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George Lucas Wields Light Saber
sarchasm writes: "Apparently George Lucas is suing
medical intsrument company Minrad for calling some of its new laser-based surgical devices Light Sabers. According to the suit: "Any deficiencies or faults in the quality of the defendant's goods are likely to reflect negatively upon, tarnish and seriously
injure the reputation which Lucasfilm has established for goods and services marketed under its Light Saber mark. This confusion is likely to result in loss of revenues to Lucasfilm and damage to its reputation."" I know that I myself have on occasion confused surgical cutting implements and little-plastic-flashlights-with-plastic-cones. If you go into surgery, and the surgeon has one of these, he's made the same mistake, and you'd better let him know!
Lucas SuckS!!! HE is such a greedy asshole!! Just look at star wars episode I. Okay he goes on and says it won't be on DVD till parts 2 and 3 are done. And adds some crap about DVD tech not being good enough quality for his movies. So it is only available on VHS(yea good quality here), so we all go and buy the video tape of it, even if it doesn't match the quality of our DVD players. Now a couple years later, it is being released on DVD. Now all of us VHS buying DVD owners will probably buy it on DVD. Talk about being able to generate some revenue at our expence. Now he is worried about medical instruments tainting his name!! Too late Lucas you did that yourself!!! Ass..
Minrad's trademark on Light Saber (they have a live, valid trademark too) is for "G & S: Surgical instruments, namely syringes, trokars, biopsy needles, drills and cannulas adapted to be guided by an energy beam targeting and directing system".
On the other hand, Lucas Licensing's trademark on Light Saber is for "G & S: TOY SWORD".
This is merely a free publicity grab, and it worked.
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What makes this instrument a "sabre", as opposed to a knife, scalpel, sword, rapier, epee, scimitar, dagger, cutlass or stiletto? Do you really think they chose "sabre" at random from the list of dozens of synonyms? It's pretty obvious to me it was chosen because of the well known Star Wars light sabre.
Two years ago, in this Slashdot article, light sabres were being recalled because of faults, which caused minor burns and eye irritation.
Just watch out for Professor G's version, it's not quite appropriate for eye surgery.
Curiousity having gotten the better of me I hopped on Google and tracked down the hero's name: David Starr, Space Ranger, known from the second book of the series on as Lucky Starr. (Corny, yes, but they were written around 1952)
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Of course, software that you as much fight with as use is nothing like being *really* disabled.
Although, speaking of being disabled, who would want to be operated on by a doctor using a saber? "Doctor Guillotine, I see you've switched to a smaller, more maneuverable blade."
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
If he doesn't defend against this, it can mean that his ENTIRE CLAIM on "light saber" is lost.
And wouldn't it be a tragedy, if he didn't have the exclusive rights to put these two common English words together to describe a science fiction concept that was invented years before he ever made Star Wars?
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Except if there's a serious design flaw with them, and 500 people die in surgery because of the "Light Saber Fiasco of 2001," then people might think of rotting corpses when they hear the words "Light Saber" rather than thinking of Luke and Vader.
This would make it harder for Lucas to move toys off shelves, costing him cash. C'mon.
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There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
So it's bad to call a device that can be used for saving lives a Light Saber, but it's OK to call a huge military-industrial boondoggle Star Wars?
And regardless of your opinion of a super-tech missile defense system, you've got to admit that it's been presented by the mainstream press exactly as I described it.
"Any deficiencies or faults in the quality of the defendant's goods are likely to reflect negatively upon, tarnish and seriously injure the reputation which Lucasfilm has established for goods and services marketed..."
And this is from the company that brought us Jar Jar Binks and Howard the Duck...
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
His Lawyers: That's right *show* your anger George: oh. Ok. Luke: nooooooooooo.....
The next site to slashdot will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and start slashdotting it early!
I, unlike most of you, happen to be a Master Certifiied Jedi Knight (MCJK). If I went into surgery, which is of course not likely do to my incredible pain tolerance and fighting abilities, one of these 'light sabres' wouldn't just cut me, it would make me dissappear.
Therefore I fully support all action that George takes against these people, but please George, don't get too full of yourself.
