Just a headsup: The admirable people behind the Alabama Rig are having a blast threatening YouTube users over any mention of the term "Alabama Rig", even in search tags. Take a look at the following impressive comments:

(vid 1: http://youtu.be/w_daZ8NoKBQ )
"Did you know that using the Alabama Rig; registered name is a copy write infringement? Using Alabama Rig or A-rig in any way to lead advertising to your utube video is illegal. I need youto remove your tags and any liture with Alabama Rig name in it. Consider thisa friendly warning. Tammy Poss"

(vid 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TzRhWJFNCs)
"Hey Buddy, I know your young. But you have broken the law. The Alabama Rig is a registered name with the US Patent Attorney'sOffice along with; A-Rig. It is against the law to use it for any reason without written permission from us. Which you do not have. Consisder this a friendly warning to remove all wording and tags using the names for your gains. Thank you. Tammy Poss"

(vid 3: http://youtu.be/QjAsoqatDZs)
"The Alabama Rig; and A-Rig name is a registered name with the US Trademark Office. You are illegally using it. Your design will infringe on our patent. You I believe have been notified."

"You are still using our name illegally for financial gain. I don't see how you can be telling people God bless you. You are stealing from us as well as using our Name The Alabama Rig and A-Rig which is registered with the US Trademark office illegally. Consider this a friendly; reminder next will not be so friendly."

"This is to notify you that you have used The Alabama Rig in a illegal manner without wriiten permission. This name is a registered a Trademark name with the US Trademark Office. Your title stated; home made Alabama rig which must be deleted. Consider this a friendly notice. Also when the Patent is granted you also are infringing on the patent with 3 wires. If you have any questions you may call us direct at 256-275-9383 or our attorneys, either or. Thank you. Tammy Poss"

"Read the disclosure on our patent application I had it worded so the any (Head) made of any material which we have other application coming down stream with different heads. Also the wires are stated multiple meaning more than 1. I hope you understand our frustration, thats like Ford amking a new engine and you happen to be a mech forthem or just figure something out on your own but not your idea in the first place.; then make a video for"

Vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lAD3b42Bk&feature=related

"You are illegally using The Alabama Rig as; a tag in your tags to direct traffic to your video. The Alabama Rig and A-Rig is a registered name through the US Patent Office. "

The last one is pretty crazy-can you imagine if it was illegal to use any "term" in search engine tags? Nike, Pepsi, etc? What are your thoughts?

Pretty funny coming from folks that knocked off an umbrella rig and now are busting on other folks. Sorry but the gold mine days of $25 Arigs is over. Way too easy to make much cheaper.

They had some rather sneaky ways of promoting their own products themselves. I will never purchase one of the actual rigs from the originators.

Ha just for kicks makes me wanna make a video and call it the letter before B rig... Thats legal right?

Who makes these warnings? And who makes the "official" alabama-rig?
After all this time I think a-rig and such are like a generic term( I.e. bandaid, kleenex, coke)

Here is the funny thing. If everyone that he gave a "friendly notice to" told him to go to hell, if he wanted to pursue action he would have to PAY his attorney to send a cease and desist order. He would spend more money seaking legal action than he would protect.

I wonder what he is telling all of the other companies that are knocking off his product as we speak?

Is it the 'Trademark Office', or the 'Patent Office'......?
Either is a lie.....hasn't been time for either to make a decision. Both are Government agencies.....
I did get busted last week for using a Texas Rig....
but dang....it's been with us for years. ..bout time...:)
$25 fine and have to put a swivel up the line for a year...:)
What's next?

Tom deleted his video I'm assuming for the same reasons.

Can we call it the "A-hole Rig?"

Bingo!

Here's the kicker: Have any of you guys uploaded a YouTube video before? If so, you'll know that YouTube asks you to type in a few "descriptive" tags for your video, so others can search and find it. From the above posts, it looks like the professionals behind the Alabama Rig want to ban users from even adding the term "Alabama rig" to their YouTube tags. That's pretty hilarious.

As an analogy, imagine uploading a video of bass fishing with a chatterbait (homemade or otherwise DIY) and being told you could not use the term "chatterbait" in your video, in your title, in your description, etc. Good luck with that.

