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EU Court Blocks Brazilian Company From Trademarking Sound Of a Ringing Phone (arstechnica.co.uk)
The standard ringing from an alarm clock or a telephone is too boring and banal to be registered as a trademark within the EU, a top court has ruled. The judgment was handed down by the EU General Court (EGC), blocking a Brazilian company that had tried to claim ownership of the sound, Ars Technica reports. From its story: In 2014, the Brazilian mass media company Grupo Globo applied to register the globally familiar "ring-ring" sound "for the dissemination of information electronically, orally, or by means of television" -- guarding its use on all electronic devices and in media representations. The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) at the time refused to register the jingle on the grounds that it had "no distinctive character," and that it was "a banal and commonplace ringtone which would generally go unnoticed and would not be remembered by the consumer." Globo -- the biggest media company in Latin America -- appealed EUIPO's decision at the EU General Court, which has today ruled that the sound is indeed too boring to register.
Sounds like someone read the comments on here where people are forever saying they just patented and you owe them money, and said "Hey! Good idea!"
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
It's still more interesting than the latest Apple Conference
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Story too boring to read!
Usually this is the type of situation where the decision is made to allow the "trademark" to go through.
Nice to see that somewhere on this planet there's a judge that understands how to reasonably apply the law when it comes to patents and copyrights.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I find the term "Latin America" offensive. We don't even speak Latin here. I'm off to my Safe Space!
Boring, Banal, and NOT THEIRS TO TRADEMARK.
It reminds me of the Kraftwerk claim, someone used a repeated snare drum copied from one of their tracks, and they persued him for 19 years for copyright infringement. Eventually their claim was thrown out.
They are a synthesizer band, they didn't make that drum sound, their synth did, if anyone owns that sound it would be Roland or Yamaha, not Kraftwerk. Yet they pursued and pursued it, all the way up through appeals court till they were finally told to f** off.
Here the same, a company thought it could trademark two shrill 'G' tones if only they tried and tried long enough to wear down the system, (a la 'one click' ordering).
It's an utter shame that the courts have to waste any time even looking at these matters and there should be repercussions or filing such a blatantly false request. The only way to stop companies doing this is in the wallet or going after the executives that would earn from this. Shamefully America is a lot worse in this area.
Well, there goes the entirety of Justin Bieber's work.
Have gnu, will travel.
In 2014, the Brazilian mass media company Grupo Drumpfo applied to register the globally familiar "ring-ring" sound "for the dissemination of information electronically, orally, or by means of television" -- guarding its use on all electronic devices and in media representations. The Drumpfean Union Intellectual Property Office (DUIPO) at the time refused to register the drumpf on the grounds that it had "no distinctive character," and that it was "a banal and commonplace drumpftone which would generally go unnoticed and would not be remembered by the consumer." Drumpfo -- the biggest media company in Latin America -- appealed DUIPO's decision at the DU General Court, which has today ruled that the drumpf is indeed too boring to register.
the TPPA will over ride this
This is the sound piece in question >> It's called "plim plim" in Brazil. It's a household sound.
I patent using the letter E on networked systems.
That will be $0.002 per use GIVE ME YOUR MONEY!!
Scrw you, buddy!
Is that copyrighted too? Seriously, though, why did it need to get to the court level? Why didn't the copyright flunkies say, "Sorry, prior art. Tough noogies."?
What about I Got You, Babe at 6AM over and over?
tem que cuidar a saída do colégio porque a filha da xuxa vai fazer festinha e video pro xvideos.
The name changes, but the corporate lobbyist trade agreement is the same. US Corporations attempt to drive Corporate Sovereignty as a trade requirement is called TTIP in the EU. The Transatlantic trade and Investment partnership.
He has a point too, big corps like Globo could go to the TTIP court (which is a secret body of corporate lawyers), who would decide if denying an IP right on claims of "Banality" interferes with Globo's corporate trade rights, and if the corporate lawyers decide it does, then EU would be required to change its laws with no appeal possible.
Globo would be able to do it through their US subsidiary. Leveraging the US-EU treaty, even without a direct Brazil - EU treaty.
EU Corporations could do the same from their US subsidiary, to overturn their local EU laws, and US companies could do it from their EU subsidiaries to overturn US laws.
So if you get a US law you don't like and you're a multi-national, you can go to the secret tribunal of corporate lawyers and get it overturned, regardless of Congress, Senate. EU Parliament, President, democracy, judicial and legal principles.....
Money paid to congress critters and governments push these treaties. It's pure corruption. A big grab for power.
Brazilian here.
Since it's Globo we're talking about, i doubt it's a generic "ring ring" that they're trying to trademark. Globo has a characteristic jingle sound that they've been using for decades and that goes along with all their trademarks, commercials and other stuff. It sounds (and is described as) a "plim plim" and it's hard to hear that sound here in Brazil and not associate it with the their TV channel. You can hear it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
My bet is that this is what they're trying to trademark.