Trademarks, unlike copyrights, must be defended vigorously or they are lost.
If he doesn't defend against this, it can mean that his ENTIRE CLAIM on "light saber" is lost. Some other company can then make duplicates of the toys and call them the same thing.
The wording used "loss of revenue" and "tarnish the reputation" is standard Trademark-Suit boilerplate and comes from the legal requirements to sue over this sort of thing.
It is silly, but that is the way trademark law works.
--
Charles E. Hill
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
I agree. And if these things turn out to suck bigtime (eg. accidentally slice clean through someone's abdomen), and people associate the term "light saber" with "highly dangerous medical instrument and associated cover-up scandal", it's not the plastic toys' image which may be tarnished, but the movies themselves, past and future.
(Although, I think he did a pretty good job of tarnishing them himself with that last stinker...)
--
Patrick Doyle
I mod down every jackass who puts his moderation policy in his sig. Oh, wait a sec....
Well I vowed never to see another Star Wars movie in the late '80s, when I found out that Reagan was going to use Star Wars to blow up the whole world, especially the little babies! How could George Lucas be responsible for making something to blow up little babies? He is a very bad man, and Lucasfilm's reputation and profits should be damaged because I think that he is responsible for everything that Ronald Reagan did!
But I do want a light-saber surgical laser. Think what you could do with those and some Lego Mindstorms!
if ($it != $onething) {$it = $another;}
I'm unable to find any information at the Lucas Films Ltd. website, at the Minrad website, or anywhere else..
They're gonna rename it The Butthead-Director Scalpel.
It's true that trademarks usually are restricted to one domain of goods and services, but sufficiently strong trademarks can gain protection across trademark domains. For example, if a surgical tools company called its new tool "LEGO", don't you think the LEGO Group would have a right to sue?
Nope, I don't think that they should have a right to sue in that case, because it's the same thing. AIM is a strong trademark, given the installed base. Does that mean AOL should have the right to sue the Aim Recording Company, or Automated Information Management, or American Image Marketing? No. The AIM trademark, just like the LEGO trademark and the "light saber" trademark, is for a specific category. It prevents Apple Computer from harassing every orchard owner in the US (apart from basic common sense, which we all know is severely lacking in most of corporate America).
Oh, and by the way, Lego Irrigation is the name of a company that makes irrigation systems valves and nozzles and such. For one example.
-Todd
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"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
Lucas has 1 trademark for the term "light saber", number 1126220. It's stated very carefully that it is a toy sword, and it is categorized under toys and recreation. He also has another trademark application, serial number 76072226, filed in June of 2000, for the "lightsaber" with the same categorization.
Minrad has one trademark application for the term "light saber", filed in April of 2000. It's categorized under medical equipment. Not anything remotely connected to toys.
This is why the trademark system has categories, and why two people can own the same trademark in different categories. Yeah, Lucas made the term popular. But unless some other toymaker uses the term, he shouldn't have a leg to stand on in a trademark dispute.
-Todd
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"The details of my life are quite inconsequential..."
Unbelievable. You'd think Lucasfilm would be honored that the words 'Light Saber' have infultrated so deeply into pop culture
Reminds me of the '77 Denver Broncos, famous for their "Orange Crush" defense. The soft drink became an unofficial mascot for the team, and fans bought a ton of it... people drank more crush at games than beer. That was, until PepsiCo sued the team for trademark defamation. Idiots.
Ok, this comes up in every single copyright related post, but I will reiterate it. If copyright/trademark holders allow anyone to use their copyrighted/trademarked IP, even once, without giving permission in advance, anyone else is free to use it under the law. In other words, if Lucas doesn't sue these guys, anyone else can manufacture anything he wants to and call it a lightsaber.
Or Laser Saber?
-- I wonder which will go down in history as the bigger failure: the War on Drugs or the War on Filesharing
Laser scalpels? Hells, I'd buy them if you called them laser scalpels... how many SF universes have "laser scalpels?"
Star Trek does, right? Or am I delusional (it's been too long since voyager ended, sniff)?
-jPS. I have often envisioned a laser-based facial razor, with a low-power scanning beam to detect your facial topography and a higher-powered beam to slice off the hair. I know that's totally impossible, but the name "Laser Razor" would be so much fun to market....
