MetaFilter posts tagged with trademark

Rob Zombie claims to own the word "zombie."

shetterly — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:53:31 -0800

Rob Zombie claims to own the word "zombie." I call dibs on "elf".

Polyvorous

divabat — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 01:42:56 -0800

Polyvore is a website that lets you mix and match online images to make fashion sets and collages. While it has received favour from Web 2.0 pundits, fashion bloggers, and major craft blogs, it has also drawn massive ire from artists that claim copyright infringement and use of personal photos. The anti-Polyvore pressure mainly comes from Etsy sellers, with some support from artists on DeviantArt, Red Buddle, and independent artists - all coming together on Flickr. We Heart It and Ffffound! are also seen as suspect. While Polyvore tries to assuage copyright fears, amidst growing pressure to shut down, many of Polyvore's current users are counter-petitioning for the site to stay.

A novel use of intellectual property law

TedW — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 06:26:00 -0800

In a new twist on trademark disputes, the federal goverment wants to confiscate the trademark of the Mongols Motorcycle Club. The Wall Street Journal (among other people)weighs in.

Scrabble vs. Scrabulous

ericb — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 14:27:35 -0800

Toymakers Hasbro and Mattel claim that the popular online game Scrabulous (available on Facebook) infringes on the trademark for the board game Scrabble. They have not yet filed suit, but have asked Facebook to desist in its alleged infringement. Scrabulous is one of the top ten plug-ins on the site, developed by brothers Rajat and Jayant Agarwalla in Calcutta, India. "There has been speculation that the challenge to Scrabulous had been launched as Hasbro and Mattel prepare their own online version of Scrabble." Electronic Arts holds the license to the electronic rights to Scrabble. Facebook users are rallying to save the game. Related AskMe thread.

This post has been innovisioneered by trained professionals.

Rock Steady — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 07:20:04 -0800

Worst Word Mashup Trademark Filings. From the guy who brought you the FARK NSFW shenanigans and the Dreamcast 2 foofaraw. Innovisioneering? Really?

Kleenex(tm) in aisle NSFW(tm)

F Mackenzie — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:33:58 -0800

NSFW (tm) --Drew Curtis (Fark) attempts to trademark "Not Safe For Work"

Neil Gaiman Gets a Cease-and-Desist Letter

WCityMike — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:58:41 -0800

Neil Gaiman gets cease-and-desisted. In a rather bizarre legal turn of events, Neil Gaiman posted in his journal today that he received a cease-and-desist letter from Mark I. Reichenthal of Branfman & Associates insisting that he remove an "unauthorized" link from tomatoesareevil.com to the official movie website for "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes". (Interestingly enough, Reichenthal evidently has previously been deployed to defend the "... For Dummies" trademark.) Problem is that Neil doesn't own the site; they merely posted a photograph of him with a particularly evil-looking tomato, a tomato which Gaiman is turning into salsa in the hopes of becoming "the Paul Newman of satanic salsas." Neil's reaction: "What an astonishingly small amount of research they must do before firing off these bizarre letters."

Nigga Pleez!

Mijo Bijo — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 19:17:30 -0800

Nigga Pleez!

Free to stitch, free to bitch

like_neon — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 12:17:58 -0800

As a followup to this post about Sew Fast, Sew Easy's cease and desist orders for using the phrase "Stitch and Bitch" et.al. to a variety of merchants, Yahoo groups, and knitting groups, it seems that a boycott movement is gaining momentum. They also have a CafePress store to support the cause. Additionally, I think SFSE may have underestimated the enormous growth in knitting blogs and how quickly they band together when given a cause.

Sorry Pepsi, Dow got there first.

grouse — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 09:21:07 -0800

THE COLOUR PURPLE [is a] Cadbury Limited trademark...
The color Blue is a Trademark of The Dow Chemical Company
The color YELLOW™ is a trademark of Mr.LongArm, Inc.
[T]he color PINK, and other trademarks identified with a ® in these documents are registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Owens-Corning Fiberglas Technology Inc.
The color canary yellow is a trademark of 3M.
The color orange is a trademark of Dandy Products, Inc.
The color green is A trademark of Sullair Corporation.

Linux is now trademarked.

riffola — Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:17:02 -0800

Linux®

Peer to Patent

MLIS — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 11:19:29 -0800

Peer to Patent (PtoP): A Modest Proposal This modest proposal harnesses social reputation and collaborative filtering technology to create a peer review system of scientific experts ruling on innovation. [via beSpacific]

Cease n' deBitched

schoolgirl report — Mon, 09 May 2005 16:28:07 -0800

Stitch n' Bitch Chicago gets a nastygram. The phrase, the original of which is unknown (to me) refers to the art of getting together with friends for some knitting and chatting. It was popularized by a couple of books and is used by knitting groups the world over. One of those groups, the Chicago SnB, had a Cafepress store selling items with the phrase "stitch 'n bitch." Then the Sew Fast/Sew Easy folks came along and told Cafepress they hold the trademark (reg. #2596818). Cafepress requested that the Chicago SnB remove the phrase from their items. Predictably, this got people all riled up and posting not-so-nice things on SFSE's "Stitch and Bitch Cafe." Those posts were promptly deleted. Now the call is out for free lawyerly help. If any of you IP types want to offer advice, you might join the Chicago SnB Yahoo group. I'm sure they'd appreciate it.

