Skiology Matt in Litigation

Skiology, LLC v. Bramble

Trademark case filed on January 27, 2023 in the Vermont District Court

dockets.justia.com

 

[drjeff]

Fucking gaper cult. Glad I won’t have to read it anymore

If you want to join the counter site, I guarantee I know someone who can make that happen in the blink of an eye!

 

[Blowhard]

Hasn't he been threatening a paywall for a while now?

it's pretty simple he doesn't have or won;t spend the small amount of money required to set up the paywall site AND he is afraid if he builds it, no one will come. The funny thing is, his other business is owning an ISP, i am sure he has the ways to make this paywall site for free or barter.
if he was real, he'd step up to the plate, build it, open the shop and let people in. He'd get a lot of people in year one and likely see a big drop off in year two. when I say a lot, if 1000 of the 50k actually paid up, it would be a lot. And likely his ego couldn't handle no longer being "the mayor of a 50,000 person town." There actually are people that seek him out to ski/ride with, host them in their homes and probably share their bed with him as well. It's friggin scary, and what feeds his ego. Until he built this group, he was a single techno-geek in suburban Albany herding cats.

btw, his "other" business is that of being an ISP www.servepure.com. not sure he does much else besides feed his cats, get involved in local neighborhood road design fights and prosecute his fight with detractors that are "out to get him" and "cause himself physical harm."

if you cross reference the screenshot above where he says he bought the domain from a business that pre-existed the skiology store by 12 years and you read the entire complaint, the store says the domain was owned by a business in Canada. So, it is possible he bought it from someone pre-existing, but the mark being owned in canada is probably the rub. The real rub is that he knew the store existed within the geography he was targeting with his business concept and that's just wrong, though he may still win the case and spend thousands on defending it, that alone may put him out as the news of that surfaces.

the other thing that is wrong about him is that apparently he grabs all of his screen shots from a site https://www.tropicaltidbits.com/analysis/models/ -this site is run by someone who at quick glance appears to be trained in meteorology and accepts contributions for his content. Unfortunately, his terms of use allows sharing of his content in "your feed," but not clear that is for commercial purposes.. guy probably needs better legal advice to make money with what he has.

the sad reality is that people are too lazy to look at any real weather service(I prefer Wunderground) and like everything else just look at their dumbed down apps. So he comes in with something more dynamic and people swarm to it. It IS crazy that he's got 50k people in that group. If he left his preaching, politics, and censorship out of it, he'd probably have 2x as many people.

but here is really the question, if he didn't exist, what would be different? They would all know a storm is coming and they would all mob the mountains anyway. Does anyone stay home because of possible wind holds? Probably the only thing he has done well is gotten more people to buy snow tires and visit indy mountains, both of which are putting money in his pocket.

on the taxation thing, he is a nerdy straight arrow. I am sure he is keeping a record of every penny coming in and giving it his CPA.

what matt should do:
1-stop his preachy bullshit editorials on everything from covid protocols, snow tires, passes, Vail's transgressions, etc
2-provide Weather info that is additive to what is out there (ok, so that's never gonna happen, but he does serve the lazy app reliant gapers)
3-put up or shutup, build his paywall site, or app, whatever and get on with a "business"
4-change his name now, 3 years in, no one will care in 6 months. It's his ego that can't handle it. If he threw up a new name tomorrow like Skidstain Matt's weather, the gapers would still follow him
5-get a team of psychiatrists to calm down his narcissistic personality disorder and get on some meds.

 

[thetrailboss]

"Skidstain Matt"

 

[cdskier]

if you cross reference the screenshot above where he says he bought the domain from a business that pre-existed the skiology store by 12 years and you read the entire complaint, the store says the domain was owned by a business in Canada. So, it is possible he bought it from someone pre-existing, but the mark being owned in canada is probably the rub.

I wonder if he actually bought the rights to use the name/trademark from the Canadian company (if they even had one) OR if he just bought the domain name from them. Although still not sure what the implication on a US trademark would be if one also existed in Canada.

 

[icecoast1]

but I don't think Matt is any kind of threat. He's not really hurting anyone.

He had his cult following threaten and harass ski area employees and has a history of calling peoples places of empoloyment to get them in trouble/fired. So yeah, in a way he kind of is a threat. If I were the owner of the ski shop in Killington, I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was related to that wackjob in any way

 

[kbroderick]

I'd agree about the preaching except for the snow tires.

A former employer of mine has had to deal with copycats in a couple of instances. One of my takeaways going through that process was that the bar to successfully get someone else shut down for using your mark is relatively high, and the hourly rate of good intellectual property attorneys is worse than a walk-up lift ticket. The fact that the ski shop has actively pursued court action suggests to me that they expect they can win (or they're willing to light money on fire for legal costs to try). Given that they are apparently a successful business, I'm going to guess that they don't like lighting money on fire.

 

[thetrailboss]

I wonder if he actually bought the rights to use the name/trademark from the Canadian company (if they even had one) OR if he just bought the domain name from them. Although still not sure what the implication on a US trademark would be if one also existed in Canada.

Seems like it is the latter.

 

[thetrailboss]

He had his cult following threaten and harass ski area employees and has a history of calling peoples places of empoloyment to get them in trouble/fired. So yeah, in a way he kind of is a threat.

WTAF?

 

[ThatGuy]

WTAF?

When Facebook Groups Turn Ugly: A Response to Skiology Matt — VT SKI + RIDE

Northeast Skiology's Matthew Bramble makes unfounded and false allegations. Skiology Matt attacks members of Northeast Clownology and others.

vtskiandride.com

 

[Blowhard]

I'd agree about the preaching except for the snow tires.

