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Uri Geller sues Nintendo's Pokemon
The-Forge writes "In this article at IGN's Sci-Fi Network, everyone's favorite spoon bending psychic, Uri Geller, is sueing Nintendo over a Pokemon charcter. The Pokemon, #65, is named Alakazam. At this point, you're probably asking yourself why. In Japan this Pokemon is called Un-Geller and carries bent spoons around all the time. And the fact that Geller got mobbed when he went X-Mas shopping in Tokyo by kids wanting him to sign their Un-Geller Pokemon cards didn't help much either. " The great part of this whole deal is the dollar amount - Geller's asking for $97 million.
... but I'm backing him on this one. I mean, an "Un Geller" who bends spoons? Not to mention the fact that a poor OCR system could confuse "n" and "ri". I can't believe that they didn't even bother to consult him or ask his permission. Or failing that, create another character who can bend spoons. !!
I speak for me. Not my employer, not slashdot, not Xenu.
Uri Geller is a fake. He's an opportunist. He's doing this for the money. He's described as a real-life spoonbender, which he may well be. But he does it using regular, non-psychic methods.
If this pokemon character can really bend spoons, then there is little similarity to Mr. Geller
Anyway, as much as I hate to say it, Uri Geller clearly has a case here, and he ought to win, but $97 is far too much. Yes, Pokemon has been a huge moneymaker, but how much of that can be attributed to that one, single Pokemon? If it was Pikachu, maybe, but Un Geller? No way.
Powers&8^]
This guy hasn't been on TV since the Mike Douglas show went off the air. This is the best publicity he's gotten in decades. He should be paying Nintendo.
Is it too late to legally change my name to pikachu? /. readers willing to change their names so we can get all the pokemon off the market.
C'mon i'm sure there's enough
Gotta sue 'em all!
Besides, there's a little thing known as Fair Use. Ask Negativland . . . they've been fighting this battle longer than anyone I personally know. Don't get me wrong, I've nothing against suing the Big Evil Corporation(tm), but I DO have something against frivolous lawsuits.
oh yeah, vote for me for best dressed
Bad things often happen to good people,
It is up to them to see that they remain good.
Everyone is sue happy. I do not know much about japanese or anything. Does that word have some other meaning? Anyone here know? Before he gets away with that much money you need a LITTLE more than a freaking spoon that is bent ( I can bend them to. I use the deadly frozen ice-cream trick ) Okay the name thing is close but Uhm. Ive never heard of the guy and he has not really trademarked or copyrighted any of the spoon bending stuff (has he?) so how can he dream of pulling this off? *shrugs* IANAL so I would be interested in hearing what anyone has to say.
I believe this is just the beginning of an evil plot by Nintendo to replace all the important and famous people in the world with Pokemon characters.
Picture if you would a grotesque little monster with greying hair named Clintoboinko that defeats his opponents by whipping out his... umm... on second thought, actually, don't picture that.
Uri Geller has a long history of filing lawsuits against anyone who criticize him, debunk him, or even just incorrectly describe his past. Witness, for example, his various suits against James "Amazing" Randi, who published The Truth About Uri Geller . I don't recall all the details of Geller's suits against Randi, but you can probably find more info at randi.org. Fortunately, Randi is a bulldog who doesn't let Geller intimidate him. The long and the short of it is that Geller is a fraud and will sue anyone who dares to say so.
--Jim
It is a simple case of deduction. Uri Geller is psychic, so he knows what will be the outcome. He wouldn't have placed the suit if he knew he would not win.
So we can all go home now...lawyers step aside, he is obviously more than you can handle.
V
He's actually a former -- lame! -- magician. Since he was'nt skilled enough to do it the honest way, he pretended to do it by supranatural power. This way, he got fame, money, girls ... And HE'S A FRAUD. The magic community is laughing at him. The bent spoon is an ultra easy trick. You can do that really simply with shape-memory (don't know the english term for it) material.
