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November 2008
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October 2008

My name is Jack Johnson and I run a small but extremely successful business organizing Murder Mystery detective events under the trade name SKULDUGGERY. On advice a few years ago, I registered my trade name as a Trade Mark, and as of the last few years, my business has been very successful and I now have nationwide recognition as effectively Mr. SKULDUGGERY the man who writes and performs under this name. Well that was until along came Harper Collins and Warner Brothers!

In short Harper Collins have published two books (out of a series of nine) using my trade name and trade mark! In addition they have sold the rights to all of their SKULDUGGERY books to Warner Brothers! Who in turn have published the fact that they have purchased SKULDUGGERY, implying that they own the name, which they have not and they are already in pre-production stage for the first film which is due to be released in October 2010. According to their publicity, these movies are expected to be as big as HARRY POTTER.

Can you imagine how these two big players would react if the boot been on the other foot? Indeed so much so I've been forced to issue proceedings against Harper Collins and the author of the book Mr. Derek Landy to protect my trade mark rights. As you are no doubt aware, these big players are the first to leap all over anyone including a poor ten year old with a Harry Potter fan club website, but they seem to have blithely ignored and ridden rough shod over my legitimate business rights. I've currently suspended a number of business opportunities in the way of franchising just so I can defend my rights before they are stolen from me.

Please feel free to send your views to jack@skulduggery.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.

Jack Johnson - owner of Skulduggery

Download the full press release (pdf)