Imminent Mandrake Name Change?

An anonymous reader writes "Mandrakesoft has lost a trial and has been condemned to change its name and its logo" The article is in French, but it says that King Syndicates owns a trademark on Mandrake the Magician. Update MandrakeSoft can use the logo during appeals, which may take up to 3 years. You can now read their official statement on the ruling.

Comments

Mandash?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seems to be all the rage lately.

Remember Mobilix?

[ackthpt]

Mandrake gestures hypnotically and the world believes the name of a plant, claimed to have medicinal properties, belongs to a cartoon construct, which ceased to be popular in the 80's, and therefore restricts the use of the name from any other use, cartoon related or not.

Lothar: "Damn! Mandrake(c), that's as amazing as when Asterix kicked Mobilix in the ass!"

Narda: "Oh, Mandrake(c), take me now!"

Re:Remember Mobilix?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does it really matter?

A cartoon is not competing in the same field of business as an operating system. You typically own the trademark of a name (what does copyright have to do with this anyway?) for a specific field of business.

For instance, Ford would be automative-related, but they couldn't sue over the name "Ford Prefect" being used in a science-fiction book that has nothign to do with the automotive industry.

Bob

[b0bben]

Creepy stuff, hope MS doesn't make me change my name from Bob to Blob

Re:Bob

[Dogtanian]

Creepy stuff, hope MS doesn't make me change my name from Bob to Blob

I find myself in the same position- my real name is Clippy.

On the other hand, I've been considering changing it anyway- the trouble caused by my namesake is too much. You wouldn't believe what I've been getting through the post- really sick stuff. Death threats... you know, little paper clips straightened out or even snapped in half.

new name

[theMerovingian]

Man-----?

come on!

[Chuck Bucket]

this is getting ridiculous! I don't really love the name Firefox, but at least Mozilla went to the trouble of Trademarking the name before announcing and using it. this should be a wake-up call to ANYONE starting a company or software project; do your homework before settling on a name.

CB

Re:come on!

[Hittite Creosote]

do your homework before settling on a name

Uh... from my apalling understanding of French and the not much better automatic translators, I get the distinct impression this isn't another software company claiming the name. This is a cartoon strip. And it appears the owners of the copyright are claiming complete and exclusive use of the name of a plant, which has been used for centuries.

Re:come on!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, anyone starting a software project online better run trademark searches in all 200+ countries because one of them might have some little company just waiting to sue you.

While you're at it, better make sure that you check all the trademarks for all the products, in case you run into someone in some IP-backwater country who hasn't been brought into the modern age of realistic trademark protection (ie, based on product confusion). Really, who is going to confuse Mandrake the Linux Distribution with Mandrake the Magician?

Next thing you know, Linux will be forced to change its name because someone's great, great, great grandfather in Lubineria trademarked "linux" as a brand of horseshoe and there trademarks never expire.

Re:come on!

[automaticlarynx]

Bringing up Mozilla is interesting. It's a great error that Mandrake can lose a lawsuit over naming themselves after a plant because of a totally unrelated cartoon character that nobody cares about anymore which just happens to be named after the same plant, but Mozilla is powerless to do anything about the computer application "Popzilla" which is clearly trying to capitalize on Mozilla's success by creating confusion in the marketplace.

Re:come on!

[The Evil Couch]

I claim prior art!

I made that sound over a toilet once after drinking too much goldschalger.

Re:come on!

[_xeno_]

Except that Mandrake Linux is a rather blatant rip-off of the Mandrake the Magician cartoon.

Look at their current logo. (The topic icon.) Notice the little "magic" star and spark thingy. Notice a theme? Magic, maybe?

Take a look at their old logo. Compare with this image of Mandrake the Magician. Notice any similarities? Other than the penguin, it's basically the same thing - including the cape and wand! Although Mandrake the Magician doesn't have a big ugly star, and the cape is blue and not red.

It seems quite clear that Mandrake Linux intended to rip off Mandrake the Magician's look and name. It seems very clear to me that Mandrake Linux is in the wrong and will need to change their name. It's obvious they knew about Mandrake the Magician - they copied him for their original logo!

Mandragora?

[sczimme]

How about 'mandragora' as a replacement for 'mandrake'? According to dictionary.com, mandragora is the Old English version of mandrake. A Google search for "Mandragora the Magician" returned no hits, so it should be safe.

My human translation

[RobertB-DC]

Here's my attempt, from several years of long-ago High School French class. No fish were involved in this translation.

