New Branding Policy

No.

I did think about it, though. Then I decided that it would just be spiteful and petty of me. Anyone is free to use the name "Pixel Universe" freely and without hindrance. As long as the goober who DOES trademark it lets me and my friends (i.e., everybody) continue to use it too, since I invented it and can prove it with a date-stamped post.

Just because Our Hosts can be draconian and heavy-handed doesn't mean that I have to be too.

Kleenex.

Diet Coke.

Ford.

Second Life.

SL.

Linden Lab.

Our World, Your Money.

There, I said them. Send in the feds!

If they think I'm gonna stick a little R in a circle on it every time I type those words, they got another think coming.

If they're going to get all exercised about me typing their name, I can easily just start referring to SL with some of my other names for it, which I've had for several years now: Snooty Life, Sucky Life, and Slutty Life, and S****y Life.

I don't think they mean this for us at all, though, in terms of posting things, or typing in chat. I think they mean it altogether for people using the words Second Life as part of their business names.

That CRAPOLA they wrote about, "How to properly refer to us, besides 'Your Majesties,'" notwithstanding.

coco

Maybe I'll just call them -- a cab.

Kinda ironic:

Your World™

Well said!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VERY ironic, come to think of it!

coco

One could also begin referring to "that company in Beijing that makes a virtual world platform" before too long.

I agree with you, Coco. I don't think that was their intent. But that's how they wrote their stupid policy, it's what I agreed to, and it's what I'll comply with until they provide some clarification. Notice that you agree to this as part of the TERMS OF SERVICE...that is, in order to use their product. That affects all the millions of users who DON'T have a competing product, DON'T have a website or a blog about PU. The TOS applies *to the service itself*, not to outside business practices.

Our Hosts have stepped in it again.

I am glad they are finally waking up and smelling the business, haven't we been asking for that all along? Sure, SLExchange should probably get permission to protect themselves, but it's not like it affects any of us at all. Unless you all were claiming you were with SL, or saying SL endorsed you?

Went there. Shock! Someone has preceded me! Look for (and do not find) trademark. Whew. Click link to actual Pixel Universe page. Receive the following:

"This account has been suspended.
Either the domain has been overused, or the reseller ran out of resources."

Looks like I'm not gonna get sued after all. At least not by whoever owns the "Pixel Universe" web page.

This reminds me of when the movie Tron came out... Disney launched lawsuits against several companies that had "tron" as part of their name, alleging infringement. Lawsuits against companies that had existed long before the Tron script was written...

Guys this is pretty standard brand legal speak. Every large company has the same rules. So dont sweat it unless you are using the specific words to refer to your biz, and even then most companies allow a permission process for those who have a reason to use the trademark or brand. Im glad to see SL stepping up like a "real" company. Every keeps crying about following the rules and this is one that actually makes good business sense for SL.

This reminds me of a certain someone's recent TOU notecard about his sculptie trees; what was written as his TOU wasn't what he meant, but it WAS what he decided to write/use/publish, so it's what affects anyone who buys his stuff.

OurHosts have done the same thing, if what you say is true, Jojogirl; they may mean one thing, but that one thing is NOT what they wrote with their legalese, and what they DID write is what affects all of us.

I think we should all just refer to it as "Serious Lag" from now on.

coco

I wouldn't get too bent about this. Sounds like they're just doing what every other company in the world does to protect its trademark and to avoid confusion about what's official and what's third party or fan based. For those of us that don't market SL based businesses outside of SL or run SL related websites this changes pretty much nada, but if you run a website selling sex toys called "Second Life Dildomania" or something, they'd rather not have people thinking Linden Lab is its parent company. *shrug*

Anyone want to take bets on how long it will take them to make another quick 4-in-a-row, mostly-trivial blog posts to shove this one off the list on the login screen, like they always do with unannounced/unpopular policy changes?

Folks...if you read the text of the guidelines...it is pretty boiler plate legalese. Any large company I have worked for had the exact same rules. We do not have to use registered trademark stamps to type second life when referring to second life in world in chat, im's etc. It is when it is out in the world outside SL, or within SL and refers to our own biz that it is an issue. I agree with Chip that this is standard operating procedure. Unless you are currently using the words Second Life, SL, etc to refer to or as part of your biz name or related wording...it is a non issue.

BTW you also could not call your biz Coca Cola Avatars, McDonald's Avatars, Intel Avatars, etc. without falling under the same rules. The only difference is that it seems SL is realizing that people are taking their own products and services from SL into other worlds, games and web sites....and is customary they want to protect their brand identity.

If you want to double check...go to the web site of any large company that has channel distributors or someone who might want to say they are affiliated with that company and read their trademark guidelines...you will see much of the same verbiage there...

Dont sweat the small stuff friends.

ummm.. i have a question about this...

my initials in world are SL, store is called eselle and i label my products L: Product Name (cos its shorter than eselle).
does this mean i can't label my products L: Product Name anymore?

They are preparing, to have to be prepared to answer the shock and horror, when they have a new CEO when that new CEO finds out about those grid projects people, LL has given everything too.They are not prepared.

I have the same problem with my initials, but that's why I don't use them for anything.

Yes I agree. It's just common sense. Can anyone tell me if I may use the inSL logo on in-world vendors for my products?

For Mac it's option-G ©, option-R ® and option-2 ™ (option is also known as the pair of strange crooked lines or alt key depending on what country the keyboard is for).



Good Idea.®

Could always just shorten it to something like... LiLa or SecLif Geeze have us haveing to come up with a new name or how to communicate where we are or what we are doing.

Quick... buy the domain name and trademark it.

You can go the USPTO site at http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=i1q6tb.1.1
and see at least some of the linden research entries in the USPTO listing by search for owner name and address and putting linden research in as search terms.

SL shows as being trademarked in 2007. Does prior use have any bearing on the validity of such things?

They've trademarked Hippo also. And 2ND life.

They've tradmarked the word grid. Ha ha ha. Thank you god, for not making me be a lawyer.