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Netflix Sued By 'Choose Your Own Adventure' Publishers Over Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (polygon.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Polygon: Netflix's first interactive movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch makes no bones about its Choose Your Own Adventure inspiration, and that's reportedly caught the eye of the series' original publisher. Chooseco, a publishing company specializing in children's books, is suing Netflix for infringing on the company's "Choose Your Own Adventure" trademark. According to the official complaint, Netflix has been in negotiations with Chooseco over a license for the series since 2016, but Chooseco says Netflix never actually gained permission to use it. After the release of Black Mirror: Bandersnatch late last month, Chooseco has filed a complaint against Netflix for $25 million in damages, as the company says that Netflix's new movie benefits from association with the Choose Your Own Adventure series, without the company ever receiving the trademark. Chooseco says it sent a cease-and-desist request to Netflix at least once over the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark in the past. Netflix has declined to comment on the complaint.
...the only sane choice is "not to play".
Quantity > quality over there lately. If my daughter still didn't watch the occasional cartoon, I would have cancelled it this year.
I thought for sure that CYOA was generic as hell by this point. Everyone calls every story ever made in this format by that trademark.
Hmm, should I turn to page 93 to side with the plaintiff, or page 134 to side with the defendant....
I never thought that choose your own adventure books were actually related to this episode in any way other than an idea. I didn't once associate Chooseco with this Netflix - Black Mirror episode.
Even if I had associated them, is it an issue to come up with a story that has something to do with the writers childhood? Are we not supposed to write about the action figures we used to play with too?
--
Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened - Dr. Seuss
"as the company says that Netflix's new movie benefits from association with the Choose Your Own Adventure series" - Who buys that? Nobody.
Granted, Netflix should not have used the actual PHRASE! That was dumb. The phrase itself is the only aspect of this they actually own.
If they won't license it to you, just steal it and then settle out of court.
And they haven't gone after every Visual Novel ever written?
I haven't bothered to watch the film since it didn't really interest me. But trademark claims have very specially limits, and unless they brand was somehow using that trademark specially then I think Chooseco is S.O.L. You might as well try to trademark a genre of music.
Did silent steel get sued back in day?
Wrong path.
Not even authors of the CYOA series could use that specific phrase and acronym. Thus silly lines like adventures of you, your choice, make it your own, and on and on.
Take a look at history.
The descendants of Arthur Conan Doyle are suing the producers of Murder She Wrote, Colombo, Monk, The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Agatha Christie for trademark violation.
"You benefited from our work trademarked work, Sherlock Holmes!"
IINAL, but it would seem to me if Netflix is using the CYOA statement as a descriptive term, and not implying their show is a CYOPA product they may be able to claim fair use. You can use trademarks in such as a way if they are descriptive and do not imply endorsement or cause confusion. If I read the complaint correctly the issue is a line in the show. t's pretty clear that Netflix makes movies, not children's adventure books, so an actor saying "This is like the CYOA book XXX" as par tof a scene isn't likely to cause confusion.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
The only case they'd have is if "Choose Your Own Adventure" is in the description or perhaps a search tag. But "CYOA" has been used to describe a variety of games without any issue, and there have been plenty of FMV games in the pasty.
Add to that they aren't in the same genre (books vs TV show). Plus, there is no market confusion and no potential for lost sales. (If anything, CYOA books might gain sales from this.)
So I don't know what kind of damages they can expect.
There's got to be a limit to how stupid the US's Copyright and Trademark system can be, come on!
This is yet another instance where I think they try to extend things too far. The "Choose Your Own Adventure" book series was aimed at kids, for starters. I used to be a big fan of those books as a kid, and tried to check them out at my local library whenever they had another one I hadn't read yet. But they certainly weren't "adult content" material. It seems odd to try to associate what they were doing with a Black Mirror episode that's clearly a lot more mature in nature. And all of that's before even asking if the idea of having multiple endings to follow in a book means you own the concept of doing an interactive TV show or movie with multiple outcomes?
The biggest problem, as someone else commented, by simply be Netflix using the "Choose your own adventure" wording to describe it.
Stephan out right describes the Bandersnatch book to his father as a CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE book. Also I believe in several discussions with various members of the computer game publisher.
I bet you didn't even get the "happy" ending nor capture the KCS tones from the tape to get the QR code that sends you to the the download to play Nohzdyve on your ZX-81 emulator, you filthy casual.
