Fischer v. Stiglitz et al. (16-cv-40076).

Judge Hillman dismissed all counts of James Fischer 2019s amended complaint with prejudice for failure to state a claim. Fischer, acting pro se, brought claims of false association, false advertising, violation of rights of publicity, unfair competition, and tortious interference with prospective economic advantage in connection with online communications criticizing his theories relating to beekeeping made between the defendants and the Organic Beekeepers Discussion Group and BeeSource Forum. The gist of the complaint is that defendants Dean Stiglitz and Laurie Anne Herboldsheimer fabricated and published negative reviews, which they attributed to Fischer, of their book 201cThe Complete Idiots Guide to Beekeeping 201d in an attempt to gain attention and notoriety within the beekeeping community for the book 2013 Fischer himself being an oft-published beekeeper. Fischer had previously been allowed to amend his complaint to add additional factual pleadings relating to damages and supporting the elements of his claims, but Judge Hillman found (in fairly summary fashion) that the amended complaint failed to factually assert all of the elements of any of the asserted claims; there was no likelihood that the public would perceive Fischer as sponsoring or endorsing the book, no discussion of Fischer 2019s commercial activity in anything other than a satirical way, no allegations that the defendants sought to exploit Fischer 2019s name to exploit its value for advertising or trade purposes, no indication of any actual or prospective actual customer that was lost by Fischer, and with respect to the unfair competition claim, no allegation that Fischer is located in Massachusetts or claims an injury occurring in Massachusetts.