Megaupload is a registered trademark but by deception.
Megaupload – the company under siege by the FBI – applied for a trademark at the USPTO in 2008; the trademark was issued a year later.
The illustrious Megaupload CEO, Kim Schmitz eventually changed his name to Kim Dotcom. However, neither of these names appear on the USPTO application for the “Megaupload” trademark.
The application for the trademark, dated August 18, 2008, stated the following:
Class 039: Providing a web site for the electronic storage of digital content, text, images, video, audio, and other data; providing an on-line electronic storage service for storage of digital content, text, images, video, audio, and other data
Class 042: Computer services, namely, hosting and maintaining an on-line web site for others to upload and download computer files, digital content, text, images, video, audio, and other data; hosting and maintaining an on-line web site for storage and forwarding and third party access to digital content, text, images, video, audio, and other data
That’s all fine and dandy but the statements required a signature. The signature is that of “Tim Vestor”, Director.
The signature of the Megaupload trademark application belongs to an alias of Kim Dotcom.
We know by now that there is no “Tim Vestor“, the name was used by Kim Dotcom as an alias, much like his other aliases “Prince“, “Kimbal“, “Kim Tim Jim Vestor” etc.
By signing the trademark application for “Megaupload”, Kim Dotcom knowingly risked the revocation of the mark and a “fine or imprisonment or both“.
Both Kim Dotcom and the company’s director of business development, Sven Echternach, enjoyed expensive toys such as luxury cars and premium domain names.
The Megaupload scandal is still unfolding and it’s not yet clear about how many other secrets lay underneath.