A former employer of mine has had to deal with copycats in a couple of instances. One of my takeaways going through that process was that the bar to successfully get someone else shut down for using your mark is relatively high, and the hourly rate of good intellectual property attorneys is worse than a walk-up lift ticket. The fact that the ski shop has actively pursued court action suggests to me that they expect they can win (or they're willing to light money on fire for legal costs to try). Given that they are apparently a successful business, I'm going to guess that they don't like lighting money on fire.

Feelin like we should start a gofundme for the ski shop and start posting in all the NE ski groups.

 

[Blowhard]

I'd agree about the preaching except for the snow tires.

The snow tire preach was so he can get $ out of purchases via his tire rack affiliate link, not necessarily about good intentions otherwise. I skiing he’d never had posted on it if he didn’t have the affiliate code to sell

 

[RH29]

I did want to give him credit for one thing, and that's the windhold forecasts. He's usually reasonably accurate with them and it saves me a lot of time checking various base and mountain forecasts for wind speed/directions.

 

[e11i077]

I did want to give him credit for one thing, and that's the windhold forecasts. He's usually reasonably accurate with them and it saves me a lot of time checking various base and mountain forecasts for wind speed/directions.

In my experience this is what he is most consistently wrong about. I ski Sugarbush and anything north of it and whenever I looked at those reports before he blocked me they were almost always wrong. He tries to be the expert of 50+ mountains when he isn’t an expert on even one of them in reality.

 

[Harvey]

He had his cult following threaten and harass ski area employees and has a history of calling peoples places of empoloyment to get them in trouble/fired. So yeah, in a way he kind of is a threat. If I were the owner of the ski shop in Killington, I wouldn't want anyone thinking I was related to that wackjob in any way

I guess I haven't been paying close attention. I knew he had some kind of disagreement with a hill in NH, maybe Waterville Valley?

Also I wasn't commenting on the suit. The court will decide who gets the name and who must desist. (Or maybe both can continue?)

I do feel like the current model is unsustainable. Generally things that are loaded with drama and produce a ton of money last beyond what you might suspect if you knew what was going on inside. (Oddly I am thinking about the Beatles!). Skiology seems like a lot of stress relative to the size of the revenue stream.

Stuart (Storm Skiing Journal) has done something I have never seen. It may not be a smashing success by a business standard, but in the world of ski content nothing compares. Both Stuart and Matt work incredible hard, so they have that in common.

But Stuart did one thing relatively early on, that IMO was crucial. He moved his domain from Substack, to his own unique URL. That allows him to reap much more of the value of his content, via Google. IMO, as long as Matt is on Facebook.com he will always be a prisoner.

 

[Blowhard]

Skiology seems like a lot of stress relative to the size of the revenue stream.

Stuart (Storm Skiing Journal) has done something I have never seen. It may not be a smashing success by a business standard, but in the world of ski content nothing compares. Both Stuart and Matt work incredible hard, so they have that in common.

But Stuart did one thing relatively early on, that IMO was crucial. He moved his domain from Substack, to his own unique URL. That allows him to reap much more of the value of his content, via Google. IMO, as long as Matt is on Facebook.com he will always be a prisoner.

the first comment is on the money, because this isn't about making $, it's about skidstain Matt's ego. He won't be able to handle how few people actually pay for his pay product, if he ever launches one.

Stuart is a great comparison, but you have to remember that Stuart Winchester IS a real Journalist, trained in communications and media. Stuart did what you should do, here's my product, you want more, pay for it.. took the risk, put a lot behind a paywall. Stuart also has a family to support and people that have more than a cheap house in the trashville of Albany and a few cats are usually more serious about how they approach endeavors.

 

[Harvey]

you have to remember that Stuart Winchester IS a real Journalist, trained in communications and media.

I know him well. I think his love of journalism may actually exceed his love of skiing. He speaks truth as he sees it, but somehow doesn't attract the ire (much). It's pretty cool to watch.

 

[Blowhard]

I know him well. I think his love of journalism may actually exceed his love of skiing. He speaks truth as he sees it, but somehow doesn't attract the ire (much). It's pretty cool to watch.

it is completely different though. skidstain wants to be the weatherguy for the world. Stuart wants to be a ski journalist. Matt's model has lots of chats and conversations, Stuart brings experts in that are of interest to his community to hear from. Matt thinks he's the expert on everything. If you doubt him, he will tell you so, and if you argue again he'll just block and boot you from the group. He wants an echo chamber, and it's kinda funny, because while his politics are obviously liberal (not being political or derogatory here), he is a lot like Trump.. "I alone..."

 

[thetrailboss]

it is completely different though. skidstain wants to be the weatherguy for the world. Stuart wants to be a ski journalist. Matt's model has lots of chats and conversations, Stuart brings experts in that are of interest to his community to hear from. Matt thinks he's the expert on everything. If you doubt him, he will tell you so, and if you argue again he'll just block and boot you from the group. He wants an echo chamber, and it's kinda funny, because while his politics are obviously liberal (not being political or derogatory here), he is a lot like Trump.. "I alone..."

Complete apples to oranges.

 

[RH29]

In my experience this is what he is most consistently wrong about. I ski Sugarbush and anything north of it and whenever I looked at those reports before he blocked me they were almost always wrong. He tries to be the expert of 50+ mountains when he isn’t an expert on even one of them in reality.

He was pretty accurate today. Stratton's upper mtn lifts were all down when I checked at around noon (except Ursa), Bromley lost Blue Ribbon and the express, Mount Snow lost Grand Summit, both North Face lifts, and Sunbrook. I'm surprised he hasn't boasted about his windhold guesses "confirming" when any idiot could see that 50mph winds out of the west are going to take out lifts...

 

[AdironRider]

Show me on the doll where Skiology Matt touched you....

I don't understand why some of you care this much about some niche FB group. This guy seems like your standard internet blowhard, which are a dime a dozen.