Armando Montelongo Unhappy With The Truth

As you may already know, I run a website that reviews the major "real estate gurus" and their offerings. Among those reviewed is Armando Montelongo. Our reviews are 100% accurate in every detail.

And that is what irritates Mr. Montelongo. He does not appreciate that someone is pointing out the truth, and he is trying his darndest to shut down that page. Yesterday he filed a DMCA complaint to our webhost, demanding they remove the page because it "violates his copyright".

But here's the (other) problem. DMCA is the Digital Milennium Copyright Act, and it cover copyrights. If someone pirates and reprints your copyrighted material, you may file a DMCA complaint. Mr. Montelongo, however, does not, and cannot claim any copyright infringement. Instead he claims we are misusing his trademark (we are not - under the Lanham Act - trademark law - it is "fair use" to use a mark for comparative commercial advertising, as when Coke compares themselves to Pepsi). And the DMCA does not apply to trademarks. So, he claims copyright infringement, but only lists trademark issues, because there are no copyright issues.

DMCA applies only to copyrights. It does not apply to trademarks. So, Mr Montelongo knowingly misrepresented the facts in his DMCA complaint. Some people would call that lying, or at the very least, gross deception.

This does not surprise us - after all, this is the same Armando Montelongo that sued his own brother. But that does not give him the right to perjure himself in an effort to shut down an accurate review of his offering.

A note to Mr. Montelongo - or anyone else who takes issue with the truth: if you want people to provide a POSITIVE review, or positive reports on you or your offering, perhaps you should offer something of value. Improve what you offer. Make it GOOD. And do it without ripping people off for thousands of dollars. Offer a product that is good enough to warrant an "A" rating at the Better Business Bureau instead of the "F" rating Montelongo has.

Frankly, if you offer a poor product that is not worth what you charge, then you deserve to take hits for it and have no right to complain when the truth comes out.

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