If they are not selling the rigs they make or profiting from the video what are they infringing on?

Oh, wow, it gets even better. Check out this video:
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HSDbziTVaw&feature=colike)
"To whom it may concern. You have used my Registered Trademark name in your title and on your video for financial gain. It is against the law to use someone's trademark name without written permision. I need you to remove your title and video due to the illegal use of our name. Consider this a warning. FYI you might want to check the disclose on the patent; pening, when issued you will be infringing on the patent even with three wires, I wrote it to state multiple wires which is moe than 1. TPoss"

TPoss seems to believe all umbrella rigs will be made illegal (except the Alabama Rig) by this "patent" he keeps raving about. Looks like this internet bully hasn't heard of the Streisand effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect .

THIS

Here they go again, threatening a little kid with his fishing video. He isn't selling anything either.

http://youtu.be/JB60QKQlfBk

"Hey Son, You need to remove my registered name from your video and title. The Alabama Rig name can't be used to advertise a knock-off or Fake. Consider this a friendly warning. "

Nice people.

I agree with what one posted above.. How in the world does a company take a design umbrella rig that has been around for long time and get a Patent on it??

Good thing Henry Ford and Sam Colt didn't think like these guys...

It just shows their main interest is in the mighty dollar. And not in fishing.
And so worried that someone is going to quickly develop something a little better and bump them out of the spot light...

I wonder where they dreamed up this great idea.... Huuummaaa the (umbrella rig)
Maybe....

And people please remember not to use the A word or A and rig in the same sentence.... Just a friendly threat... LmAo

Can I tell them to screw off in a friendly way?

The first part is gold! But did you really get in trouble for using a Texas rig?

Seems to me a patent that just says multi wires would be too vague. Those thing ussually have to be specifically descripted to hold. If he specified five then three wires could be 10% dif. Also A rig or alabama rig has already become a "common" term name which could prevent lawsuits. I think he is just reaching trying to make up for poor marketing planning ahead of time.

I have some home made A-rigs for sale

Can people use the term umbrella rig? I will buy local homemade ones from now on.

My understanding is that a trademark is fairly easy to get, Copyright, even easier. Patent? that's a whole other ballgame.

Anyone want to invest in my endeavor making and marketing "bama-rigs"?

Lol, this is their YouTube channel. http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAlabamaRig

Maybe we start an e-mail campaign and let them know what we think of their tactics?

Their website lists their contact email as: slicklures@comcast.net

OK, I’m going to post something balanced. This country should never get away from rewarding and protecting the innovators. We don’t want to turn into China, actually we need to do more to stop China from doing what its doing. Sure the A-Rig was just a evolution and reuse of another product, but it had never been used for bass fishing like this, the design varies enough from others, it was given a protectable name Alabama Rig, and without the work of Andy Poss I don’t think we would know anything about or be throwing an “Alabama Rig” right now. The balance is now others should be able to legally improve and develop the product and DIY’ers should be able to make one for themselves if not for profit. Making the same exact thing and calling it an Alabama Rig is just socialist communist Chinese like B.S. that has no place in the United States or anywhere else. Businesses have every right to protect their innovation, investment, and work.

I know a little about this after getting a letter in the mail asking me to remove my post with thier name in it. I did. Then i started searching.
The name is trademarked but the Alabama rig already has a patent. It is for a screwlock worm weight. Not the 5 wire rig you would think. Its just scare tactics, but i obliged and went along with the commands that offended them.

So you are saying they stole the name from another company to use for a lure that they copied from someone else and now are threatening everyone if they use the name Alabama Rig or A-Rig in any way?

I'm going to ask them to send me one for testing,.......at Canyon Lake.....
It'd be perfect for one of those "fail" videos....

*fills out paperwork to copyright Texas, as well as Carolina Rig*
give me a break

You certainly have raised some valid issues. However, it's important to point out that those behind the Alabama Rig have targeted not only those selling clones under the Alabama rig name, but also are threatening any designer of an umbrella rig with a head for bass (see their previously posted quotes over their "patent"), and makers of DIY umbrella rigs inspired by the Alabama rig, even if not for profit.

Call em Bama Rigs...