You probably didn't even draw a map. You disgust me.
I doubt Netflix ever needed a trademark in the first place. Unless Netflix branded its show as being by "Choose Your Own Adventure" then there is no brand confusion or fraud occurring and trademark law doesn't apply. From what I'm reading it doesn't appear that Netflix branded it in any way with the trademark nor attempted to cause confusion in any way. Being described in news stories or saying something was inspired by does not lead the public to be confused about ownership/authorship/brand/etc for which trademark was created to protect.
Trademarks are for branding in written content, not spoken. The phrase, "choose your own adventure" is not trademarked because that is impossible. Even with subtitles they would have to be trying to confuse the customers with something that is similar to it's trademark, the words alone are not enough.
Coca-Cola would have a better chance of suing Pepsi for saying "it's like Coke but tastes better" in one of their commercials.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
I was wondering when this was going to happen. IMHO, Bandersnatch really sucked much like the Choose Your Own Adventure book series. I remember reading them when I was a kid and wondering what the hell was so great about them.
Can a company patent a person's right to choose their own adventure in the consumption of entertainment? At what point does a "choose your own adventure" become a role playing game? Why don't they own the rights to those?
Depends on how it was framed. If they used it in marketing materials they *may* be in trouble. If a director, or producer, or Netflix exec said it in an interview, they are probably safe.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
But why did they call it bandersnatch? Does it relate in any way to eponymous creates from Jinx?
Chooseco can lick my great white asshole.
...the adventure chooses you!
Anyone can claim a trademark. After using it a while, they can apply for registration. They will learn that some things qualify and some don't and some are indeterminate. A name like Xerox was easy to qualify because it was an invented word and nobody else had claimed it.
Even if you can register a TM, it may be challenged in court on various grounds. Suppose you claimed Lunch Time as a TM. It is far more likely than Xerox to have been used already and it is a risky choice. Someone might argue that Lunch Time is a common phrase undeserving of a trademark.
Failure to continuously use your TM can forfeit your rights. Failure to defend it in the face of others' using the same mark can forfeit your rights. IP law is complicated and not always rational and may have changed since I glanced at it in 1975.
...omphaloskepsis often...
For Chooseco to:
1. Turn to page 30 to make a lot of money.
2. Turn to page 666 to die a horrible astonishingly painful death.
Choose their adventure!
If the series (I haven't watched it) used the phrase "choose your own adventure" to quickly get across the concept of a story where the audience determines the progression of the plot, that actually sounds like a pretty good argument that the trademarked term has become genericized, and grounds for rescinding the trademark.
New phone, doesnt work. Doesn't work on Chromecast either. I should sue for them failing to deliver content that I'm paying for. You want me to upgrade my brand new oneplus device to watch this movie? No, I'll just pirate it; thanks.
Maybe the judge will have some fun with this.
If the plaintiff wishes to proceed with the facepalm of the year lawsuit, turn to page 47.
If the anything-to-make-a-quick-buck plaintiff wishes to wisely drop this complete waste of my time, turn to page 93.
That was stupid and amateurish.
Really? Isn't there such a thing as fair use. IIRC all they said was something to the effect of "it's a game like the choose your own adventure books" which I had actually never heard of before (it was Fighting Fantasy when I was a kid) so I actually thought they had just made up the name for the show to avoid upsetting Fighting Fantasy which is ironic given that, thanks to Chooseco, Netflix is now fighting fantasy.
Duhh. In those books you never get trapped in a loop, such as the movie. Chooseco Winning this case could hurt much more than just Netflix, since three decision history telling is a common ancient gamification algorithm.
kewl story bra
They only have a trademark, its only a name. Bandersnatch is a different name.
"Choose your own adventure" are attempting to steal something they don't own.... a generic right to "choose your own adventure" style books, which existed long before they did.
Netflix owe nothing for use a name they didn't use.
I mean saying that now gives anyone who hasn't heard of CYOA books the possibility to wonder what they are, look them up, and either go read them themselves, or go buy them for their kids.
Honestly seems less like intended infringement and more like a free plug intended to help grease the wheels.
Having said that, I remember reading something back when books were still a popular medium indicating the CYOA publishers were a bit of a dick back then. I guess they haven't improved in the intervening 10-20 years.
Furthermore, where do people think interactive fiction games came from? Same principle, just page numbers got replaced with pointers or gotos to the next data structure.
A Valley company is unethical. Shocking! They aren't suing for nearly enough.