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Litigation Against The Mobilix Mobile Unix Website
powerset writes: "Mobilix has just posted a news item describing a legal challenge from the holder of the 'Asterix' and 'Obelix' trademarks. Despite widespread use of the '-ix' suffix as documented in the note, a quarter million dollars in damages and prison time are being threatened, and the note also mentions a possible connection to the SuSE case."
oh, right, i get it. underdog OS's for non-mainstream technology which have common names undercut the obsolete Belgian cartooning market. yes, of course. . . heck, why don't we just scrap all that is Unix; a good idea and it was panning out for quite a while and all, but gosh darn it, look how unfair it is!
Final Fantasy IX will be next!
Les Editions Albert Rene here is their e-mail address: <info@asterix.tm.fr>
I see a solution in the litigation text: mobilix.tm.fr would be a good address for the French edition house. Everyone wants ".com" (".org"), what a world.
In other news, Simpsons creator Matt Groening announced plans to sue all Bartenders, margerine manufacturers, and Grampas.
Free Java games for your phone: Tontie, Sokoban
time for the battle royale! lets get ready to rumble...!
Remember, there were no nuclear weapons before women were allowed to vote.
This is fucking ridiculix!
Mobilix sounds like a legit software organization, and "Asterix and Obelix" are cartoon-like characters in both comic strips and movies.
How could the consumer either a) confuse the labels or b) associate one with the other upon the slightest amount of information?
Mobilix isn't going to start selling Mobilix dolls or Mobilix action figures, neither are they going to be producing full length features - likewise, Asterix isn't going to suddenly claim Unix market share or Obelix become the biggest distro since Debian.
Seems like the most ludicrous attempt at legal action against an internet organization or company yet.
My mouth is hanging open in astonishment. This is too stupid to be true.
I mean what can you say? I've never heard of such gall (pun intended).
Someone is actually trying to claim a trademark on a suffix. Whoops! I can't use that word, it has an "-ix" in it!
Are the Europeans trying to be more ridicuously litigious than the Americans?
I hope that there are sanctions in Europe for frivolous lawsuits.
evanchik.net
What I don't understand is how can they argue trademark infrigement, when there are no characters by the name of mobilix in the Asterix and Obelix books list of characters.
This just sounds to me like an attempt to bully small organizations into submission.
This is quoted from an interview with Albert Uderzo ( one of the creators of Asterix and Obelix ):
"For us, like for most French people, what we know of the Gauls begins with Vercingetorix. The 'RIX' at the end of his name means 'king' and is 'REX' in Latin and 'RIX' in Celtic. Not all Gaulish names end with 'IX', but we thought it would be fun to remind people of Vercingetorix. And it was also easier for us to have the Romans with names ending in 'US' and the Gauls with names in 'IX'
After that we used a similar formula for foreigners - using 'OS' or 'IS' for Greeks. We always enjoyed coming up with names from expressions and puns. This made it a very difficult job for our translators, because they had to create their own names so they would be funny in their language."
If you don't know much about Asterix and Obelix, it is a comic book about a gaulish (french) village that resists the assault of the roman empire. It was originally written by Rene Goscinny and drawn by Albert Uderzo. Sadly, Rene Goscinny passed away November 5, 1977.
After that point, Albert Uderzo has become the principal writer and he no longer draws the comics.
It is my opinion that ever since, the quality of the comic has decreased
My suspicion is that this lawsuit is one last feeble attempt by Uderzo to make more money. See the following quote of the same interview:
"Together with three friends, we had created a small publishing company, that was just managing to get by. We didn't make much money, but we sure had a lot of fun."
Notice that he mentions financial issues twice in a row, which in my opinion expresses his biggest worry.
I also find it interesting that in the entire official Asterix and Obelix web site there is not one single mention of Rene Goscinny, other than on the copyright line at the page footer, and that he refers to Rene Goscinny as one of his "...three friends,..." What are they hiding???.
Does anyone have access to the lawsuit documents? I am very interested in reading why they think they deserve to win this lawsuit.
Ix simply gives them justification. Europeans refer to their handheld phones as "mobile", as opposed to "cell". Any site with mobile in the name is bound to have some contention, no matter how frivolous.
that went by the name of Mobilix here in Denmark but who changed their name to Orange about a year ago. In fact, maybe this was why they changed their name. Don't believe all the bullshit about them just wanting to use the same name all over the world!
;)
er, or something like that
If Asterix
Had Mobilix
Just think of
All the benefix!
'Course if Obelix
Had Mobilix
All the tech-support-nix
Would be pulling
Out their battle-ix...
[pause]
(Sotto voce) - That's the plural of battle-axe...
[/pause]
...And removing his appendix!
This shows what a morally bankrupt, litigious society Americans live in. The underlying cause is the fact that they have no sense of history. And most of them are fat and obnoxious, too.
What? This is happening in Europe? Oh, oh, excusez moi.
include $sig;
1;
Frank Herbert. The planet IX in Dune. The Technology planet.
Funny.
âoeWho knew something as harmless as willful ignorance could end up having real consequences?â
...The Haagen-Dazs versus Fruzen-Gladze case? (I may have spelled both names wrong) In it a court ruled sensibly that Haagen-Dazs's trademark did NOT cover all possible made-up vaugely scandanavian-sounding names.
This case is on the same level.