*fills out paperwork to copyright and trademark Bama Rigs*

Hit them where it hurts .... their wallet.
I will never buy one. I can build my own for less than 2 bucks, and they look and fish great.

I'm sure Mann's loaded that pocket pretty good already...

Great idea, totally on this lol.

If I didn't take a quick second to verify that those youtube comments were from the actual makers of the A-rig, I'd say someone had the story wrong.

Because for a company to make those kinds of requests/threats on a public forum is down right idiotic. Even if the people were somehow infringing on copyright or a patent, the professional thing to do would be to notify them in private, or better yet, contact youtube to have the video removed.

I'm sort of stunned that a company would damage their reputation like this so openly. It's kinda funny actually.

Jig makers better look out if that can fly..

Good advertiseing for him everytime someone uses the term.. w/e. I wont be buying any I will make my own "Thunderga rigs"..

What a douche. Makes me want to buy a knock-off just to throw him a financial middle finger.

That's what I was thinking...BPS has a knock-off of the "alabama" rig. I don't think BPS would try to violate a patent.
I think them 'bama boys let that football game go to their heads!

Yeah, this! It's pretty mind boggling.

Wow! Looks like it would be free advertising for the _ _ _ _ _ setup. I don't want to be sued.

I thought that was called the Florida Rig? That's what Gambler called them when they sold them, anyway. But they had to quit selling them due to patent infringement, so maybe the originals were called A-Rigs. Interesting

Great points!

It's sad that anybody would actually use this product. I mean, if your a "serious bass fisherman" then you have some sense. Use one bait........trust me, it's enough. If your going to use that rig, then you probably are a jugging/noodle kind of person. Nothing wrong with that, at all......different breed. I can just see whats around the corner on some late night commercial, "buy one rake the lake" get the second one free!!" (with a full 12 inch metal rake with a **** load of hooks!!)

Maybe it is just me not knowing how to search but I could not find this lure anywhere in the Patent Office. Like I said, maybe I don't know how to search properly. Still seems to me that someone stole someone else's idea and is now claiming it for their own.

If you are selling, its infringement, But you CAN have a video on how to make something Similar to an Alabama rig, as long as its a "how to" make your own vs Im selling these.

I have a cousin who is a patent law, I can ask him. The package it sell in usually lists patent #

See, that's the thing: They are threatening anyone who uses the term Alabama Rig in their video title, video search tags, description, etc. It's not just limited to guys selling their own versions of the Alabama Rig; even people showing off DIY videos on making Alabama Rigs are receiving these childish threats. Case in point:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_daZ8NoKBQ (see the messages posted by "TheAlaBamaRig" user?

between that dude and his painter they have pretty much have made jokes of themselves and the product(to me and I'm sure the rest of the forum). Maybe its a marketing tactic? The name itself is getting to be a little too household and to stay at the top of the forums they start controversy? I don't know but at this point I would buy a french made bamalama apparatus before one from anything with the name poss on it.

I wonder if his mansion is going to be shaped like a big R with a circle around it, so it looks like a registered trademark from space when you look at the state of @L@b@m@(once again don't want to get sued)

The person making the threats is signing their name as Tammy. Could this be another case of someone wife pimping their husbands product and he is not aware of what is going on? Doubtful, but just asking.

I wrote a blog about it on FishStrong:

http://fishstrong.com/the-rig-folks-unleash-internet-threats/

Pretty much nails it. They are pathetic.

did he ever think mabby its promoting the company thats how i found out about the a rig and from there i was planing on bying one not any more i can make the same thing with a bullet wait and 5 paperclips hahaha

i said a rig on the internet sopa or whatever is going to arest me hahahahahahahha

Wow, if you can be sued for writing a name of a product without written permission, then fishing reports are going to look strange. I was up on the lake fishing out of my ************* powered by a 175 horsepower ***********. Most of my fish came on a chrome/blue ********** with 1/0 ********** trebles. I also found a few fish on a pumpkin green **********. The biggest 5 went 20lbs with a 7lb kicker. Thankfully, I had 20lb ********* spooled on my ************** mounted on a heavy action **************.

Just wanted to say I loved your write up! You covered the issue very nicely, photos and links too. Nice work!

Here's their followup post after they threatened one of those Youtube fishing kids. So nice of them.



