A legal scrimmage pitting a 12-year-old Pennsylvania boy against a toy company that has populated playrooms and workstations with Gumbies and Pokeys came to a happy ending last week.
The story began last fall when Christopher Van Allen, who has gone by the nickname "Pokey" his whole life, was given the hip birthday present of a domain name -- pokey.org.
A few months later a letter arrived from the Prema Toy Co., owners of the Gumby and Pokey trademarks, requesting that Van Allen turn over the domain.
He and his parents were taken aback and enlisted the help of Philadelphia law firm Woodcock and Washburn to stake Van Allen's claim to pokey.org.
"The first reaction from our lawyer was that it was an easy case," said David Van Allen, the boy's father. "It hasn't been anywhere near as easy as we thought it would be."
Prema counsel exchanged letters with the Van Allens' attorneys, arguing that the domain pokey.org dilutes the company's trademark. The company counsel also filed a complaint with Network Solutions, requesting that the domain be suspended.
But the site contains no reference to Gumby’s sidekick, nor images of the limber horse. Instead, the Pokey Web, as the site is called, displays Van Allen's take on videogames such as Quake and animation like South Park, as well as remedies for boredom.
After four months of legal wrangling with the toy company, the Van Allens' lawyer received a letter from Art Clokey, creator of Gumby and Pokey. Clokey had instructed his attorneys to withdraw the letter to Network Solutions and end the fight for pokey.org. According to David Van Allen, Clokey had only recently found out about the dispute.
The Van Allens were relieved at the missive.
"We are very, very happy," David Van Allen remarked. "This was the furthest thing from our minds when we gave the domain name to Pokey."
