by Strictured Settlement Watchdog™
Genex Capital Corporation has filed counterclaims against Woodbridge that have some of the same flavor of what Woodbridge alleged against Genex Capital, with some important differences.
Genex Capital's support for its counterclaims is to dredge up any bit of gunky sediment they could about Woodbridge going way back to 1997, before the Victims of Terrorism Tax Relief Act of 2001 was passed, which created IRC 5891 and, if properly enforced , in conjuncton with the applicable state structured settlement protection act. is designed to protect structured settlement annuitants.
It's remarkable that Genex Capital also cites Pissed Consumer as an authority. ROFLMAO. Pissed Consumer is not a reliable authority for structured settlements, structured settelment brokers, settlement planners or structured settlement buyers. One fringe player company/website, Einstein Structured Settlements has even used Pissed Consumer to promote its business at the expense of Structured Settlement Quotes which is/has been connected to Genex. Hiding behind the ironically named Communications Decency Act, Pissed Consumer allows comments about a person's purported penis size to remain as a "valid part" of a review about a financial services business.
Genex Capital then remarkably cites Rip Off Reports as an authority, including several whose timing was suspect, notable for posting at crucial dates during litigation where a business colleague of Roger Proctor's, with a connection to SSQ, was a defendant. One of the most suspect of those reports was against Josue Benitez a named witness in that litigation who was an employee of Woodbridge. Another appeared at or about the time a key witness, Nicholas Jackson was due to be deposed at the end of November 2012. Jackson was briefly employed by Genex Strategies, Inc. as a consultant and specifically worked on SSQ in direct contact with Genex CEO Roger Proctor and Genex COO Boris Drubetsky.
In Exhibit R Genex Capital produces a Google search for Genex Capital Structured Settlement Scam and alleges that a Woodbridge Ad appears in close proximty to it and claims a violation of the Gene Capital trademark. [ other Google Ad Words include Singer Asset, a competitor of Genex and Settlement Alliance which is not a competitor]
In Exhibit S Genex Capital produces a Google search for Genex Capital Structured Settlement Lie and alleges that a Woodbridge Ad appears in close proximty to it and claims a violation of the Gene Capital trademark. [ other Google Ad Words results include JG Wentworth, Peachtree and Stone Street Capital, Seneca One, Olive Branch, competitors of Genex and Settlement Alliance which is not a competitor]
In Exhibit T Genex Capital produces a Google search for Genex Capital Structured Settlement Cheat and alleges that a Woodbridge Ad appears in close proximty to it and claims a violation of the Gene Capital trademark. [ other Google Ad Words results include JG Wentworth, Peachtree and Stone Street Capital, Seneca One, Olive Branch,Client First Funding competitors of Genex ]. It's notable that Genex Capital's own website as well as a "review" on SSQ which upon information and belief, is or was associated with Genex and/or its officers, appear in the top 2 organic search results for "Genex Capital Structured Settlement Cheat"
In Exhibit U Genex Capital produces a Google search for Genex Capital Structured Settlement Fraud and alleges that a Woodbridge Ad appears in close proximty to it and claims a violation of the Genex Capital trademark. [ other Google Ad Words results include Peachtree, Annuity Transfers, Seneca One, Olive Branch, Singer and Client First Funding, which are competitors of Genex and Settlement Alliance which is not a competitor]
In Exhibit V Genex Capital produces a Google search for Genex Capital Structured Annuity Fraud and alleges that a Woodbridge Ad appears in close proximty to it and claims a violation of the Gene Capital trademark. [ other Google Ad Words results include Senior Annuty Alert, Nationwide Financial, AnnuityGuys.com, Prudential which are not competitora] It's notable that Genex Capital's own website FAQ and About Us pages appear in the 3rd and 4th position of the top 10 of the organic search results for "Genex Capital Annuity Fraud"
In Exhibit W Genex Capital produces a Google search for Genex Capital Structured Annuity Cheat and alleges that a Woodbridge Ad appears in close proximty to it and claims a violation of the Genex Capital trademark. [ other Google Ad Words results include Annuity Transfers, JG Wentworth, and Sell My Annunity competitor sof Genex and Nationwide Financial, and Fidleity who are not] It's notable that Genex Capital's own website appears in the 1st and 2nd position and assured annuity, another Genex property appears in 3rd position of the organic search results for "Genex Capital Annuity Cheat"
Should the other Genex Capital competitors be lawyering up?
It seems that this sort of thing was addressed in the January 4, 2007 dismissal of J.G. Wentworth, SSC Limited Partnership v Settlement Funding LLC d/b/a Peachtree Settlement Funding Eastern District of Pennsyvania No. 06-0597 (E.D. Pa. Jan. 4, 2007) http://structuredsettlements.typepad.com/files/jg-wentworth-peachtree-keyword-lawsuit.pdf. .
California law professor Eric Goldman also did a nice comtemporaneous write up in a January 5, 2007 post " Keyword Ads and Metatags Don’t Confuse Consumers–J.G. Wentworth v. Settlement Funding"on his Technology & Marketing Law Blog here. He opined that the Peachtree win was a big win for advertisers "The court holds that, as a matter of law, the use of keyword-triggered ads and keyword metatags cannot confuse consumers if the resulting ads/search results don’t display the plaintiff’s trademarks. Given the inconsistencies of past rulings, I simply don’t believe that this case will be the final word on the matter. However, if other courts follow this conclusion, we would see a reduction in the quantity of silly litigation over keyword advertising and keyword metatags."
Genex Capital also references the Arizona in early where Woodbridge gazumped Genex Capital to give a consumer a better deal than Genex was offering. Read the facts, procedural history and the deciison of the Court of Appeals of Arizona dated May 13, 2014 here. Gazumping has become de rigueur in the underegulated structured settlements secondary market as consumers become more educated about shopping around. On December 12, 2013, RSL won a vistory in Texas in a gazumping over Imperial Structured Settlements which was affirmed by the Fourteenth Copurt of Appeals.
Stay tuned folks, it's going to be an interesting 2015.
Appendix
Here's how Google explains how it matches up ads with Adwords in a keyword search Download How Google Matches Ad Words 1-17-2015
To show how weak the Genex Capital argument is in relation to the Google Search, on January 17, 2015 I did my own Google searches using Genex Capital Structured Settlement and some pretty silly and uncommon search terms such as:
Genex Capital Structured Settlement Pig Vomit (a tip of the hat to Howard Stern)
Google Ads from JG Wentworth, Catalina, Liberty Funding, Woodbridge, Novation, Singer, Client First and Pecahtree, Annuity Transfers at different times after cleaning out the browser cache
Download Genex Capital Structured Settlement Pig Vomit – Google Search
Genex Capital Structured Settlement Mickey Mouse Club
Google Ads from Catalina, Woodbridge, Liberty, Novation, Singer, Client First at different times after cleaning out the browser cache
Download Genex Capital Structured Settlement Mickey Mouse Club – Google Search
Genex Capital Structured Settlement Party Poopers
Google Ads from JG Wentworth, Liberty, Woodbridge, NOvation, Client FIrst, Singer, Peachtree
and my personal favorite
Genex Capital Structured Settlement Yipee Ki Yay Mo Fo
No organic search results even came up for this one but Google Adwords for JG Wentworth, Liberty Settlement Funding amd Annuity Transfers
Download Genex Capital Structured Settlement Yipee Ki Yay Mo Fo – Google Search
Are we still supposed to believe that these Genex competitors bought those key word sequences as they advocate in their counterclaim?