"Parents didn't teach about copyright?" What the heck? If anything, mad props to the kid for producing a vid with some good umbrella rig underwater action!

( YouTube vid link Youtube vid link)

Loved the blog and still chuckle at the complete lack of foresight these people have regarding "Free" promotion of their bait. But I did get an idea from them. As of tomorrow, I'll own all rights to the words "Toad" "Lunker" "Beauty" and "Hawg". Those of you that like to catch big fish are simply going to have to come up with better names to describe the said fish or pay me what you owe me. I'm waiting on the A-rig folks to cough up the same money if any of these words are used in their promotions.

Thanks!

Ha-ha!

I just updated the blog now that I've seen new threats made since yesterday.

http://fishstrong.com/the-rig-folks-unleash-internet-threats/

Spread this around if you want to protest what they are doing. These dudes don't deserve to be treated like this. The word needs to get out about how they bully people.

Just quit calling them Alabama rigs or A-Rigs and call them mini-umbrella rigs or mini-Us or MU rigs. Then the A-Rig name will fade to oblivion.

Wait, should I trademark those names?

Just saw this topic on BassEast too, wow.

The Alabama Rig folks are just going overboard in trying to protect their mark. What they hope to do is scare people. You can, in many instances, use another mark for comparison purposes as long as you say it isn't "the Alabama rig". How many ads have you seen saying "you like widget A then you'll love our widget!". Everyone out there should say "not the old crappy Alabama rig but my even better" whatever. My two cents.

Let's just stop talking about this thing altogether... speed up the process of letting the hype die off here.

Bump for tight line

It's worth mentioning that I wouldn't be surprised if websites posting discussions on how to make their own Alabama Rigs receive threats too from the makers:

http://www.landinglunkers.com/2012/02/01/steves-alabama-rig/

Potentially, a blog like the above one could receive the exact same threats as have been posted on YouTube, just for mentioning the Alabama Rig name in their homemade version.

I would never make a public post as grammatically flawed as the posts she made. Did anyone else make this observation? Wow, embarrassing.

We need to send The Red Ranger in after these folks...


....JMO

Instead of using the ALABAMA-RIG(trademark) popularity to their advantage, they instead threaten anyone who dares make any reference to it for a similar product. Ignorant. Even more embarassing is their inability to use proper grammer in their threats. Pitiful. Nothing like defining yourself.

If I started a bait company I would BUILD my market on grass-roots advertising. I just do not get it. They should be happy that so many people are actually using the word. I guess they don't understand how search engines work. Really just idiotic and hindering the growth of their market. Also, while I am on this rant, why in the hell are they attacking people who talk about fishing with the rigs, while on ebay there are thousands of knock offs for sale using that word to sell baits???????

Howzz about we start spelling it:
Umbrell-A-rig?

Theses idiots think they can hang a few swimbaits on a tried & true saltwater rig & name it their own!!!

That's like calling a Crankbait "My own" everytime a hang a different set of hooks on it!!!!!

Tammy Please!!!!!!!

From what's been posted on YouTube, I believe they may claim to hold the term "a-Rig" in "copy write" as well. See the following quote:

Hey Buddy, I know your young. But you have broken the law. The Alabama Rig is a registered name with the; US Patent Attorney'sOffice along with A-Rig. It is against the law to use it for any reason without written permission from us. Which you do not have. Consisder this a friendly warning to remove all wording and tags using the names for your gains. Thank you. Tammy Poss

Oh my oh my.

Can I go troll youtube too? What if this isn't the actual company doing this just some crappie joke?

Nevermind, just went and looked at there youtube channel..

Bait spread rig. Iam sure that as time goes by there will be many more cast style bait spread rigs being made. There really going overboard with there comments. IMO

Anybody ever heard of a Skil saw or a Xeorx machine. Both are registered names. I am afraid the "Alabama Rig" has become the public domain name for a specialized fishing rig. As far as advertising they may have legal standing but not when used as a descriptive adjective or noun of the rig in public discorse.

Exactly, they won't get my business acting like that. I will be buying from their competition for 1/2 the price instead.

