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VirtualDub Author Stymied by Trademark Troll
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."
It'll never be too soon to apply the slashdot moderation system to the patent system and everything else.
Where were you when the voynix came?
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.
Yeah, sue me. Oh, only in Germany though. Bigtime. Today Germany, tomorrow.....Belgium!
Wasn't there just a big issue with people suing for copyright/trademark infringement when they only own the IP to do so? I was pretty sure that some kind of law was recently passed because of the new fad of beating companies to trademarks and then taking all their money.
Blerg.
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.
All he has to do is rename it to "V-Dub in da Houze"
shouldn't we link to VirtualDub, Sourceforge and its download links a few thousand times?
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
You are free to do so. With the twisted German jurisdiction, not you are to be held responsible, but the owner of the webpage you have been mentioning V********b, as he should/ought/could have prevented the mentioning on his page.
There actually *is* a reason why Germans are required to have a imprint on their pages (Don't believe me? Look for "6 Teledienstgesetz").
Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
You can't sue someone for using your trademark in a publication, as long as the trademark actually referrs to your product, there is no problem.
Why do you think review sites are allowed to bash Sony / Microsoft / FooBrand products without fear of retribution?
The point of a trademark is not to keep people from talking about your product, it is to keep another company from pretending to be your product.
...MS Products are usually somewhere between Offtopic and Funny?
Hmm... kinda correct, if you think about it...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
"I'm going to start using the word "VirtualDub" as often as I can"
Be sure to use it as a verb, that really pisses off trademark holders.
IANAL, so how do I know? I googled it and sure enough, trademark owners hate that.
Google it yourself and see.
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
> He should quickly trademark in the USA as that will override that trademark especially
> since the author can provide proof of creation and originally naming it.
Sorry, but everything you wrote is utter nonsense. The filing date and geographical jurisdiction are what counts. You can "override" it only in USA (not in Germany), and only if the holder of the German trademark does not oppose your US registration.
That's good fun, but you should try Googling "Google". When you Google "Google", all the Googles you get back aren't googles but GOOGLES! What's more, I suspect that if Google Googled Google, there'd be a GAGGLE of Googles Googled (and what's more Google than Google Google Google? Google? google...)
This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
So this IS South Korea?
Windows is like decaf - it tastes like the real thing, but it won't get you through the day.
Even assuming this person was being truthful, the only case they would have is agsinst the makers of VirtualDub, not the people who are talking about VirtualDub.
This is not patent law, where the user is the infringer - it is trademark law.
> "Well, I confess that only now I fully understand why Linux, Mozilla, TrueCrypt, and other open source projects register their names as trademarks"
In the case of Linux(tm), it's precisely because back in the mid-nineties, someone named William Della Croce, Jr. tried to hijack the mark and extort money from various vendors and publishers. It took a year, and a bunch of money, to get the matter resolved and the trademark reassigned to Linus.
It was an ugly and sordid affair, and I really wish there were better alternatives than either registering a mark or allowing it to be attacked by trolls. Prior use of a mark--even an unregistered mark--does (or should) count against trolls, at least in the US, but it can still be a hassle to fight them off if the mark's not registered. Personally, I would like to see the term "Linux" become a generic term (like "Aspirin"), but I can understand why Linus is reluctant to allow that to happen after the Dell Croce incident.
Didn't the same thing happen to OpenOffice.org group, forcing them to adopt the silly '.org' to their name? IIRC the trademark "Open Office" was bought by a Brazilian company at the behest of Microsoft.
:)
How would virtualdub.org sound?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
The registrant would need to be sued, not the the trademark and patent office.
Example: http://lexetius.com/2002,3142
Hey don't blame me, IANAB