A group of french skeptics are offering $20000 to anybody who will be able to bent THEIR spoon, which is placed inside a sealed glass tube, without opening / breaking the tube. Oddly, Uri Fraud Geller never tried to do it!!!!
It reminds me this story: a few months ago Dr. Bernard Lewinisky (Monica's father) got upset when the TV Show Law & Order: Special Victims Unit used "lewinsky" as a colloquialism for oral sex. Annoying, but probably not actionable (at least under US law; I don't know about Japan) given proof that the name is in general use as a common word.
/.
/. If the government wants us to respect the law, it should set a better example.
Uri Geller has filed suit against Sarah Michelle Gellar, alleging "a conspiracy to defraud and confuse" the public. The main thrust of Geller's suit is that the uncanny similarity between their names and their involvement in the magic field "can't be a coincidence". Attorneys for Ms. Gellar responded with the statement "It's just a TV show, stupid. I mean, it's on the WB, and who even watches that? WB stations are usually in the UHF band, anyways."
In a related development, NSI responded by immediately placing all related domain names on hold.
- -Josh Turiel
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
"Moderation is good, in theory."
-Larry Wall
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
After a few minutes he seems to have smelt a rat, and stopped. Geller's supporters claimed that he had obviously detected the cameras by psychic powers.
Paul.
You are lost in a twisty maze of little standards, all different.
people have the right to make parodies of celebrities. like it or not.
IMHO, if you create a fictional character with a very similar name, and various hallmarks that clearly identify the original person, then you have a clear-cut case of misuse of that person's name, unless they've given permission. You can't get away with saying "any resemblance of real people, living or dead, is coincidental", if there is good reason to believe that that is so much bullshit.
Now, I'm not standing up and saying "all hail the great and wonderful Gellar!". What I =AM= saying is that the law must apply to EVERYONE, EQUALLY, or it's no law at all. If Uri Gellar feels that his character has been seriously besmirched, or that Nintendo has sought to profiteer off a celebrity's image without permission or recompense then I say "go for it!".
Nobody should be allowed to covertly or overtly profit off another's name, no matter WHAT people think of that name. To profit like that is flat-out WRONG, and Nintendo deserve everything they get for it. $97 million seems odd, though. Surely a round figure would be better. $100 million sounds much more impressive.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
RUSSIA, Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading spoon bender Yuri Geller has been awarded a patent for its innovative 1-glance spoon bending method, wich allows one who uses this technique to easily bend spoons. It is rumored that Geller is going IPO. The market is waiting anxiously.
In other news, Geller is going to sue Matrix movie makers, because of that famous Matrix scene, in wich a boy teaches Neo how to bend spoons.
-"This is an obvious infingiment of my patent" -angrily said Mr. Geller.
-
Roses are #FF0000, Violets are #0000FF, find / -name '*base*' |xargs chown -R us && mv zig greatjustice
What's the matter, Mr. Geller? Bending spoons not as lucrative living as it used to be? Trying to move up to bending corporations? Really, if you don't want media attention, you shouldn't fucking bend spoons for a living. That was supposed to be the whole idea, wasn't it?
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
- The last Pokemon show has aired in Japan, bringing the total to about 160 some episodes. Warner Bros. current have the rights to about 100+ of those, and will probably get the rest as 4Kids translates them. However, there's only a limited number of episodes left; unlike certain other TV shows in the states that get run into the ground (The Simpsons, for example), the show had a story arc, and it finished it and ended.
- Pokemon have been reported as tools of the devil, etc etc, by a number of critics.
- Pokemon toys was the big hit this Christmas. There's yet to have been a single popular toy to continue dominating Christmas sales two years in a row. Anyone remember Cabbage Patch Dolls, Tamagachi, or Furbys?
- Pokemon card trading has been banned from many schools because students spent more time doing that than learning.
- A wrongful death lawsuit may be brought against Pokemon and has forced the recall of millions of pokemon toys: a toddler suffocated to death when she placed half of a Pokeball that came from Burger King over her nose and mouth, and couldn't breath.