You copy of the topic had 5 "E" in it + the 3 in the replay area that will be 0.014.
Best to strike while the iron is hot.
Well no, TTIP is on hold, as such. USA wouldn't shift on the demand of a body that could change national laws, i.e. Corporate Sovereignty.
@"That is the whole point of TTIP: equal playing field for all, with a court to enforce it". *NO* the whole problem with TTIP is that it doesn't issue penalties for breaches of trade, IT'S DECISIONS ARE LEGALLY BINDING AND TRUMP NATIONAL LAW. i.e. it can rewrite national & EU laws, and can demand courts enforce its choices on those laws over the governments and lesser courts rulings on law.
That big sticking point, means its off the table for now. The proposal from the Germans for a pseudo court with judges would NOT have made a difference. It's still a body that can change laws, as opposed to a body that issues fines and penalties for breaches of trade agreements. i.e. a body within the democracy as opposed to a body above the democracy.
So what will happen is the US has all this surveillance data on the EU politicians and will leak and lobby and shape the political people in power till they can get their treaty. And Americans should be worried to because it's a straight corporate takeover, it can be used right back at them. All the nasty shit corporations want to do, they can make it legal. This is how the ECJ kicks out the US Privacy Safe Harbour, and the EU Commission negotiates and identical "Privacy Shield" agreement which is exactly the same thing: shielding US corporations from liability under EU law, something the EU Commission has no legal right to waive.
There is a lack of trust in the people who run the EU, because of their unelected, revolving door nature (Barosso the latest to use that door to personal wealth).
CETA is the current attack vector (a very similar Canadian treaty, which corps will simply leverage via their Canadian subsidiary), but even if that's blocked they'll try again.
what if they use it to lower the drinking age and or casino age?
Brazilian here. This is what they tried to trademark (The last sound in the video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
In Brazil, This is known as the "plim-plim". They have been using the sound for many (30+) years. I don't see how this can be compared to the sound of a ringing phone.
My cellphone ringtone is a ring tone.
Ask any brazilian and they tell you that is Globo's "plim-plim" (thats how we call it). I don't know where the phone related claim comes from, i only know it from TV, not ringtones...
Here it is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
It is decades old (since the 70s) and marks when the commercial breaks start and end. Thats how they used to signal to all regional re-transmitters when to switch to/from commercials. It is a very recognizable branding of Globo TV.
"She stated, in particular, that that mark consisted of a simple and banal ringing sound and that it could not be perceived as an indicator of the commercial origin of the goods. The examiner therefore requested that the applicant submit its observations to her within a period of two months."
Like i said, that is wrong, just because you don't know it doesn't mean it is not their branding...
This is also why Christmas carols are not trademarked.... They're too boring.
Having "no distinctive character," and being "banal and commonplace" could fit for most of that too. somehow I think there's more to it than that or else tv shows would be public domain
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
but later retracted the trademark application. http://articles.latimes.com/20...
Nice to see that somewhere on this planet there's a judge that understands how to reasonably apply the law when it comes to patents and copyrights.
Agreed. Good job judge.
A copyright on the sound is just fine, which they all acknowledge. An audio recording deserves full protection under copyright law.
But as a trademark, to say "the sound of a telephone is our distinctive mark", that is too broad. Trademarks need to be distinctive.
As their name implies they are distinctive marks indicating the creator or distributor of goods, they are brand indicators. The generic bell ringing is not a distinctive brand by itself. They could trademark a series of tones for your brand (like the NBC chimes) or a jingle or theme (like the Batman theme or the McDonald's "I'm Lovin It"), but not a simple ringing bell sound.
//TODO: Think of witty sig statement
This is the sound piece in question >> It's called "plim plim" in Brazil.
And that sounds very close to one of the alternative chimes available on PalmOS devices by Palm Inc. (was it the "SciFi" chime ? I'm not sure anymore),
available at least since the early 2000s (on my Palm IIIc back then).
Probably other PDAs have use a similar chime even earlier (could some e.g. Psion / EPOC user confirm ?)
Though trademark law doesn't have a concept of "prior art", it does have something similar to "defend or lose it".
Currently this sound isn't distinctly associated with their branding (at least outisde of Brazil. Maybe there this "plim-plim" is immediately associated with the brand and is never heard anywhere else). It's not a jingle that is specific to grupo globo, it's something that has been heard around countless times.
It's completely generic and the EU is completely right at laughing them out of the court.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
Once again Europe has prevailed against a barbaric, inferior nation! Nothing will stand between the EU and the legitimate ruling over the whole world! HAIL EUROPE!
Here you can see and hear how this sound effect evolved since 1971 on Brazilian television:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL0sl1rAk-Q
I can understand that it sounds pretty much generic for anyone who has not lived in Brazil. But here it is a classic icon that can be instantly recognized by absolutely any person.