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VirtualDub Author Stymied by Trademark Troll

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the did-he-also-register-'lynch-mob'? dept.

trifish writes "The author of VirtualDub wrote on his blog that 'someone has registered "VirtualDub" as a "word mark" in Germany as of June 6, 2006 and is now sending out notices to people in that country demanding money for so much as mentioning the program and linking to the SourceForge download from their website.' Well, I confess that only now I fully understand why Linux, Mozilla, TrueCrypt, and other open source projects register their names as trademarks."

3 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. Who? by phorm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So who is it that has registered this "word mark" anyhow? The blog itself is pretty short on details, as it appears those that link to or use virtualdub have been getting the letters, and not the author himself.

    Also, one wonders if there is some legal way to charge and/or get money back from somebody who is illegally using the name of your product to extort money.

  2. Comments more interesting... by himurabattousai · · Score: 5, Interesting
    It appears that the author or VirtualDub might not be in trouble at all. According to the comments about his blog entry, the letters are worthless if they aren't from a lawyer--and sometimes even if they are. It also seems that since his program has documented existence that predates the word mark "registration," such a registration would be invalid.

    No less troubling, though, are those who can't do a damn thing in life trying to legally steal from those who actually produce something of value. I can't think of any better word to describe the actions of people who create nothing, not even ideas, and sue when someone comes up with a device that loosely resembles their mystery ideas.

    --
    "osake no hou ga, biiru yori ii" to omotteiru.
  3. Re:I thought Europe had better protections by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 3, Interesting
    ...I've often read that European laws offer their citizens greater protection than the US...
    When you compare two countries laws, there are always instances where country A is better than country B. And other instances where the opposite is true. For example, see the many European criticisms of the Patriot Act. One the other hand, I note the recent foiled plot in England, the British police used powers that are likely unconstitutional in the US. It is not hard to find similar examples. Look at the recent slashdot discussion on evolution. Many people pinged on US atitutdes, ignoring surveys in Europe showing similar atitudes My point being, neither Europe or the US has a monopoly on good laws or atitudes.