New Branding Policy

I just entered a signature for the first time; I wonder how long it will last?

No--they have APPLIED for a trademark on those words. The only things they have been granted trademarks on are "Second Life", "Linden Lab", and the "eye in hand" logo (all of which are registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc.). The rest of the marks are common law marks, that they are pursuing registration on.

Many of the marks will most likely be granted registration _for specific classes of goods & services_. A few are less likely to be. "Grid" for example. That's been initially rejected as "merely descriptive" by the PTO. LL may be able to overcome that rejection. Or it may not be able to. Depends on how good their lawyers are and how good the trademark office examiner is.

One other point. If anyone is already using "SL" or "Grid" as part of a mark, they always have the option of filing an opposition when (and if) those marks are published for opposition near the end of the trademark registration process.

Probably until the Sendero Luminoso finds out about it. Nasty lot, those folks.

While the rest of your post was right on the money, Bayer lost the TM to "asprin" after World War I as part of of war reparations forced on Germany in the Treaty of Versailles. It did not go generic.

I vaguely recall when FD Spark joined in 2006 the policy was no one was suppose to use the Linden Lab or Second Life name. Yet I noticed lot did.
What the difference other then new logo and reminded others of the policy about this?
Anyone? I don't get the big deal.
I get that some might see this as one sided thing especially with way DCMA system is in place.
I wish they were more interested do something to protect content makers and other trademark violations.
Few give a rats ass about artist here it seems. Not even LL it often seems.
I like to see what would happen for month if we had no textures on our clothes, skin, and outfits and everything was permanently gray
The policy I have always thought has been around for while and LL is reminded people politely in new fancy way of this again who may have or haven't been complying in first place.
I don't get why this is such a big deal.
Why is it a big thing to some people?
Someone enlighten me please.
Thanks. FD

Some people are worried they will get in trouble for typing Linden Labs instead of Linden Lab. Some people are concerned that what they thought was acceptable use of the names and brand are now going to get them in trouble.

However I believe those fears are unfounded.

If I have understood the new rules correctly, it is now discouraged to say "in Second Life". You have to say "in the Second Life world" instead.

Does this mean that Torley will have to delete or redo 98% of his video tutorials? I tend to recollect that he uses the phrase "in Second Life" quite a bit.

This part of the rules strikes me as exceedingly awkward.

I agree. I read the policy, and I really did not feel there was anything I'd have to do any different today than I did last week. Maybe if I was gonna do business as "Second Hippos Grid Development, Inc." I'd be more concerned.

From Masively.com, because I'm feelin' lazy

"Linden Lab is giving everyone 90 days to cease using SL and Second Life words and images as a part of their domain names, trademarks, business names and site imagery, except where explicitly permitted by the new rules or where licensed (such licenses unlikely to be granted)."

I fail to see "in world group" there, as well as "spoken (typed) words." I dare say we're panicking over next-to-nothing.

Mari

2L

If you search Groups using Second Life as a search term you get hundreds of them back and most were not created by LL. What will happen to those, since the group founders have no ability to change the name?

I have friends online with the surnames "Jarman" and "Alsop".

I actually know someone in RL with the surname Jarman, and someone else with the surname Alsop.

Will the RL people I know now have to change their RL names, or can they sue Linden Labs (TM) for theft?

Perhaps Hal Linden, and the residents of Linden, New Jersey can get in on the act. maybe a class action suit. Trout, you busy right now?

They're not required in ordinary in-world chat, any more than similar marks are required for any other trademarks in normal conversation, in-world or out.

You also don't have to worry about the registered trademark symbol for Second Life in the forums, because it already appears at the top of every page courtesy of Linden Lab®.

Mostly this affects web sites. (Print publications are also mentioned, but most of them were probably already complying.) It used to be that they had a fairly lenient policy for fan sites and a more stringent one for commercial sites; the new policy seems to do away with that and apply strict rules to everybody. I already changed the title of my LiveJournal (http://shirleymarquez.livejournal.com/) to comply, though I may have to go through the old posts if I'm really going to dot every I and cross every T.

Making mountains of molehills is an SL forum tradition.

OMG, Linden Lab actually wants to protect their trademarks like any sensible company would! Those bastards!!

so, are we not supposed to say the words "Linden Labs" or "Second Life" in forums and chat anymore? or is this just for "naming items" and "naming places on the internet"?

2L works for if we must now even stop saying SL.

He he, panicked hysteria is entertaining. I guess it's just the shock of the virtual hippie world becoming part of the establishment. It just seems so UnTao-ish.

Well, I thought that was the funny part about the gesture pack. Instead, everyone is taking it so damned seriously.

I take their attempt (and it's just that, an attempt) to trademark Grid, and Hippos, as a "lets see how much we can get away with" maneuver. They know it will likely fail. But gee, wouldn't it be cool (for them) if it was granted? Companies do things like this all the time, It's akin to the "Hail Mary" throw with 2 seconds left in the game. Nothing to lose, but so much to gain.

Even if they were granted trademarks on Grid, and Hippos, it would only apply if you used them in the context of a virtual world, which could be construed as possibly confusing two similar entities. You could still call your little league team the 'Hippos', and you could still still buy sheets of 'grid paper'.

Since everyone ducked my joke, I'll make a serious post.

First, I wonder if http://www.getafirstlife.com/ 's Proceed and Permitted authorization still stands?
http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/2007/01/my-project-du-jour-getafirstlifecom.html#comment-75509

Second,
The old rules allowing for fansites have disappeared into the memory hole.
The page secondlife.com/community/fansites_regs.php now redirects to The Brand Center. The word "fansite" does not appear on it.
However, the fansite toolkit I used to make SLNameWatch.com comply with the original rules is still available, here: http://static.secondlife.com/downloads/SL_fansite_toolkit_2.0.zip
It includes an Eye-In-Hand logo, for use on your own website. To me, this constitutes an ongoing authorization to use the logo at the bottom of slnamewatch.com under the terms under which it was originally authorized. But IANAL.

They just really don't like SLingo.. First the gambling ban, now this.

I thought the gesture pack was funny, too. I just don't get why this is a big deal for anyone. LL is doing what businesses do - it's protecting its trademarks. I don't see any need for anyone to curb their speech, and I would be stunned if LL tried to ban someone for chatting about "Second Life" in Second Life without using the (tm) or (r). Just don't use SL logos to sell your stuff and you're fine. Don't try to fool people into thinking you're somehow sanctioned by LL unless you are. People should have known better than to do that anyway.

Lindal stated the op was to poke fun at policy, which is how the thread started. Then the lawyers got involved....

Oh good. that's a relief, Trout.

Thanks for that, Madhu. As a former P&T secretary, I was glad to see someone step up.

Yes, it may suck to the masses, but this is a reality...they're protecting themselves and their assets, as any corporation should.

As the owner of the now moved, Second Life Freebies, I bit the bullet and created Freebies in a Virtual World at virtual-freebies.blogspot.com early this morning. Took a few minutes, I grumbled while I did it, but it's a done deal, and I'm now in compliance.

I wonder how many of the people bitching here actually own anything that's impacted by this decision.

Now that that is solved.....think I'll go see the Fury of the Sunwell which just went live today on Channel W