Here's an interview with the guy:
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,115376,00.asp
In it he briefly mentions the US company trying to trademark the name instead of him and talks about people registering domains names to try to make money off of it. Partly I think it's his fault for using a name that's not all that unique and fairly descriptive, but it certainly also has a lot to do with people trying to unfairly make money off the goodwill he built up around his product.
(and as a PS to the interview, it's kind of humorous that the guy says nobody should do business with any company that advertises with pop ups or pop unders, and when you close that page, PC World gives a little pop advertising itself... )