Tag Archives: trademark

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Copyright Silliness Killed A Game Re-Release | Techdirt

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150227/14420330165/no-copyright-lives-forever-how-apathy-ip-rights-holders-about-their-copyrights-killed-game-re-release.shtml

If you were gaming on a PC just after the turn of millennium, you likely fondly remember the classic game No One Lives Forever. A genre turning first-person shooter that featured a strong, reasonably dressed female hero and a setting inspired by 1960’s spy films was received incredibly well by both critics and fans. And, because retro PC gaming continues to have a strong following, any of you that know what we’re talking about here are probably thinking you’d like to fire up a copy of No One Lives Forever on your updated machine and give it another go. Well, you can’t. You should be able to, but you can’t. And you have a complicated web of copyright and trademark rights-holders to thank for it.

Warner Bros. are not behaving sanely or decently in this matter. I reckon it’s pretty likely that they’d own the copyright, if they took over the IP from the companies they acquired (which is likely since that’s why such companies get bought).

The trademark is easy, if they weren’t using it it could be cancelled, or if a new company applies for it, they have no case for opposing it. Which is why the new application was granted. Unfortunately copyright doesn’t work the same way…

Lesson: companies should not let their lawyers run their businesses. You get “legally correct” decisions that make absolutely no business sense.
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Fluke Yellow Trademark | SparkFun Electronics

https://www.sparkfun.com/news/1428

US company SparkFun is forced to incinerate 2,000 multimeters because they are yellow. They were intercepted by the US department of homeland security (keeping the world safe from illegal multi meters! 😉 on the basis of a US International Trade Commission Exclusion Order. But this is all terribly wrong. The original trademark text of the Fluke trademark filing:

Indication of Colors claimed: Color is not claimed as a feature of the mark.

Description of Mark: The mark consists of the colors dark gray and yellow as applied to the goods. […]

Well that’s nothing if not confusing, but I’d reckon that in a legal sense, the first sentence is rather relevant: colour is not claimed as a feature of the mark.

There is another factor, which is that multi meters have existed for many decades of course, first analog (70s/80s) and later digital (90s, possibly earlier) – particularly the digital ones have actually always tended to be yellow, regardless of brand. It’s just one of those things. So at least an all-yellow case far predates the Fluke trademark.

So what it comes down to in this case is that Fluke’s trademark is awkwardly phrased and was accepted anyhow. Then a trade commission ruled on something specific, and thus customs (hum no, wrong – dept of homeland security – but why them and not customs!?) now gets to enforce it all. Possibly to Fluke’s benefit, but it doesn’t aid the market as a whole so it’s detrimental to all consumers and many companies. It’s not any individual’s “fault” as such, but rather a series of mishaps that culminate into silly – and now it’s costing SparkFun. Quite likely there are many other instances currently happening because of this. Very sad.