Trademarked Nukes

jimjam — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 02:59:26 -0800

Tomahawk® Brand Cruise Missiles Because not all Block II Nuclear Variant cruise missles are alike... Look for the name you can trust!

Marvel Battles Role Players

Stuart_R — Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:54:38 -0800

Marvel Comics sues NCsoft and Cryptic Studios, the makers of the online game City of Heroes for player created content they feel infringes on their copyright. If Marvel wins the case, all game developers can expect to be held responsible for the behavior of their players. This case covers similar ground to the proposed Inducing Infringement of Copyrights Act, which is before a Senate Judiciary Committee. Introduced to crack down on illegal file sharing on peer-to-peer networks, the bill would hold technology companies liable for manufacturing products that encourage people to infringe copyrights. The language of the bill caused an uproar among technology and consumer advocates who claimed it would kill innovation. If successful in their lawsuit, would Marvel be able to sue the makers of pens and pencils for producing products that allow people to create pictures of copyrighted characters?

Next thing you know, they'll be going after Boggle.

paulrockNJ — Thu, 29 Jan 2004 12:06:54 -0800

Adult search engine, Booble.com has received a cease and desist order from Google on the grounds of trademark infringement. Read Google's letter and Booble's response. all links are work safe.

MikeRoweSoft Settles with Microsoft

fenriq — Mon, 26 Jan 2004 10:57:59 -0800

MikeRoweSoft Settles with Microsoft for an XBox
Mike Rowe had a website named after himself that was alot like the mega-corp.
MS wanted to give him $10 to change the domain, he wanted $10k. They settled on a trip to Redmond, some traffic redirection and an XBox.

Followup to this thread.

Paul Newman is still HUD

thedailygrowl — Tue, 19 Aug 2003 00:13:24 -0800

Paul Newman is still HUD

Google calls in the 'language police'

eclectica — Tue, 24 Jun 2003 12:14:06 -0800

Google calls in the 'language police': "Google is now a verb, meaning to search. It sounds like the ultimate compliment to the company, so why do its lawyers want to keep the word out of our dictionaries?"

maudlin — Thu, 25 Jul 2002 12:20:20 -0800

"If this were a sci-fi melodrama, it might be called Speech-Zilla meets Trademark Kong. ... The parties are advised to chill." (PDF file) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is at it again. Aqua's hit song "Barbie Girl" is judged not to be a violation of Mattel's trademark, but to be a parody protected by free speech. And all laboured judgely joshing aside, the decision offers a nice summary of trademark law. Get a plain HTML news story from CNN here. (The chorus is running through your brain now, right? And it's going to be there all day, too. *snicker*)

Blake — Sat, 22 Jun 2002 08:46:26 -0800

Free The Mouse [Literally this time]
This Story from FL says Walt Disney Co. officials have until July 30 to decide whether to challenge the Genesee District Library's mascot for an alleged similarity to Mickey Mouse. Last summer, the library submitted a trademark registry request with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for "Book Mouse," a blue, large-eared rodent wearing red-rimmed glasses and a backpack. Book Mouse appears on bumper stickers and in coloring books, and even marches in local parades. Library attorney Patric Parker said "I don't think we cut into their movie profits this last year."

drezdn — Thu, 25 Apr 2002 11:32:25 -0800

The War over Red Star Records... Around since 1977, Red Star Records has released albums by Suicide and the Real Kids along with Richard Hell and the New York Dolls. Now, Heineken has formed its own Red Star Records and is trying to trademark the name, which, if successful would give the beer company more legal right to the name than the original label. Who's going to win this trademark battle? [link via rockbites]

chipr — Fri, 19 Apr 2002 16:28:14 -0800

From the little guy continues to get the shaft department: The United Parcel Service last month filed a trademark registration on "Big Brown." The ink on the app is barely dry, and already they are throwing out cease and desist letters. Victim number one: the guy who registered bigbrown.com back in 1997. (via fark)

emptyage — Wed, 10 Apr 2002 13:53:24 -0800

The phrase "Let's Roll" has now been trademarked by quite a few companies. We touched on this once before in the State of the Union thread, but the current list of trademark's goes far beyond what was previously discused. You can now get all manner of brickabrack emblazoned with a "Let's Roll" logo. Is it patriotism, or profiterring?

waxpancake — Mon, 14 Jan 2002 09:15:30 -0800

Bootleg Toys: The Undiscovered Playthings documents the sale of misfit toys in Southern California. For boys, there's Robert Cop 3, the Mighty Morphin-esque Powerful Supper Raiders, and Space Wars: Episode I action figures. For girls, Sale Moon, Hallo Betty and the Spicy Girls. But the most controversial toy isn't a trademark violation: the Laden vs USA handheld video game.