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'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

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Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#31

Post by pests »

norifukuoka wrote: post #18
CM30 wrote: post #15

Have to be honest, I've always thought complaints about trademarked products in works of fiction were a silly thing to begin with. Why shouldn't a fictional universe feature products and businesses found in the real world? Are we supposedly to randomly assume all other universes don't have humvees or macbooks or the Red Cross? Who's to say the same people/companies/organisations would even be responsible in that work…

Meanwhile, in this other fictional universe, a guy who looks just like you and posts the same things as you on HN is a child pornographer. Not to worry, our hero stops him. Or perhaps it is your company that is involved in the pornography. And they are secret Nazis. Not to worry. All fictional.

Well yes that is what ficitonal means.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#32

Post by babypuncher »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #22
smabie wrote: post #2

I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but it seems to me that many companies pursue legal action that is against their own interest. Surely, Humvees in CoD could only help the brand, no? Moreover, the fact that they don't even sell any consumer products in the first place makes the entire suit even more dubious. The use of Humvees in CoD is going to sow confusion among the military purchasing officers and the…

What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Even worse in case of other vehicles like racing cars. Imagine a racing game in which Porsche cars are slowest and break more often than other cars. You wouldn't want your brand to be associated with that, even if it's a videogame. Or imagine a completely broken game with popular car. Bi…

Too bad? I think most people are smart enough to separate entertainment from marketing materials.

I think this ruling is great, maybe we can finally get racing games with real cars and realistic damage modeling.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#34

Post by Jare »

skocznymroczny wrote: post #22
smabie wrote: post #2

I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but it seems to me that many companies pursue legal action that is against their own interest. Surely, Humvees in CoD could only help the brand, no? Moreover, the fact that they don't even sell any consumer products in the first place makes the entire suit even more dubious. The use of Humvees in CoD is going to sow confusion among the military purchasing officers and the…

What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Even worse in case of other vehicles like racing cars. Imagine a racing game in which Porsche cars are slowest and break more often than other cars. You wouldn't want your brand to be associated with that, even if it's a videogame. Or imagine a completely broken game with popular car. Bi…

IANAL but I assume that argument would go into the "confusion / Polaroid" part of the suit. It should have to be egregious to be given consideration, but that's up to the judge.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#35

Post by babypuncher »

Alupis wrote: post #26
skocznymroczny wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Even worse in case of other vehicles like racing cars. Imagine a racing game in which Porsche cars are slowest and break more often than other cars. You wouldn't want your brand to be associated with that, even if it's a videogame. Or imagine a completely broken game with popular car. Bi…

> What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Pretty much exactly what happened with the Glock in the Counter Strike PC game.

And yet nobody bases their decision whether or not to buy a Glock based on its performance in Counter-Strike. It's a non-issue.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#36

Post by AdrianB1 »

tinkertamper wrote: post #4
smabie wrote: post #2

I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but it seems to me that many companies pursue legal action that is against their own interest. Surely, Humvees in CoD could only help the brand, no? Moreover, the fact that they don't even sell any consumer products in the first place makes the entire suit even more dubious. The use of Humvees in CoD is going to sow confusion among the military purchasing officers and the…

I also don't know what I'm talking about, but I think one of the core responsibilities of a trademark owner is that you establish a history of defending it. I heard once that if you don't do that you risk losing control of your rights to that property. Any smarty pants on here able to confirm/set me straight?

If not making a fool of themselves in the process, yes. Common sense is much needed in such situations, I would say.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#37

Post by danbolt »

babypuncher wrote: post #32
skocznymroczny wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if Humvees become the worst vehicles in the game because of balancing reasons? If I were the owner of the brand I'd be pissed. Even worse in case of other vehicles like racing cars. Imagine a racing game in which Porsche cars are slowest and break more often than other cars. You wouldn't want your brand to be associated with that, even if it's a videogame. Or imagine a completely broken game with popular car. Bi…

Too bad? I think most people are smart enough to separate entertainment from marketing materials. I think this ruling is great, maybe we can finally get racing games with real cars and realistic damage modeling.

I think it was the television show 24 where the villains weren't allowed to drive Ford cars.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#38

Post by rbanffy »

djsumdog wrote: post #12
tinkertamper wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also don't know what I'm talking about, but I think one of the core responsibilities of a trademark owner is that you establish a history of defending it. I heard once that if you don't do that you risk losing control of your rights to that property. Any smarty pants on here able to confirm/set me straight?

Yep, so this serve the companies interest because they're trying to defend their trademark; even if they failed. I doubt Humvee is in danger of becoming a generic term (Jeep is more likely; I cannot tell you much my it annoyed me my ex called her Suzuki 4x4 a "Jeep" .. it's not a Jeep! It's a 4x4 or off-roader.." but if they enter into other trademark battles, the opposing council can't say "Well they haven't tried t…

Having your name become the standard way to reference to the category of products you make is highly beneficial in terms of brand recognition. In some places every off-road may be a "jeep" and every photocopier may be a "xerox machine", but the companies still own their names and only the original holders can make "real" jeeps or xerox machines.

Re: 'Call of Duty' wins First Amendment victory over use of Humvees

#40

Post by alkonaut »

filoleg wrote: post #13
djsumdog wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep, so this serve the companies interest because they're trying to defend their trademark; even if they failed. I doubt Humvee is in danger of becoming a generic term (Jeep is more likely; I cannot tell you much my it annoyed me my ex called her Suzuki 4x4 a "Jeep" .. it's not a Jeep! It's a 4x4 or off-roader.." but if they enter into other trademark battles, the opposing council can't say "Well they haven't tried t…

Interesting you bring up a point about Jeep. Never once in the US I've heard of a non-Jeep-made SUV referred to as a "Jeep". But back when I lived in Russia, every single SUV was referred to as a "Jeep". I don't even know of another word for SUV in Russian. Not trying to argue against you btw, I just personally find stuff like this interesting. EDIT: just checked the wikipedia page for SUV in russian, and yep, in the…

That term or similar ones exist all over the world. The concept of “SUV” is weird to begin with and doesn’t easily translate. Also, the ur-SUVs with truck chassis basically don’t exist outside North America. What the rest of the world call SUVs are X5’s and XC90’s and similar (“crossover” is used for smaller ones usually, despite no technical difference)

The common and slightly derogatory term for an X5/Q7/XC90 type SUV in Swedish is “Stadsjeep” (“city jeep”).

So yes Jeep is definitely not just a brand it’s like xerox and Walkman and used sloppily to refer to anything jeepy-looking.

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