Mandrake will have to change its name

Mandrake, French writers of its self-titled Linux distrubtion, has been ordered by the Paris TGI to pay 70,000 Euros to the American companies, Hearst Holdings and King Feature Syndicate, owners of the trademark "Mandrake the Magician", and writers of the [bande dessinee] of the same name. The American companies filed suit in France for "trademark infringement". Now, the court has forbidden the use of the name in French, and is pressuring Mandrake to transfer its domain names to the two American companies. It's an order that could be a fatal blow to the French writers, for whom the foundation of their business rests entirely on their eponymous Linux distribution.

For now, Mandrake has appealed, which suspends the judgement and, for the moment, preserves its trademark and domain names.

Remember that a previous judgement on Mandrake's logo was ruled in favor of the two American companies. The French subsidiary had already had to rework its artwork.

Re:Google translation

[nomadic]

And here's the same passage translated by google from French to German to English to Italian to English:

Mandrake must for the change of name of Mandrake, is the French publisher of the distribution of Linux of eponyme pouring itself condemned from the TGI from Paris, 70.000? in the societies Hearst Americans to obtain the thing and owner of the king Fearture Syndicate of the indication "Mandrake magicien" and Herausgeberin of the pulled volume of the same name. These the posterior one had transported the claim in France for "the indication exclusion". Especially the court pribisce to the use of the relative name to the French and presses Mandrake that transfers the relati to you names of zone towards the two societies Americans. A judgment, in a position to transporting a mortal blow them to the French publisher, the relative good will on the relative distribution of eponyme is only based. For the l?heure Mandrake it has made the appointment, that it suspends the judgment and that therefore the relative indication maintains and relative to the zone names. Memories to on qu?un that the judgment preceding - that interests the brand - determines for the two societies Americans. The French has already had to still examine the relative copy.

M&rake

[NotQuiteReal]

M&rake is much better than inserting dashes, and you can still pronounce it the same way!

Other suggestions: Find someone with a surname of Houdini to endorse the project...

Interesting

[DoubleD]

Dictionary.com definition

mandrake ( P ) Pronunciation Key (mndrk)
n.

1. A southern European plant (Mandragora officinarum) having greenish-yellow flowers and a branched root. This plant was once believed to have magical powers because its root resembles the human body.
   
2. The root of this plant, which contains the poisonous alkaloid hyoscyamine. Also called mandragora.
   

Granted I know nothing of copyright law in France: but wouldn't this case also be related to that old decision between Apple Computer and Apple Record Company? Two separate buisinesses could both hold the same trademark in different arenas. Also it involves trademarking a common word such as the current lawsuit between Microsoft and Lindows.

All in all it seems like a pretty stupid decision by the Court.

Re:We are steadily reaching the clear conclusion

[ackthpt]

The primary enemy of Linux at this point is not SCO. It is cartoon characters. Hey, you know, now that I think about it, Elmer Fudd did always wear a red hat...

That's nothing. Imagine the mixed feelings some of us would have if this guy and Washington Post Writers Group sued Linux distros and Linus over the penguin. Or the estate of Charles M. Schulz sued over the name 'Linus' and confusion with 'Linux'. Yeah, SCO is going down, but these cartoon characters are represent a serious threat.

"Where's the Kaboom? There's supposed to be an earthshattering Kaboom!"

Re:Thanks, 'Fish

[tfoudray]

Here's a link to a site (in english) with a very very brief overview of the issue and images of the 3 different mandrakes: Mandrake issued cease and desist

no, Manfox

[eegad]

Although, I should warn you, I just patented the procedure of resolving copyright issues by changing the suffix of a product to "fox".

Re:Domain names only?

[tomhudson]

poster wrote:

Based on a reading of the article, maybe Mandrake is only going to have to transfer domain name(s)

guess my french is better than yours:

Pour l'heure, Mandrake a fait appel, suspendant le jugement et preservant ainsi sa marque et ses noms de domaines.

means:

For now, Mandrake has appealed, suspending the judgement and preserving both its' mark and domain names.

So, no, they won't have to give up their domain names just yet... :-)

Ok, explain this to me...

[Lispy]

There is a company named Microsoft, wich is perfectly fine for me, producing a whole range of straight named apps such as
- Windows
- Outlook
- Word
- Explorer
- and so on...

but if you pick an uncommon, creative name such as Phoenix, Mandrake, or Lindows (yeah, it's not original but it's more of a brandname than a plain word as Windows) you get sued all over the place. What is wrong here? Maybe one should simply name products the easy way:
- Desk (a GUI)
- Play (a Musicplayer for Linux)
- Surf (A Webbrowser)
- Paint (A graphical....DuH!)

cu,
Lispy