I'm certainly no patent attorney, but I have been involved in the patent process for a year now for both design patents and utility patents.
I don't believe a thing they say.
First, that design has been around way too long for them to start taking credit for its' inception. They may try to Copyright the name, but I can't see them patenting the design. I have even seen Babe Winkleman use it for walleye and pike, going back years.

Second, I went on the USPTO website and did a patent and copyright/trademark search, and here is what I found...The number they cite as their patent number is, in fact, not a patent number at all. When you search for "&#65279", it gives me a response of "Incorrect Characters". When I search the numbers only(65279), it tells me that the number is "Unassigned".

The numbers "65279" shows to be a utility patent designation, but has not been assigned. The real number, if it existed, would be DN/65279.

Therefore, according to the USPTO, they DO NOT hold the patent on the Alabama Rig, or A-Rig.

Hey, thanks for the research into this. I think the "65279" number is just a UBB Forum copy/paste error when copying from YouTube to TexasFishingForum. It didn't appear in the original comments.

That being said, their website recently listed the Alabama Rig as "Patent Pending", so maybe it is not possible to locate it through patent office? Is there another way to search for it?

My guess is those threats are fake. I wish I could come up with something so people can use my name for that style of lure! Basically free advertising for my product. Who is this Tammy poss anyway? I think the guy is named Tommy and he developed a smaller version of the umbrella rig with his dad for freshwater use.

Ok, I decided to go through the applications too. It is an application for a trademark, and I could not locate any patent info on it, and is so new that it has yet to be assigned. The Trademark application info is:
http://tarr.uspto.gov/servlet/tarr?regser=serial&entry=85465736
and
http://tdr.uspto.gov/search.action?sn=85465736

Actually, it is illegal for them to say what they have been saying. Until the trademark/patent goes through and is accepted, assigned a number and have obtained approval to use the phrase "Patent Pending", it is actually against the law for them to represent the item as having been so. If you guys wanted to give them a hard time back, you could send a message to the USPTO and tell them they have a violator. Also, according to the info on the site, they are not using an attorney, so their threats are lies as well.

Even if it is tademarked, it is not illegal for you to use the name "Alabama Rig" or "A-Rig", nor is it illegal to show the item in a video. If that were the case, we couldn't show anything on TV except people, and we could never use the names of anything.

As long as it is capitalized. Kind of like Coke, Xerox or Kleenex, you will be fine. Coca Cola used to spend millions trying to enforce the name "Coke", but it was ruled to be a common name and now they only ask that you capitalize it when you do use it to give credit where it is due.

Thanks for this! You've done a lot of research, very helpful.

Something that be of interest is the following. Dug this up:

On Monday, November 07, 2011, a U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for A-RIG by Slick Lures, Muscle Shoals, AL 35661. The USPTO has given the A-RIG trademark serial number of 85465760. The current federal status of this trademark filing is NEW APPLICATION - RECORD INITIALIZED NOT ASSIGNED TO EXAMINER. The correspondent listed for A-RIG is JEREMY A SMITH of BRADLEY ARANT BOULT CUMMINGS LLP, 200 CLINTON AVE W STE 900, HUNTSVILLE, AL 35801-4933 . The A-RIG trademark is filed in the category of Clothing Products . The description provided to the USPTO for A-RIG is clothing, namely t-shirts, sweatshirts and hats.

(link: [url=http://www.trademarkia.com/correspondent-jeremy-a-smith-1-955946][/url] http://www.trademarkia.com/correspondent-jeremy-a-smith-1-955946

The A-RIG trademark is filed in the category of Clothing Products . The description provided to the USPTO for A-RIG is clothing, namely t-shirts, sweatshirts and hats. [/i]

(link: [url=http://www.trademarkia.com/correspondent-jeremy-a-smith-1-955946][/url] http://www.trademarkia.com/correspondent-jeremy-a-smith-1-955946
[/quote]

So by this it means you can make an A-Rig and sell it, just don't advertise it on a hat, shirt, or any clothing material.

Wow. Is anyone really threatened by this [censored]? Who wants to buy products from this company? They are digging their own grave. I make my own and anyone can.

Quoted from an NPR story.

"about 30 percent of U.S. patents are essentially on things that have already been invented. In 2000, for example, the patent office granted a patent on making toast — patent number 6080436, "Bread Refreshing Method."

This Alabama Rig guy is crazy.