Taser International Sues Second Life Creator Over Virtual Replicas 119
Massively is reporting on a lawsuit filed by Taser International against Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, over in-game sales of virtual replicas of Taser's products. Quoting:
"Basically, a few people in Second Life make some digital replicas of Taser's products that do not have the same function as Taser's products, or props that have the Taser name, but do not have any functions or resemblance similar to Taser products. Some of these content creators also manufacture/sell material that Taser describes as pornographic, or offensive, and they feel that their brand is being linked with these prurient materials, and that they're losing business and sales to Linden Lab. ... Normally you'd just have the content creators named as defendants. Taser's complaint doesn't show much (if any) understanding of what's going on, but it does seem as if they have inadvertently hit a nail on the head. Since Linden Lab's acquisition of Xstreet SL, the Lab is no longer mediating transactions between buyers and sellers. Xstreet SL arguably retails on behalf of sellers, and takes a commission. It's going to be difficult to argue that the Lab/Xstreet SL is not selling these items. That potentially places the Lab in the liability loop."
Re:I think it pertinent (Score:5, Informative)
The company itself became famous on slashdot and the internet for attempting to [azcentral.com] influence coroners' reports to suppress theories [slashdot.org] that their products killed people [wikipedia.org]
Link to the book were they got the name and idea (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Trademark Scope (Score:1, Informative)
If I make a new gun mod for Quake, call the gun McDanks and put a small McDonalds logo on the side because it shoots lard balls instead of Rockets in not was has anything to do with Trademark. Here's why (in laymen terms):
You can call a new product by another companies old product name, so long as there wouldn't be any confusion. For instance, you cannot call your new clothing line by the same name I've given my clothes brand. But you /can/ call your new ice cream the same as my clothing brand -- there is no product recognition confusion possible.
Trademarks are NOT about property (e.g., patents and copyright), but merely to mitigate a circus of companies riding the backs of their competitors successful product names.
To conclude, LL has nothing to worry about... and if the judge decides they do: then he will be rewriting trademark laws (something that hasn't been touched in decades).
Re:It's about protecting trademarks & brand id (Score:2, Informative)
Here is the thing: It is more akin to youtube than the classifieds
If someone on youtube uses trademark or copyright materials, youtube as a corporate entity knows nothing about it because they do not vet or veto any content uploads.
They have no hand in the content creation at all (unlike say There where everything has to go through corporate governance)
So till the corporation brings it to LL/SLX's attention they can't act because they know nothing about it (a good example was during the superbowl there was a ton of NFL related merchandise put up on SLX, but was taken down swiftly both there as soon as the NFL contacted SLX with the links to the content.)
The links on SLX include report item button, for just such issues.
It is not LL or SLX that has to look out for the infringement, it is the legal team of the corporation that holds said rights.
Re:second life? (Score:2, Informative)
well it's in the ToS for SL and SLX
Plus it's not LL/SLX's job to look for possible infringement, that is the burden that rests on the owners of said rights.
There is a button on every SLX item that allows them to be reported for infringement, like when a ton of NFL content showed up (and you think Taser is evil... you ain't seen nothing compared to the NFL's trademark lawyers... and yet all they did was report it and get it removed.)