May 28, 2002<br>Chandler, Arizona<br>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<br><br>Ritter and Equipped To Survive Foundation Successfully Defend Trademark<br><br>Doug Ritter and the Equipped To Survive Foundation, owners of the Equipped To Survive trademark, announced today that a settlement has been reached in their federal trademark infringement lawsuit against Christopher and Kristen McKiernan and Mayday Industries, Inc. The Defendants agreed not to use the name and mark EQUIPPED TO SURVIVE or any confusingly similar name or mark on their Web site and elsewhere and to transfer to the plaintiffs the domain names equippedtosurvive.com, equippedtosurvive.net and equippedtosurvive.org, as well as their pending trademark application.<br><br>Doug Ritter said, "This quick settlement affirms our trademark rights and allows us to get on with the Foundation's business without the distractions that further prosecution of this lawsuit would have involved. Potential infringers should take heed that we will defend our trademark rights vigorously."<br><br>------------------------------------------<br><br>I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone here for their support during this trying experience and especially those of you who so generously made contributions to help offset some of the legal bills. We can still use any contributions anyone would like to make (http://www.equipped.org/etsfi_donate2.htm ) to help pay the not-insignificant legal expenses incurred. Unfortunately, being in the right isn't necessarily cheap. <br><br>Again, thank a bunch!

Let me be the first to chime in...<br>CONGRATS!!!!<br>Justice can prevail!

Andy,<br><br><br>Thanks! I just wish that justice wasn't so [censored] expensive. The concept of "justice" loses something in that transition between theory and reality. <~><br><br>Best,<br>

Doug...CONGRATS! <br><br>A GREAT win Doug, and as long as the process may have seemed to you, this is a VERY QUICK win in lawsuit years. Lawsuit years are like dog years in reverse. What is 7 years to you is only one lawsuit year. So now you know what your lawyer really means when he or she says that "it will only take about six months to a year."<br><br>Being this quick makes me pretty sure that you let them off without collecting punitive damages so long as they quit violating your rights---correct? It is certainly refreshing(and rare) to find a litigant who is principled and not totally mercenary, but I suspect that ETS did not grow wealthy and that you are out a chunk of change as a result of the process. It reminds me of the cartoon where a lawyer is sitting behind his desk asking his client "How much justice can you afford?"<br><br>This leads me to my purpose in reminding you that the donation link in your post doesn't work! Do you want additional donations for this to go through Network for Good, did you need to set up a separate defense fund to which we should send donations (there are circumstances where that has to be done and don't know if those apply in this case and I can't tell by the link). Anyway, let us know, and again, Congrats!!!!!!<br>Alas, one question remains: Where can one now go to obtain shoddy goods at an exorbinant price? I suppose we can live without such a source if we have to........take good care....<br><br>Robb

>>>It reminds me of the cartoon where a lawyer is sitting behind his desk asking his client "How much justice can you afford?"<<<<br><br>There is certainly a great deal of truth to that, sorry to say. The settlement itself is confidential, as is often the case, so I cannot say specifically how it all ended up beyond the agreed to release, but my lawyer has said that I can tell you, as must be disclosed on our annual Form 990 financial filing with the IRS, that our expenses in this matter were limited to the legal fees for which we are seeking donations. <br><br>I have fixed the link, sorry about that. Any donations can be made via Network for Good. There is a field where you can specify what you want your donation used for.<br><br>Thanks!<br>

I have concern that my donation reached its intended destination (ETS). My credit card account was charged, but I am not listed in the donors section. The agent did not respond to my e-mail question regarding appropriate routing of the contribution.

Yes it was rec'd, thanks very much. You apparently did not provide an email address, so we didn't send a request to post your name. We always ask first, some folks don't care to have their name listed.

congratulations, indeed!!