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MMO Fan Site Removes Character Stats Over Trademark Claim
steveb3210 writes "EQ2Wire.com is a fan site for the MMO Everquest 2. One feature of their site is a searchable portal for all game-related stats such as characters, equipment, items, and mobs which they generate from an XML feed provided by the game's publisher. Recently, the owner of a trademark has been threatening them over the name of a character and in the face of possible legal bills, they were forced to remove the character's profile from their site. Adding further insult to injury, the character seems to have been created prior to the trademark in question."
I hereby trademark "Anonymous Coward". You are all infringing by reading what I say. Pay me $10.
the character seems to have been created prior to the trademark in question
Too bad there's not some 'first copyright use trumps filing of intent-to-use trademark application" doctrine to make that relevant.
Sometimes it's hard to read the IP coverage here, really hard.
This part was amusing:
The misusage of a trademark is a crime and has serious consequence as civil case and criminal case.
Haha what? Is there really a country that has criminalized the using of someone else's trademark? Or is the guy writing these letters really as stupid as he sounds?
this company has a trademark to the name for use with game characters? trademarks are limited in scope, not all-encompassing-anything-with-the-name exclusivity. e.g. there can be a mcdonald's roofing, just like there's a mcdonald's restaurant.. but there can be only one mcdonald's restaurant... and that restaurant chain can't do a damn thing about mcdonald's roofing unless they start selling prepared food.
they have no business demanding, or even asking, for its removal. period....
I wouldn't read much into it its an uncommon last name with that exact spelling, but its not that uncommon.
Trademarks apply within the Trade field of the company that registers the trademark.
You can't do Nike sports wear. But Nike is not a gaming company. You can make a Nike game.
The appropriate response to any trademark take down request is -
a) send me a notarized copy of a trademark registration document for the trademark in question that is currently valid in the country you wish to assert your ownership.
b) explain to me how the usage in this context infringes on your trademark. In your explaination cover
i) physical locality of the usage you claim infringes and its relationship to region your trademark registration is in
ii) a detailed description of how the usage in the claimed infringement conflicts with the registered usage.
c) notice that failure to do a) b) will result in no action taken on my part. Insufficient detail and in particular legal grounding for the explanation provided in b) will result in delays and requests for more details. In particular a simple claim in b) that "they used our trademark" without any attempt at detailing domain of usage conflicts will result in the ignoring of your request as insufficiently documented.
Not sure I would seriously consider legal threats from someone who uses the word "coz" in their email.
Change the entry from Malshandir to Malshandork.
it's lame that the admin caved to the demands of one loudmouth guy with a misdirected claim.
I am publishing information provided publicly by Sony Online Entertainment.
this is the only part that matters. instead he bickers with the loudmouth and finally caves. he should have just responded with that and ignored all further correspondence.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
The trademark in question is registered to Herr Freyer, not to the (dissolved) Malshandir Ltd. So he owns it and it hasn't expired.
Malshandir is the character name. I have no idea why the summary didn't post it. Kinda a cool name. When I get home, I'm gonna create a character/profile with that name in: Youtube Diablo 3 World of Warcraft Guild Wars Guild Wars 2 XBox Live Slashdot (oh wait, I already did that one). And anywhere else I can think of. But seriously, WTF?!?
IMHO, this seems to be a variation of what Prenda Law is doing. I guarantee it won't stop until a handful of lawyer get convicted of perjury and serve some stiff sentences.
The original intent of trademarks was to prevent people from releasing products under the same corporate or product name. It was not intended to stifle free speech in order to provide corporations with a cash cow so that they can charge people for sharing information about products. Part of me would recommend standing up for yourself and refusing to take down the content since their claims are somewhat spurious. The other half of me would recommend replacing the content useful to the Everquest community with a notice that a greedy corporation has made overreaching trademark claims and the content is being taken down to prevent any beneficial side effects it might have generated for that company's intellectual property.
From TFA:
> Even if you are not in the EU all countries have agreed
> in merchant cases to accept the decision of the
> wedish handelskammer in Stockholm.
"Wedish handelskammer" would make a good name for a dwarf character.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Trademarks cover tradeable products and services, which are "are identical or 'colourfully' similar" to other products or services. It's right in the fucking name. TRADEmark.
This claim would only have merit if EQ2Wire was selling the character account, and if Malshandir (the company) also was involved in the video game account... industry.
Taxability does not imply legitimacy.
Just ask Al Capone.
Did this Elf Bard also receive a C&D? http://www.domainofheroes.com/Avatar.aspx?chaid=82177
No wonder he wants to defend his trademark: http://home.neopets.com/~Malshandir
There should be a fund to help people fight these spurious claims. Maybe it could be run by a white hat IP firm. I bet there is at least one firm out there who would jump at the chance to have a tag line like "We hate patent/trademark trolls too. Lets do it the right way". I know I would give the fund a few bucks occasionally to keep it going. Another resource would be a site with links to all these great stories about what happened to the troll. I bet most trolls would back off pretty fast when faced with the consequences of their actions. Maybe even add a few boiler plate legal looking documents to send back to the troll; fight fire with fire.
This is ridiculous. I'm changing my Control Wizard's name in Neverwinter to "Pepsi" in protest.
Another guy caves because some generic dude on the Internet sent him some baseless but threatening letters. I'll play a sad song on my tiny violin.
At least let the guy get sued before reporting it as actual news.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
This is a straight bluff, and not even very well done. If you fold to that you will lose your shirt everytime.
The guy getting these stupid emails should have just trashed them and not responded instead of wasting his time treating it like a serious concern.
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Friends don't let friends enable ecmascript.
i just hope the geek rage of /. users finds its way to him in the form of packets, pornados and all sorts of fun don't forget to say hi on mingle! :P
Just send the guy with the crooked nose to cut off a few fingers say the thumb and index finger on both hands. Tell him If I have to come back it is both arms and legs.
There are several pointers to this guy operating out of the basement of his mom's house and being a pure troll with no merit whatsoever to his claims:
Also, the numerous spelling, grammatical, and punctuation errors peppered throughout the emails are pretty hard to miss.
To the reply given in Arkell Vs. Pressdram.
I do not want your cheap brainburning drugs. They are useless for work. And I am a working man today.
That seems to be him: Datenbankexperte und Projektmanager (database expert and project manager) Thomas Freyer.