Richard Bandler: Encyclopedia II - Richard Bandler - Litigation Prosecution and Bankruptcy

Richard Bandler - Litigation Prosecution and Bankruptcy

In 1980 Bandler's company Not Ltd had reported earnings of more than US$800,000 and he and his then wife -- Leslie Cameron-Bandler -- were living an opulent lifestyle. By the end of 1980 Bandler's collaboration with Grinder -- where they lectured, trained and co-authored -- abruptly ended and his wife filed for divorce (after two years of marriage). Leslie Cameron-Bandler was later to report that Bandler was emotionally and physically abusive.[5] In 1983, Not Ltd declared bankruptcy.[6]

Bandler's heavy use of cocaine and alcohol continued through to 1986 when he was charged with the murder of prostitute Corine Christensen. Bandler's trial ran for three months where he was represented by M. Gerald Schwartzbach and was aquitted.

In July of 1996 Bandler filed suit against John Grinder and again in January 1997 against Grinder and numerous prominent members of the NLP community including, Carmen Bostic-St. Clair, Steve Andreas and Connirae Andreas. Bandler claimed trademark infringement, intellectual property ownership of NLP, conspiratorial tortious interference and breach of settlement agreement and permanent injunction by Grinder.[7] [8] [9]

In addition to claiming (retrospective) sole ownership of NLP, Bandler claimed "damages against each such defendant in an amount to be proven at trial, but in no event less than [US]$10,000,000.00". The list of defendants included 200 "Does", i.e. empty names to be specified later. [10]

On February 2000 the Superior Court found against Bandler stating that "Bandler has misrepresented to the public, through his licensing agreement and promotional materials, that he is the exclusive owner of all intellectual property rights associated with NLP, and maintains the exclusive authority to determine membership in and certification in the Society of NLP." [11]

Contemporaneous with Bandler's suits in the US Superior Court, Tony Clarkson (of Clarkson Knitting Limited) sought the revocation of Bandler's UK registered trademark "NLP" in the UK High Court. The UK High Court found in favor of Clarkson Knitting Limited and on 11 July 2000 Bandler was made bankrupt. [12]

By the end of 2000 some sort of rapprochement between Bandler and Grinder was achieved when the parties entered a release wherein they inter alia agreed that "they are the co-creators and co-founders of the technology of Neurolinguistic- Programming. Drs. Grinder and Bandler recognize the efforts and contributions of each other in the creation and initial development of NLP." In the same document, "Dr. John Grinder and Dr. Richard Bandler mutually agree to refrain from disparaging each other's efforts, in any fashion, concerning their respective involvement in the field of NeuroLinguistic Programming." ("Release" reproduced as Appendix A of Whispering in the Wind by Grinder and Bostic St Clair (2001)).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Litigation Prosecution and Bankruptcy", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki