TAUNTING MISCREANTS SINCE 2012! AN INDEPENDENT, AD-FREE NEWS SITE--SHINING A LIGHT ON THE DARK UNDERBELLY OF FRAUD, CONS AND SCAMS FROM NORTHERN MICHIGAN TO LAS VEGAS, NEWPORT BEACH HAS ENDED ITS RUN. PUBLISHED CONTENT WILL REMAIN ONLINE, BUT MISS FORTUNE HAS SIGNED OFF! Due to lack of technical support by Google, I'm unable to respond to your comments.
2nd UPDATE March 24: Blue Marble Products, LLC deletes 60 e-commerce sites, including glutco.com, toptechbuy.com, mightytronics.com. Roughly 30 sites are still live online. UPDATE March 23 @ 6:00pm: Two additional Blue Marble Products, LLC sites selling metal detectors have been deleted: toptechbuy.com and magicalchefs.com. Screen grabs taken early this morning confirm metal detectors offered for sale on both sites.
BREAKING! Just two days after filing a motion seeking a 30 day extension to respond to a federal copyright infringement suit filed in November 2017 by First Texas Products, LLC, Blue Marble Products has quietly deleted the controversial e-commerce site named in the suit, patiobloom.com
However, as recently as yesterday morning, March 22, Patio Bloom was still offering Fisher metal detectors for sale on its site (Fisher is manufactured by First Texas), along with several Bounty Hunter detectors cited in the November 2, 2017 complaint.
The screen grab below was taken less than 36 hours ago.
According to the complaint, the actual First Texas trademark was removed from the machines and packaging, but the products and printed material, which include copyrighted artwork and literature, were alleged to be “exact copies of First Texas/ products and protected intellectual property.”
Shanghai Electronic, in a conspiracy with Blue Marble Products, LLC and the other named defendants, is allegedly “involved in facilitating the ongoing and unrestrained commercial importation of counterfeit metal detectors.”
First Texas is the registered owner of the Bounty Hunter® trademark: Bounty Hunter® is a line of metal detectors used by both amateurs and professionals in the United States and abroad.
The company alleges that Shanghai Electronic, in a blatant attempt to profit from First Texas’ substantial investment in its products, has “acted and continues to act in concert with various individuals and entities”, including Peter Franklin’s Blue Marble Products, LLC.
And here's the shocker: another Blue Marble site, just registered on March 2, was also deleted.
That site, electrofeel.com, featured what were purported to be First Texas Bounty Hunter metal detectors. The screen grab shown below was taken yesterday morning, March 22.
The fugazi shopping cart below, also from yesterday morning, reveals two startling things: the so-called 'Bounty Hunter' detector you clicked on, suddenly becomes a 'generic' in your shopping cart...and the site has absolutely no inventory controls!
Oh, and the $809.24 price is insane...especially considering what you would have received if you'd ordered it (you didn't, did you?).
More fakes from patiobloom.com, taken within the last 48 hours, with photos courtesy of King Detector.
LONG-AWAITED BUCKHANNON SENTENCING PUSHED BACK FROM MARCH 26 TO END OF MAY; WITH THAT KIND OF LUCK, DUDE SHOULD BUY A LOTTO TICKET!
Well, you can invite Rob Buckhannon to Easter brunch!
Buckhannon will be chilling it out of stir for at least another (another!) two months.
Buckhannon's sentencing, previously set for March 26 at 10:00 a.m. in United States District Court in Las Vegas, Nevada, has been delayed…again!
According to a “Stipulation And Order to Continue Sentencing” filed earlier today in United States District Court in Nevada, the Acting Assistant United States Attorney and Assistant United States Attorney, along with Buckhannon's defense team, requested tomorrow’s session “be vacated and continued for a date and time no sooner than 60 days”.
According to the Order, the “United States needs additional time to consider the defendant’s cooperation for purposes of USSG 5K1.1. The additional time requested herein is not sought for purposes of delay and the denial of this request for a continuance could result in a miscarriage of justice.”
In addition, Buckhannon's attorney, Michael Cristalli, is presently out of the Las Vegas jurisdiction “due to an unforeseen illness and death in his immediate family”.
Buckhannon is not in custody and remains out on bond.
MEDIATION LEADS TO OUT-OF-COURT SETTLEMENT! TERMS OF SETTLEMENT TO REMAIN CONFIDENTIAL; U. S. DISTRICT COURT JUDGE TO OVERSEE ENFORCEMENT
DOCKET WATCH: RESPONSE TO patiobloom.com CASE DUE BY APRIL 30, 2018
United States District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White of California's Northern District signed an order March 16, 2018 dismissing the case brought in 2017 by International Fruit Genetics, LLC against orcharddepot.com, a now-defunct e-commerce site operated by San Francisco-based Blue Marble Products, LLC,
Although Judge White ordered the case to be dismissed with prejudice, meaning plaintiff International Fruit Genetics, LLC is barred from filing another case based on the same claim, the order enforces a confidential settlement reached via mediation on March 15, 2018.
In its July 12, 2017 motion to dismiss, attorneys for Blue Marble Products, LLC effectively gave away the company's scam, while asserting orcharddepot.com was merely a third-party reseller, not an industry leader “able to get the best wholesale prices and pass those savings onto our customers” as it previously boasted on its 90+ sites.