- Pokemon, the cartoon, is overplayed way too much on WB networks: Pokemon's on about 7 to 9 times (depending on the weekend schedules) on the WB network, and so far, WB's only had 60-some episodes to rotate through. Doesn't take a math genius to see how fast it would take to get boring.
- "Pokemon the First Movie" was a practical failure in the states: sure, it got a profit for the WB as they spent nearly nothing to get it, but compared to something like Toy Story 2, it did not get a lot of return viewers as some were expecting.
- Pokemon's been spoofed by MAD and South Park.
:D.
It's not that Pokemon is bad, but it was pushed in our faces to the point where you could not ignore it, and now people are getting disgusted with the entier concept and are now fighting back."Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
First of all there is no better press than a scandal that you can legalese your way out of. If you look like the underdog being viciously prosecuted by psychos and you win, you are a hero.
Secondly, Uri should be happy he is getting all this publicity. I am an avid Pokemon television show watcher, and I loved the movie. If it weren't for Pokemon, and this story I would have no idea who Uri Geller was. Now I think he is cool b/c he is modeled after my favorite pokemon.
Don't forget that there are also pokemon called Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee that are martial arts experts.
Do you think Marcel Marceau could sue over the pokemon called Mr. Mime?
Also, Alakazam is the third evolution of the pokemon. The earlier forms are called Abra and Kadabra in English, I wonder what their Japanese names are and if they have anything to do with other con artists.
I only know about pokemon because I have a four year old!
And in related news, Uri Geller has filled an injunction against the Wachowski brothers, to prevent them from making any Matrix sequels.
Apparently, the sci-fi hit sequels were rumored to involve reviving stopped watches and taking photographs without first taking off the lens cover. Slinky Carrie Ann Moss was also to be featured wearing a skin-tight aura of bio-energy.
Actor Keanu Reeves was quoted as saying: "Whoa.."
-- What you do today will cost you a day of your life.
There is no spoon. I don't see what Geller is worried about if, in fact, there are no spoons to bend.
You should never take life too seriously - You'll never get out of it alive.
Previous results of Geller lawsuits.
Uri Gellar has a right to sue Nintendo of Japan. Everyone of the Pokémon names is trademarked (at least here in the U.S.), and the fact that the Pokémon is named Ungellar in Japanese obviously isn't coincidental. As has been previously stated, the katakana glyphs for Ri and N are strikingly similar. It can therefore be determined that Nintendo's name 'Ungellar' was a play on Uri Gellar's name. Mr. Gellar obviously would have a winning suit if not for the international complications.
Gellar cannot sue Nintendo of America - that Pokémon is called Alakazam here and a simple "He bends spoons too!" suit would not hold up in a civil court. The only way for Gellar to get money would be to sue Nintendo of Japan, and then you obviously have international trademark and copyright law coming into play with every one of the Pokémon names being trademarked (at least in the U.S.)
With all the difficulties that are inherent of an international suit, I doubt that he'll get the money, even though he probably deserves it.
printf("Why have a signature?");
Oh, I wouldn't say that. It's no worse than speed racer or any number of other cartoon shows we all watched as kids. I have a 6 year old and a three and I watch the show with them most mornings as they eat their breakfast before school and daycare. It's not all that bad. Some of the story lines are actually pretty good and while there is a lot of repitition for sure, (team rocket tries to capture pikachu almost every episode) there are also a lot of 'moral of the story' type things that I find to be of value.
I see a lot of good character traits displayed in the three principles - strength, compassion, dedication, respect for nature and living things, selflessness, good personal freindship and other things that I consider to be a positive message for my kids to watch. A lot better than a show like Dragon Ballz that is pure violence.
The thing that I do hate about this whole frachise is the endless merchandise tie-ins. A couple posters, some cards and the occasional t-shirt to go with the tv show and the video game would be allright, what kills me is the endless Burger-King promotions, 12 different varieties of plastic or stuffed dolls, the stickers, board games, bed sheets and underwear that is constantly shoved in my kids' faces.