Karma: T-rexcellent.
Yes, it is a stupid name. They ought to call it the "Light Scalpel(tm)" or the "Light Knife(tm)" or something like that. I think the implied link to Star Wars' lightsabers would still be clear enough, but nobody would have to sue anybody, and it would sound a lot more appropriate in the ears of surgeons and patients.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Realizing that they called them "light sabers" and not "something else" sabers is why George is going after them but a search on google would keep George in court for a while. I realize that many of these sites have disclaimers and alter the names of their sabers so as to avoid the lawyers from Sith,Sith and Sith. Still I wouldn't mind having one of these
Yes, and had the medicos simply asked Lucas for permission, things might have been different. Maybe not. Lucas has been traditionally very very open to people using his trademarks for noncommerical things; take a look at the Troops video, or Park Wars, or the Dude videos, and so on.
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
Nope, I don't think that they should have a right to sue in that case, because it's the same thing. AIM is a strong trademark, given the installed base. Does that mean AOL should have the right to sue the Aim Recording Company
No. AIM isn't that strong. Such strengths are generally reserved for trademarks such as AMERICA ONLINE®, WARNER BROS.®, NINTENDO®, POKEMON®, MICROSOFT®, DISNEY®, STAR WARS®, and other marks along those lines where use of a trademark by a company in a related field would be considered endorsement of the new business by the existing TM owner. For example, Israel's Supreme Court overturned a registration for "BAKARDI" brand jeans because it was too similar to BACARDI® brand liquor. The Republic of China, based on the island Taiwan, also has a law about famous trademarks. And here's some information about the Federal Trademark Dilution Act of 1995, which sets guidelines for protection of famous trademarks in the U.S.
But remember Tetrisgate? The Tetris Company was found not to have a copyright or patent on the game of falling tetraminoes but merely a trademark on TETRIS®; the cloners simply changed the names of their games, all of which had been clean-room from the start. Nevertheless, the findings didn't stop a quality control consulting firm based out of Edmonton, Alberta, from calling itself Tetris Management Group. Guess the TETRIS trademark isn't that strong in Canada.
Government-granted monopolies[?] are easiest to deal with when problems are solved before they escalate; that's why trademark law (unlike US copyright and patent law) requires TM owners to react in a speedy manner, that is, either license or sue would-be infringers.
Oh, and by the way, according to Lego^H^H^H^H Elgo Irrigation's web site, there was a recent name change.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Maybe it's just me, but this practice of trademarking an obvious description of a product is a bit much.
.) Had the trademark been for "Golden Crunchies", then fair enough; that isn't a description of the product, and is not likely to be used in common speech. If George wanted to "protect" the (fictional) light saber as a trademark, he should have called them "Luxoloppers(TM)" or something non-obvious.
How much innovation went into the creating the term "light saber"? About as much as "cornflake" I'd say, which thankfully has been dismissed as a trademark (though perhaps not for the right reasons
Next Microsoft will be claiming that "innovation" is their trademark...
If a trademark looses its validity when the term becomes "diluted" or a commonly used word to describe something, does that mean that the "Coke" trademark has lost its validity because people also frequently use the word to describe cocaine? Or is it only if people use the term "Coke" to describe a cola beverage. (which many do by the way).
Just a thought...
Microsoft has ruined the word Windows because of the quality of their products they release. So shouldn't the window industry be able to sue MS now? Sure they are completely unrelated, but so are toys and surgical instruments.
Outdoor digital photography, mostly in New Engl
2001-07-27 00:53:54 Star Wars vs. a medical tool (science,patents) (rejected)
Edward Burr
Edward Burr
Having a smoking section in a restaurant is like having a peeing section in a swimming pool.
Does anyone know if Lucas sued to stop the use of the term "Star Wars" to refer to the missile defense program? Even if it wasn't an official name, he could have tried to stop newspapers from calling it that in the same way Rollerblade writes tons of letters (or used to) to publications asking them to please use the phrase "in-line skates". Well, did he?
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I'd rather be lucky than good.