Although orcharddepot.com purported to be a “third party reseller”, all sites run by Blue Marble Products, LLC “scrape” proprietary data (listing information, pictures, etc.) from Amazon, Amazon Handmade, Etsy and AliExpress.
The items are then listed on Blue Marble sites, generally with grossly inflated prices.
“Defendants do not manufacture, produce, own or store any products that are listed on ORCHARDDEPORT.COM. Instead, Defendants, only after receiving a client’s purchase order related to a product, would purchase the product from the original seller on the source websites and ship the product to the customer.”
In its May 2017 complaint, International Fruit Genetics alleged:
“Within the last three months, John Doe No. 1 aka NYURKA80 (“Doe No. 1”) has offered for sale and sold grapevine cuttings on Amazon.com with listings entitled “Grape vine cuttings – 5 cuttings – the Moon Drop Grape,” and/or “‘Moon Drop’ 3 vine cuttings for propagation.”
The listings for these grape cuttings contained a picture of grapes which appear to be the IFG Six varietal. IFG is informed and believes that the cuttings offered and sold by Doe No. 1 were of the IFG Six varietal. Within the last three months, John Doe No. 2 aka GardenSoul (“Doe No. 2”) has offered for sale and sold grapevine cuttings on Amazon.com in a listing entitled “Grape vine cuttings – 5 cuttings - the Moon Drop Grape.”
IFG is informed and believes that the cuttings offered and sold by Doe No. 2 were of the IFG Six varietal. At the time of filing of this Complaint, the listings posted by Doe. No. 1 and Doe No. 2 offering to sell cuttings of “Moon Drop” grapevines were no longer active on Amazon.
However, a listing similar to those appearing on Amazon entitled “’Moon Drop’ grape – 3 vine cuttings for propagation” now appears on the online orchard supply store at the URLhttps://OrchardDepot.com which IFG is informed and believes is operated by Defendant Orcharddepot.com and is owned by Defendants Casey Donahue and Ian Donahue. The listing contains a photograph of grapes which appear to be of the IFG Six varietal. IFG is informed and believes that the cuttings being offered and sold as “Moon Drop” grapevines on this website are of the IFG Six varietal.”
In late December 2017, Blue Marble Products, LLC settled another patent infringement case.
On July 19, 2017, Arizona-based CamCal Enterprises, LLC (doing business as “Bottle Keeper”) filed a patent infringement complaint in U. S. District Court in the Central California District against Blue Marble’s “truehomebliss.com”, alleging patent infringement and seeking unspecified damages.
In its complaint, Bottle Keeper asserted “truehomebliss.com” had “engaged, and continues to engage, in the business of manufacturing, using, importing, offering for sale, and/or selling bottle enclosures embodying one or more of the patented inventions disclosed and claimed in the '527 patent ("the '527 Patent Infringing Products"). Upon information and belief, the '527 Patent Infringing Products include, without limitation, Defendant's “Outag Bottle Insulator.”
Bottle Keeper asserted the “continuing infringement has inflicted and, unless restrained by this Court, will continue to inflict great and irreparable harm upon BottleKeeper.
BottleKeeper has no adequate remedy at law, and is entitled to preliminary and permanent injunctions enjoining Defendant from engaging in further acts of infringement.”
Blue Marble ultimately opted not to defend its activity, and the dispute was settled out of court on December 28, 2017.
In the resulting Consent Judgment, Blue Marble admitted infringing on Bottle Keeper’s patent, and agreed not to contest the “validity of the patent action”.
The offending site, “truehomebliss.com”, was subsequently taken offline—although only temporarily, it appears.
NEXT ON THE DOCKET: COUNTERFEIT METAL DETECTOR SCHEME
Peter Franklin, CEO of San Francisco-based Blue Marble Products, LLC was officially served a summons on February 28, 2018 in a federal copyright infringement case filed in Texas by First Texas Products, LLC, a metal detector manufacturer.
Blue Marble, accused in the complaint of “acting in concert” and facilitating the “ongoing and unrestrained commercial importation of Counterfeit Metal Detectors into the United States”, is required to file its response to the complaint by April 30, 2018.
On February 13, 2018, First Texas was awarded a default judgment against “defendants TheSellingPost.Biz, LLC, Shanghai Tianxun Electronic Equipment Company, Ltd., and Shanghai Zhangdu Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. d/b/a KingDetector and their agents, employees, and attorneys, and all those persons in active concert or participation with them” which permanently enjoined them “from manufacturing, importing, purchasing, distributing, selling, or offering for sale any counterfeit metal detectors, including the Bounty Hunter® line of products designed and manufactured by the Plaintiff, as well as any associated and related products and literature.”
Each defendant, TheSellingPost.Biz, LLC, Shanghai Tianxun Electronic Equipment Company, Ltd., and Shanghai Zhangdu Electronic Commerce Co., Ltd. (d/b/a KingDetector) was ordered to pay First Texas Products, L.L.C. “in the amount of $50,000 for violations of Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act”, the statute covering false designation of origin, false or misleading description of fact, or false or misleading representation of fact.