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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."

4 of 102 comments (clear)

  1. mod him down! by krell · · Score: 5, Funny

    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?
  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:Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to german internet news site "golem.de", it is "Internet Dienstleistungen Kliemen". The page is offline now (it was hosted by arcor.de and had freecity.de redirect ads in a frame, so I guess it was free hosting). The redirect page listed Michael Kliemen (webmaster@kliemen.de) as the author. The onsite contact information was: Internet Dienstleistungen Raimar Kliemen, Hauptstr. 99, 67126 Hochdorf, mail: info@kliemen.de, phone: 0151/10372291 (that's +49-151-10372291 internationally).

  4. Re:Jawohl! by MarkGriz · · Score: 5, Funny

    "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.