Yahoo Serious Fights Yahoo! trademark

fsck writes "Australian actor Yahoo Serious is fighting Internet portal Yahoo! for the trademark to the word Yahoo, registered with the Australian Trade Marks Office in August. Yahoo! was founded in 1994, whereas Yahoo Serious changed his name by deed poll in 1980. It sounds as though Mr Serious is, among other things, tired of receiving any more misdirected Yahoo! snail mail." The levels of comedy to this are astounding.

Comments

Seriously Amused

[TellarHK]

I actually wondered about this one, having seen Serious' magnum-crapus 'Young Einstein' several years ago - early nineties, IIRC. I think the important reason why he's waited this long, is that he's an Australian, and this whole thing started with the August registration in Australia of the Yahoo! brand.

I know that you supposedly can't trademark a proper name, and since Yahoo had changed his proper name -to- Yahoo ages ago, he's got a very good point. This one'll be fun to see the results of.

I love the smell of ignorance in the morning

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, slashdot. Where people are idiots. Most of the people seem to say, "I have heard of this so-called actor. Screw him. Plus the one movie of his I did watch I didn't like. So double screw him." Or, failing that, they simply mess up the difference between copyright and trademark and fail to read the story. And don't forget the horrible analogies: Duh, my name is Bob so I can sue M$ for copyright violations then.

Ok, people, here's the real scoop. This is a trademark issue. Someone pointed out the Apple computers vs Apple tours case. But failed to follow it through by paying attention to the article. Apple v Apple said that because they were disimilar services, there was no problem. In other words, I can make a shoe called the Apple, a freezer called the Apple, but not a computer called the Apple. Yahoo! wants to trademark Yahoo! in the entertainment field. Yahoo wants to keep his name in the entertainment field. If all Yahoo! wanted to do was be a computer portal, then Yahoo wouldn't have an issue.

I believe, although I could be wrong, that all actors that join the SAG must have a unique name. Which is why some actors change there name or use a middle name.

Re:Abott and Costello, forgive me.

[driftingwalrus]

Yahoo actually started life as an acronym: Yet Another Hierarchical Officious Oracle.