No, I don't buy each and every one of these things for my kids, of course not. My son likes the cards, my daughter the stuffed dolls, not too much beyond that. Its the neverending 'gotta catch 'em all' mentality with 150+ of these things that kinda wears thin real fast.
To summarize:
Badly animated -- about on par with average stuff we watched growing up.
Empty, worthless crap -- not in my opinion. Not the best stuff for my kids to watch (PBS, Discovery Kids and the Learning Channel are on a *lot* in my house) but far from the worst. Fairly entertaining with positive message.
Over-hyped merchandising machine -- without a doubt.
Added bonus -- the identical female characters of Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny as a running gag in the series is actually kinda funny.
total score - 3 out of 5
I seem to remember a "Super Mario Bros." cartoon that was out about 10 years ago. It also featured Legend of Zelda shorts. There aren't any new episodes being made, but gamers are playing new releases of Mario and Zelda games. Final Fantasy games inspired several animated films. We're on FF8 right now, right?
So the TV show is over, and the toys won't be popular Christmas 2000. If the past proves predictive, we'll be looking forward to more Pokemon gaming excitement for the next 10 years-no matter if there's an anime attached or not.
When I first read this headline, I thought it said:
:-)
Uri Geller sues Natalie Portman
Only for a split-second, mind you.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
...I'd have my $97,000,000 without having to sue anyone.
--
It's October 6th. Where's W2K? Over the horizon again, eh?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
Over-hyped merchandising machine -- without a doubt.
this is the part that bothers me the most. Training kids to be good little consumers. "You'll be happy if you just have this doll...and this one...and this one, etc." I'm seriously thinking that a universal ban on advertising to children under 12 would be a grand idea, isn't it like that in some countries? Children don't have the abstract reasoning needed to see past the actors in commercials, or the need to question what they are told (especially at loud volume). In the end you get Pokemon, which is, IMHO, Japanese for "blind consumerism".
+&x
He's an old time magician using modern psi-buzzswords for his show. So what if he won't admit its just 'magic.' Its part of the illusion.
Does he so challenge you average slashdotters wordview they agree that he's an ass (which he probably is) but an ass that doesn't deserve his own day in court?
Its an obvious rip-off and the 'bad guy' here are the practices of corporation who have mastered marketing to CHILDREN. Now thats pathetic, at least Uri can make adults look slack-jawed and goofy when he takes their watch and changes it to GMT. But commercializing crap aimed towards the under 10 market is evil incarnate.
Now Pokemon's masters not satisfied with world domination start fucking around with some guy (regardless of who he is) trademark act AND name.
Boo hoo slashdotters cry, Uri is psychic he has no rights lets make fun of him cause we're all so smart and hip to the materistic worldview he challenges through a freaking stageshow.
Its infringement plain and simple. Even if he's litigation crazy he might actually be right one time. Scary I know, its called justice. Can you guys stop being prejudice for 1 minute to read about the issue?
If he was suing MS, I'm sure we'd have a gaggle of pro-MS geeks crawling out of the woodwork.
The characters in The Matrix know the real secret to bending spoons:
There Is No Spoon
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke
>If its crap, I let 'em know it by heckling and vocally abusing the rubbish
This is my tactic as well. My wife doesn't understand why I let my kids turn on shows like Cow and Chicken, Ed Edd and Eddy and Two Stupid Dogs only to sit there and constantly bitch about how bad it is. I'm trying to pass on my sense of what is good to watch and what is crap so they'll learn to distinguish for themselves. Beats just telling them 'no' and snapping off the program. That just makes them more intrigued.
When we turn on the learning channel and dad sits there and says 'wow, that's cool, huh?' they seem to pick up on it and pay more attention to the show. If my son is going to insist on flipping Johnny Bravo for 1/2 hour, I don't begrudge him that. Sometimes you do need a short amount of mindless crap to just veg out.