyright © 2026. Further unauthorized use prohibited. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
No comments:
Post a Comment