NOTICE

We are sorry to inform you that our websites, have been taken down due to a pending lawsuit by John A. Zachman and we believe that our continued presence on the web although legal and right is an aggravation to him and is hindering his ability to be forthright and discuss a resolution.

John Zachman’s process server interrupted the Enterprise Implementation Strategies class in Toronto being run by Intervista Institute of Montreal, Canada on Wednesday afternoon August 18, 2010 to serve the lawsuit on Stan Locke, Metadata Systems Software dba Zachman Framework Associates.

The California lawsuit asks for US $ 10,000,000.00 (Ten Million US dollars) in trademark infringement damages and a cease and desist order on the use of all things Zachman.

John, (who is the only person in the Zachman International proprietorship) alleges in his suit that Zachman Framework Associates (the registered business name of my Canadian company) infringes on his US Trademark and is causing irreparable damage to his property. This has been fine for the past 12 years and now this month is reason for a lawsuit.

At no time during the past 20 years has John A. Zachman contracted or paid us to do work for him, or paid us any funds for work we have done together. Each of our businesses has always individually billed our own customers and clients independently. In fact, about 50% of my time over the past 10 years has been expended at Zachman Framework Associates, which has negatively affected my Metadata Systems Software salary so that the ten year average is C$ 60,000.

John’s sent a completely unexpected letter December 31, 2009 informing me that his US Zachman business was to be separated immediately from my Zachman Framework Associates because of his falling revenues, so that he and John Jr could increase the Zachman brand presence and revenues and work on a succession plan. As many of you are aware I have attempted at least once per month this year, in six cities and three continents, to meet individually with John but he constantly walks away from these confrontation issues.

Now, we can assume why he didn’t want to discuss or resolve his issues over the past eight months because he was building his documentation for his lawsuit and it contains a laundry list of misrepresentations. He can present this unsubstantiated mess to the court without paying any or very minimal fees and let the attorney’s collect their fees from the judgement they get. By going to a jury trial, he will be the ‘rock star’ who is able to dazzle the common folk and get a higher judgement against Zachman Framework Associates who are the foreigners in their midst.

According to his bio, John is one of the Senior Elders and ruling Council members of his 10,000 member Church on the Way a Four Square Gospel Church in Van Nuys, California. According to his church ideals the first requirement you do in a conflict is sit down together (not by letter, email or phone) and discuss the issues and attempt to resolve this matter and then if you cannot resolve the issue take one person with you as a witness. John has never done this or even attempted to follow this course over the past 2 years.

As Zachman Framework Associates, our observation over the longer period of working beside John is that he doesn’t really know how to resolve conflicts. His resolution method is to write down his position and then demand conformance. Much like his lectures and in particular his articles, there is no real give and take, but rather an adamant statement that his position is right and there is no reason to discuss the matter until his entire list of demands are met. This is exactly how he dispensed with his other twenty year partner exactly one year earlier over http://ZIFA.com .

Although, Metadata Systems Software Inc has the legal right to continue to operate, we do not have the financial resources or interest to defend against this jury trial action in a Los Angeles Federal Court for the next few years.

So it seems I have no other alternative than to stop supporting John A Zachman and let his son John P Zachman (formerly a Glendale Acura car salesman) implement the COTS (commercial of the shelf) packages they need and take over my role of administrative support of the past twenty years and as the architect and designer of the business architecture whilst others in Zachman Framework Associates were the builders and implementers. John Jr will become the super sluth of all this architectural.

Unfortunately, this proves that COTS is a better solution that those crafted from the Zachman primitive models, because Zachman International has no models of their enterprise to manage this change. The famous quote “someday you are going to wish that you had all those models … “ has probably come to pass for John.

Lastly, I will need to sell off the assets of Metadata, absorb the business losses and retire.

It seems apparent that the intent of John A. Zachman’s actions of the past two years by dismissing his two 20 year partners was to remove them from the succession plan and install his son as sole heir to the Zachman empire as he reaches his 77^th birthday, avoiding the significant debt incurred by the two former business associates, and demonstating they were never partners in the first place.

Defending the suit forces us as a Canadian company to be subject to American law, when we do not operate any business facilities, offices or have any financial accounts in US institutions. The NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) agreement supposedly allows Canadian corporations free unencumbered trade with the US.

Not defending this suit, means that John A Zachman will be able to proceed with a default lawsuit against us and be able to bar me from entrance to the United States and with the ability to have me arrested and jailed for not paying the judgment.

It seems that only a miracle will cause John Zachman to stop acting in such a litigious and un-Christian fashion where he completely withdraw his lawsuit and finds a resolution agreement like any man with true integrity would.

I am certain that your comments and suggestions would help us both, you may correspond with either of us at the following addresses.

John@ZachmanInternational.com and Stan@ZachmanInternational.com

Thank you for your assistance.

Stan Locke