2008 Woodie Awards
Rollercoaster of litigation
UT student-musician and Staind get ready to take the stage - in federal court
Alia Orra
Issue date: 2/17/05 Section: News
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"We'll do the politics stuff last, because you haven't seen the politics stuff," Stainbrook said, raising his voice above the whirring of coffee machines.
His attorney, Anthony DeGidio, sat next to him in a noisy part of the coffee shop, raised his eyebrows above the rims of his glasses and took a cell phone break.
In what is becoming an unpleasant battle between UT grad student Stainbrook and the rock band Staind about who holds trademark authority over the word "Stain," the attorneys for both parties seem to agree on only one thing: Stainbrook is a very public, very loquacious fellow.
"Obviously, Mr. Stainbrook enjoys his 30 seconds of fame," said Brad Rose, the attorney representing the band Staind, Geffen Records president Jordan Schur and 4 Walls Inc., Staind's management company. "I know he's pretty active about sending out publicity about his big day in the sun," Rose said.
That big day in the sun - one Staind initiated in the U.S. District Court of Ohio after a complicated series of dealings between Stainbrook and the band - has its beginnings in 1980. Stainbrook, still a high school student at St. John's Jesuit High School in Toledo, formed a band called The Stain.
Almost 14 years later, Stainbrook decided to take "The Stain" and trademark it. He went into the '90s as punk rocker/politician/good Christian boy, and by 2000 his foresight brought him some cash and notoriety - he won two court battles over the trademark, one for compensation when In Living Color titled its album Stain and another forcing a band called Stain to change the name. (It's now known as Lit.)
The late '90s saw a group of New Englanders - Aaron Lewis, Mike Mushok, Jon Wysocki and Johnny April - form a band. They called it Stain.
In the world of trademarks and intellectual property, this can become a problem.