Slashdot Mirror
LucasFilm Sues Jedi Mind Over 'Jedi'
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently the force is strong with LucasFilm's legal department, as they've sued the company Jedi Mind for trademark infringement and breach of contract, among other things. While LucasFilm doesn't actually own a trademark on 'Jedi,' it claims that its related marks are close enough, and that Jedi Mind had agreed last year to phase out the use of 'Jedi' in its name and product names."
He's using Lucas' neologism to specifically call attention to the similarities between his products and the abilities of the characters that the neologism belongs to. Is there any way in which this is not a textbook correct application of trademarks?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
There is no trial.
Further, trademarks are use-them-or-lose-them: if they don't defend it from "Jedi Mind", then they'll lose the ability to stop OfficialJediJailbailSlutsInYourZipCode.com from appropriating it too.
I'm sure "Jedi Mind's" products are really neat, but if so, they can survive on their own merits, with their own original name, rather than piggybacking on Lucas' creation. Trademarks are not patents, and you don't break Wheaton's Law by having and defending them.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
I am guessing this what George felt when he typed Jedi and into Google and Star Wars or George Lucas we're not the first results to come up! Then he summoned all the power of the force ( herein known as George's legal team ) ( He tried to rally the Sand People as they are always willing to fight , but they said they couldn't help due to being written out of the last 5 of George's movies ) to help battle back against those that would rebel against the good of the force ( also known as George's profit margin ) But you can't blame the guy...it has been a great cash cow and one hell of a legacy he left behind from that first movie in the sci fi genre
These are not the trademarks you are looking for.
There is no Jedi.
The Jedi is a lie.
"Kill 'em all and let Root sort 'em out"
How did they alter anything? I'm pretty sure the same basic trademark law was in effect all the way back to Episode 4.
And it's no different from any other trademark. Just as you don't just use Apple's trademarks to sell, say, "iPod tyres" (pun on the iPod wheel, see?), or Nintendo's to sell a "Wii exercise machine" (that actually doesn't connect to a Wii), or Kraft Foods' trademark to sell something like "Cadbury chocolate flavoured condoms", or IBM's to sell something like "PowerPC dildo deluxe", you don't get to use Lucas's trademark to sell your gimmick input controller either. It's that simple.
And Lucas even invented the word. It's not as if I trademarked Pencil and started suing pencil makers. There is pretty much no way to accidentally name your product Jedi, you know, totally without trying to piggyback on Lucas's mindshare.
Honestly, it looks to me like textbook application of trademark law, as it was intended to work all along. You know, since the Trade Mark Registration Act of 1875 in the UK. Unless you want to tell me that Lucas invented a time machine to alter _that_ one, I seriously don't see how they altered any situation.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
I can understand Lucas wanting the name changed and enforcing it through the courts. But why the 5 million in damages (I suspect little damage) , is it really necessary to potentially put a small business that makes products targeted at the disabled out of business?
George Lucas reputedly loves all those fan films and Lego Star Wars characters. At the same time, the Lucas companies must sue trademark infringers now and then if they want to retain their trademarks.
But, as I learned some years ago while defusing a DMCA complaint against a SourceForge project that had some Lucas IP in it, if you *ask Lucasfilm politely* for permission to use their trademarks, they'll probably give it to you -- and probably won't want any money if you're a small-timer.
It takes something of an imbecile to not realize that Lucas would go after him after using the word Jedi. Anyone who would use the word in that context knows exactly that they are referencing the Jedi depicted in Star Wars movies, books, comic books, video games, cartoons, TV series and probably breakfast cereals. (* Silly Sith! Mind tricks are for Jedis! *) There are plenty of other words he could have used that would have been just as good or even better. And when I went to the company's site, I saw a video that depicted a computer input system that, while seemingly impressive, cannot possibly do exactly what it says it does. Tracking head movement? Yeah, I'm down with that. Tracking eye movement and blinking? Pretty damned cool. "Think left, Think right?" I'm more than a little skeptical on that notion. Sounds like the early days of voice recognition 20 years ago and we STILL don't have that right.
I usually side with the other guy on various issues when it comes to Darth Lucas, but in this case, no... not at all. The only thing that protected Foutch from the full wrath of Darth Lucas was the fact that this is a product for the disabled. Imagine the stink over claims like "hey, George Lucas hates disabled people!"
Foutch is a huckster and a scam artist in my opinion. Everything about what I have seen so far just spells it out to me.
They were perfectly happy to let him carry on his business under another name. Only one of his products ("Jedi Mouse") even has the mark on it. The burden to his business would've been negligible. How is that stifling?
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
An idea thousands of years old, of wisdom and courage, co-opted and copyrighted by some 70's film as theirs.
Build your own energy sources from scratch. http://otherpower.com/
And that matters... why? I'd see a point in that if there was indeed a frivolous exercise in who has the most money. But when that juggernaut legal department is actually in the right, and applying the law as it was intended all along, and the little guy opposing them is in the wrong and had acted in bad faith, then why does it matter that they're a juggernaut legal department? If you're right, you're right, and that's that. Being right and rich doesn't make one less right.
Exactly what is the fear factor here? That, god forbid, someone might do that "grinding into submission" to defend a legal right as they had it, and were using as intended?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The original post confuses trademark law.
Under common law, all you have to do get trademark rights is to use a particular mark, although whether you can actually prevent any one else from using the mark depends on a lot of factors, e.g., your mark should be distinctive and you should be the first to use it for a particular type of product.
In addition to any common law rights, you can also get a federal trademark registration, which gives you the right to use the circle R symbol (note that it is against the law to use the circle R symbol unless you have a federal registration). Having a federal registration gives you some advantages over a common law trademark: (1) you get a presumption that you use the mark nationwide (as opposed to a particular geographic region), and (2) you can sue in federal court if someone infringes your trademark.
Even if you have a federal registration, you only have rights to a mark if you actually use it. If you get a federal registration on a mark, but stop using it, then that mark becomes available for someone else to use.
Trademark law is very different from patent/copyright law and serves a much clearer purpose -- people need to know the real source of the products they buy.
Does every external link from slashdot HAVE to be to wikipedia?
Nope.
Try this one.
http://goat.cc/