Ahh. Pinheads with an IQ hovering near room temperature would indeed have trouble distinguishing the two. That's why all of us must give up our rights to freely use these important terms in ways other than their creators (or at least first-to-the-trademark-office-holders) intend, because we might distress and mislead the imbeciles of the world. And who knows what might happen to the U.S. economy if George Lucas couldn't sell another fucking movie ticket!!!!
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
if a doctor operating on me used one of these light sabres and screwed up, i'd never see another star wars movie again! but as long as they're called something else, I'll have no problem with star wars..
er, wait a second..
when the rain comes, they run and hide their heads. they might as well be dead.
Services? Exactly what light saber services is Lucasfilm marketing?
I smell an innovative business model.
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Give me liberty or give me something of equal or lesser value from your glossy 32-page catalog.
Well it's more than just that. As someone else pointed out if Lucas did _not_ defend the trademark than that would give _anyone_ the legal right to abuse it.
Trademark law (as I understand it) says that you have to defend it yourself and you can't pick and choose if and when you defend it.
So if Lucas did not defend it this time then the next time if Lucas decided to defend it he would have a very poor case because he let this one slide.
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Garett
Apologies to the [majority of?] Ford F-150 buyers who DID buy an F-150 as a penis prostheic.
Imagine you're about to go in for major surgery and someone tells you the doctor's going to be using something called a light-saber. The mental image I get is of a guy standing about five feet away from me wielding a large white-hot laser sword, poking the tip around inside my chest. Is that really the image they want to project?
If these things take off, maybe they should make a new rule that you're not a true surgeon until you've constructed your own lightsaber.
Of all the countries in the world, the U.S. has the highest percentage of lawyers.
Bush's education improvements were
Aparently LucasFilm isn't making enough money on 30 year old franchize, they have to go and sue a medical equipment maker for using the name 'Light Saber'.
Unbelievable. You'd think Lucasfilm would be honored that the words 'Light Saber' have infultrated so deeply into pop culture that a manufacturer of a completely serious preoduct would choose to refer to their product line using the mane of a ficticious weapon that appeared in several movies 30 years ago (and one more recently, but that interupts the flow of my rant on this subject).
Pathetic. I'm vary disappointed in LucasFilm for pursuing this issue at all. From a purely financial perspective, LucasFilm's Light Sabers are marketed to an entirely different demographic who would most likely be unaware of the existance of the medical instruments of the same name. LikewiseThe medical instrument manufacturer is is no way attempting to steal customers from LucasFilm by using the name, and if they were, I'd be truly frightened. I can see it now
Billy: I just got a Light Saber. It makes these neat noises and lights up, and only takes two AA batteries.
Joey: My daddy bought me a light saber too but mine has to be plugged into the wall bacause it's more powerful. It can cut through bone like butter. Wanna see?
Truly Frightning.
--CTH
--Got Lists? | Top 95 Star Wars Line
Heh, I'd love to have seen this...especially since Lucas has got to be pushing 300lbs these days. ;)
Matters size so much? So sure are you, mmm?
Only in America...
while (!tripple_multi_biljoneer) {
recount();
whine();
sue();
if (lost_court_proceeding)
lock(trademark, long_time);
}
All generalizations are false
Does this mean that if the device fails to hack off patients' limbs when it is wielded that it is deficient and will hurt the reputation of Lucasfilm?
This is typical Lucas Arts stuff. I recall watching a Dateline show or something about how the company has an entire department (rather large with 200 employees), of which is dedicated to trademark management of the Star Wars franchise. It turns out that the main profits in fact don't come from the original, unique work for which the trademark stands and is protected. Instead, it comes from lunch boxes, promotional contests, games fees, etc. This company actually has marketed its trademarks to a product level.
I would suspect the boys at Lucas Arts troll all kinds of media looking for suspect violations, or in their case, future customers.
"I'll just chip in a bit for RedHat: I actually have that installed on my university machine." - Linus, '95
Does Lucas want to the name just in case they really make a light saber?
Click here or here.
The report quoted states that Minrad applied for the trademark. Another slashdotter checked the PTO site to find the Minrad application and the Lucas trademark grants.
