71–80 of 203 posts
I would suggest changing trademark law so a trademark cannot be a single word found in the dictionary. I.e. one could trademark: Acme Editor but not: Editor
IIRC this is already the case.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_v._MikeRoweSoft
I mean Microsoft seems to be in the right there, given that he deliberately named it that to be a pun on the Microsoft name. He wouldn't have appended Soft to his name when choosing a domain if Microsoft didn't exist.
That seems like a good defense, since it's not the sort of thing people would infer to actually be Microsoft.
Not a lawyer, etc., but it seems to me that people continually talk (in this thread and elsewhere) as if trademark was copyright.
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Does simply using the word "Droid" for an Android-related project count as trademark infringement? Can the free software project "F-Droid" [0] (Android App Installer) be sued for trademark infringement? If it is, it's bad news... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Droid
In many, if not most, cases yes. This isn't like the normal patent troll nonsense. This is to avoid confusion in the marketplace. Consumers expect a certain level of quality and assume a certain origin when seeing particular words in a product name or brand. If someone sells an electric car under the "Teslan" brand, consumers could think it comes from Tesla - not only Tesla wouldn't be too happy, but the consumer cou…
Apple would not let me register a developer account using my domain name macscan.net. Got a letter from their legal team. This was not for any product or app I was even thinking of making. This was purely: 'You cannot use that email address'.
Fair enough imo? Might be your long held personal email or whatever, but it also looks like a scam URL.
This is the origin of the mac name too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_(apple)
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The words 'droid' and `android` existed long before Google existed so Google has no exclusive right to the use of this word. It seems that corporations don't know what to do anymore so they start suing small players. Clearly, they're desperate because their schemes are about to be exposed. Mega-corporations are the center of ethical and moral depravity so they should not be in position to sue anyone. They're the ones…
Apples predate civilization, yet Apple does have the exclusive privilege of using the word Apple in relation to computers and almost anything that touches a computer. So that's not a great argument. Google does not have a trademark on Droid, however. It doesn't actually matter though, because civil litigation is a war of attrition. They don't have to be right. They just have to have deeper pockets. If you think this…
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Fair enough imo? Might be your long held personal email or whatever, but it also looks like a scam URL.
So any Scottish people with macX names cannot use their email or name in the app store? This is the origin of the mac name too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McIntosh_(apple)
* https://apple.com/uk/legal/intellectual-property/guidelinesf...
* https://trademarkelite.com/trademark/trademark-detail/733918...
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Does simply using the word "Droid" for an Android-related project count as trademark infringement? Can the free software project "F-Droid" [0] (Android App Installer) be sued for trademark infringement? If it is, it's bad news... [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F-Droid
In many, if not most, cases yes. This isn't like the normal patent troll nonsense. This is to avoid confusion in the marketplace. Consumers expect a certain level of quality and assume a certain origin when seeing particular words in a product name or brand. If someone sells an electric car under the "Teslan" brand, consumers could think it comes from Tesla - not only Tesla wouldn't be too happy, but the consumer cou…
"Orpheus" is longer than "droid" and is certainly longer than "an".
What's next? Forbidding streichholzschachtelfabrikdroid? Due to similarity? C'mon, that's nonsense.
And no, you cannot have rights on the word "droid". Otherwise, lukasarts and the star trek film makers would have sued the shit out of google by now.
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From what I was told you can't use a similar name on a similar product or company, but if it's different enough it's ok. A friend had a few stores selling clothes with a name that was french for something I've forgotten. Then a large chain started selling and heavily marketing a perfume with the same name. My friend wanted to stop them using the name, but after a few rounds of lawyers he got nowhere because selling c…
Trademarks are about customer protection more than protecting the company. If another company starts selling "Android" phones that have a completely different OS, that ruins the Android brand but also makes it difficult for customers to trust that the product they're buying is legitimate unless the Android trademark is defended.
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Why? Trademarks are one of the few pieces of IP that seem to make sense to me. They protect consumers by letting the consumer trust a trademark is what they think it is, they aren't overly broad and they aren't automatic.
>Trademarks are one of the few pieces of IP that seem to make sense to me... Up to a point. It's when people are able to trademark single everyday words that it becomes farcical. I sell designs on several print-on-demand sites and occasionally dip into related forums, etc. As well as the obvious take-downs for people flagrantly violating other's intellectual property, it's fairly common for people to have their desig…
Thats the reason Google used to discourage people from saying Google it because they were worried they would lose the trademark to the name.
What one can do is apply for a trademark to a common word to be used in a specific well defined context where it’s clear it’s applying to your company.
And once you get a trademark you don’t automatically own it forever. You have to actively use it and defend its use.
Of course, much like anything else in the world, there will be edge cases where the situation is murky and other cases where the outcomes appear outright wrong to most impartial observers. But that’s an artifact of the inherent complexity in trying to balance the various needs as opposed to a problem intrinsic to trademarks themselves.
>The Oxford English Dictionary traces the earliest use (as "Androides") to Ephraim Chambers' 1728
>The term "droid", popularized by George Lucas in the original Star Wars film and now used widely within science fiction
Maybe Disney should sue you too right?
And maybe the State of Greece because it's derived work.