But no, the sensationalist coverage in Yahoo has to be definitive, even though as you yourself quote it as saying:
when it asked permission from the government to call its new group of tools Light Sabers
This is the US, not the USSR, you don't ask permission from the government to name your product, you ask permission to stop other people using your name
Do you really think the court records of a district court are bogus? I don't believe you
You gibber on about checking facts and then on the basis of an idiot reporting in Yahoo claim that your equally dim witted opinion is backed by court records you have not read. You are not by any chance a relative of Jeffrey Archer? Somehow you don't seem to be practising what you preach.
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
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So all the weenies who are gibbering on about how evil Lucas is for defending his trademark have to ask why Minrad should have exclusive trademark rights to the name 'Light Sabre'.
The trademark categories are not definitive, an application in one category does not foreclose a dilution claim in another category. In this case I think Lucas's lawyers have very good case. Minrad want to trade on the name recognition that Lucas has created. If they want to do that presumably the greedy bastard lawyers at Lucas will be happy to license the light sabre trademark to the greedy bastards running Minrad.
Lucas is almost certainly not directing this as a personal vendetta. His trademark lawyers are simply doing their job.
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The scene: A surgeon, having being hastly called to the operaing theatre finds before him a hulking great mass.
The surgeon prepares himself for action; he is about to open the patient's guts. Cowled, hooded and cloaked, he looks a strange sight. Slowly but surely though, he activates his lightsaber and makes a long incision along the length of abdomen.
The stench of the the air released by the innards once exposed to the air is nauseating. The surgeon staggers visiblyh, unprepared for such a olefactory assault.
Surgeon: And I thought they smelled bad on the outside.
(Apologies to George Lucas, Harrison Ford and Star Wars fans everywhere. No tauntons were harmed in the narration of this story.)
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
...Lucas was weilding a lightsaber (Lightsaber and all variations are copyright LucasFilm LTD. All Rights reserved) in a fake "battle" with Star Wars Stunt Coordinator Nick Gillard in a pirate-like manner during the "Star Wars Connections" part of ComicCon.
D =1 1561
;)
Full report here (plaintext link for the goat paranoid):
http://cgi.theforce.net/theforce/tfn.cgi?storyI
Heh, I'd love to have seen this...especially since Lucas has got to be pushing 300lbs these days.
"Any deficiencies or faults in the quality of the defendant's goods are likely to reflect negatively upon, tarnish and seriously injure the reputation which Lucasfilm has established for goods and services marketed under its Light Saber mark. This confusion is likely to result in loss of revenues to Lucasfilm and damage to its reputation." That seems to describe Phantom Menace perfectly.
Oh, by the way, George Lucas is a total asshole. Sorry to let you guys know. Although, I'm sure Slashdot will be one of the first to tell the coming of Star Wars II.
Perhaps /. should modify links to things like printer friendly format so that we dont end up enforcing pop-under ads like the x10 camera or the credit card thingy that pops under the original link.
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
After all, I think we can all agree that the reason this company is calling it's product the "Light Saber" is because Lucas already popularized the term. They're riding the marketing and name-recognition "coattails" of lucasarts' Light Saber in order to promote and increase name recognition for their own product. It may seem petty, but lucasarts does have the right to defend a trademark they have invested millions of dollars in.
USA Intellectual Property Laws: 5 monkeys, 1 hour.
I'm the stranger...posting to
Weren't there a few cheesy science-fiction movies that pre-dated Star Wars that used light sabers? I can't quite recall which, but I recall light saber duels where they were more pencil thin... something along the lines of Stella Star Crash?
I believe Star Wars was 1977 and Star Crash was 1979, but I have a nagging memory I can't bring out into the open about one or more films predating Star Wars that used light sabers. (Parenthetically, I wonder when the script/story Copyright dates on both were, and if Star Crash had a light saber in the initial story or was it total rip off of Star Wars [which would make sense if you saw Star Crash]).
Can anyone old enough to qualify as Bantha fodder refresh my memory? Thanks.
p.s. I miss those Ray Harryhausen movies I saw when I was growing up. You were probably looking at Caroline Munro and forgot the rest of the movie.
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