New Branding Policy

This is the one I am unclear about:

No Use in Your Branding. Do not use any Linden Lab brand name in your product or service name, your business or organization name, or your second-level domain name except as specifically allowed in our License To Use SL™ or inSL™. A "second-level domain name" is the part of a domain name that commonly refers to the organization or entity that registered it. Use our brand names with referential phrases like "for," "for use with," "compatible with," "in," or "available in." For example, you may say in plain text on your website that your software is "for use in the Second Life® world."

If I have a blog at lunettes-second-life.blogspot.com, is it a "second-level domain name" that violates ToS? Madhu? (I want to visit your cafe, by the way. Could you drop a landmark on me when you get a chance? Thx.)

This is obviously to prevent you from making money with their name. Nothing more.

When i found sl, i thought i had found this awesome place where i could really be free. Which is so much different than the crazy money obsessed, opressive environment that most of the world lives in. Reading the change to the tos, i realized that the ideas and buraucracy of the real world is creeping in more and more. Not really by the actions, but by the tone and implied intent of the blog. The same facist karma that pervades our real lives was all over that blog. Telling us what we can and cannot say. Of course they know most of it is untracable, and unenforcable. Its sad too that most of the people this will hurt are the systems that everyday residents have created to help newbies and sl. LL has done such a poor job in so many areas, which i accept, cause in a good environment, we can do it ourselves. In most cases, resident created helping tools, like websites, are way better than trying to fing info on secondlife.com. The whole attitube of the change is quite insulting too. This is not like any game or other virtual world. We the residents, are the reason sl got this big, mostly. If all the creative people didnt create all the diversity in sl. It would still be a small insignificant world. In many cases LL has not been able to keep up with our growth, which hurts us more. It is sad that officially they dont give us the reconigtion that we should get. Their main job is to keep the grid stabilized, and give us the services that they advertise. Lets see, grid is constantly unstable, search engine is a joke (even tho we pay for it), bugs and issues ply up day after day with few fixes if any. Has any1 seen the Issue tracker? There are a tons of them and most are 4 months old and have never been touched. Its more of a place to see what is not getting done than what is getting done. Well i guess i hade better go remake 20 secondlife movies, that i had put secondlife(as a location) in the credits.

Secondlife is a place. SL and all other terms referring to secondlife are talking about a place or people of that place. Yes it is also a game and many other things. But to say that u cannot use the term as a place freely and however you want is obsurd. I understand that no1 would wants their brand in names that are not approved of, but this is not how that state it. How they word is like if you lived in California and the government went and arrest you for writing about it, cause they made some law that u cant do that. The whole thing basically implies this. If they tried ban some1 for doing this, they would have major trouble in the courts. It would be different if sl was just a product.

In that example, "lunettes-second-life" is a third level domain name. The new TOS explicitly states you can't use it in a second level domain name (can't have LunettesSecondLife.com), but doesn't explicitly prohibit third level domain names. I can think of a lot of third level domain name usages out there, so this ought to be interesting.

Bad argument. Both "coca" and "cola" were and are generic terms. Coke is as well. However, in combination and as marks used in a particular type of commerce (making and selling fizzy drinks) they are distinct and well-protected, even outside of a distinct logo. Second Life is a comparably good registered service mark for running a virtual world; "Grid" alone may run into difficulty, considering how often it's been used to describe a software network (all the way back to describing the national electrical network).

If you want to claim that people have always said they "live online" or something, let's talk defensibility of generic terms used to slap up a trademark or service mark in an obviously related market. "International Business Machines Corporation" is a good starting point...

The way it was explained to me, yes, this is a problem, but lunettes-availableinsl.blogspot.com would be ok.

There is a way to migrate from one blogspot blog address to another, so don't go deleting the one you have until you move it!

See here, for assistance: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=41438

I'm pretty sure that's just a second level

This is really a confusing one for me. The organization that registered the domain name? Is it Lunette or blogspot? It's a blogspot address. It's Lunette's account name there. What would be a good example of a third level domain name?

Lunette - I think the bottom line is that if there is no commercial use for your blog, iow if you are just keeping an online diary of sorts for you and your friends, then there isn't much LL can do to make you stop, although, if they get really po'ed, they could canel your account. I doubt they would go to the extreme of shutting down individual bloggers who aren't using LL logos to make a profit.

Godwinned at last. Thank god.

Well if you still think "aspirin" is a trademark around the world (it is in some places, not others), and aren't aware that Xerox goes after people for using xerox as a verb and tries to educate people to NOT use it as a verb, maybe you need to do a little more reading.

That's a 3rd-level doman name usage...but, although they aren't clear, I don't think they want "second life" anywhere in the domain name. But if you make no money, they'll probably never find you, and probably not care even if they do. lunettes-sl.blogspot.com would probably be better.

That doesn't seem necessary, unless you plan on selling them for HUGE $. Though in future movies might be safer to say at least once somewhere in them "Second Life®, a virtual world". if you're really paranoid, how about just tack a little disclaimer footage onto the end or the beginning that references "Second Life®, a virtual world" and says "Second Life, SL, and inSL are trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. This film is not affiliated with or sponsored by Linden Research."

>But to say that u cannot use the term as a place freely and however you want is obsurd.

You can use it in conversation. They're not going to go after people using it in a message board post. But in advertising, titling/naming, & branding, they want to protect their brand identity.

The NAZI(R) party has filed a trademark request on Godwined(TM)

lunettes-second-life.blogspot.com is a third level domain name.

blogspot.com is a second level domain name.

.com is a top-level domain name.

The importance of second-level domain names is that, if you use a second-level domain in commerce, a trademark owner can actually try to take it from you without filing suit, based on the strength of their mark.

Trivia: The process dates back over a decade, to when Network Solutions was handling domain name registrations and started getting pulled in to all of the suits as a "necessary third party". They established an internal process so that they didn't have to go to court. The process has evolved a bit over the years, but in essence a SLD is now roughly comparable to using a mark in commerce, and trademark owners have to pay attention. Domain name owners can fight back, but it's usually better for everyone to not involve lawyers. Thus this grace period.

I don't think this trademark thing has anything to do with posting on here. It's just for marketing purposes.

When you address Pepsi or Nike or any other products on here do you also use the TM or any of the other signs they use? Same here.

/me whips off her pants and waves them in salute. *patent pending*

I always wondered what that tattoo on your bottom was. Musta been a copyright.

The org. that registered is blogspot. A good name would probably be lunettes-sl.blogspot.com. I bet they'll care about 3rd level names. They've explicitly said you CAN register SL.Dell.com. They never said anyone could use secondlife.dell.com. I bet they wouldn't want anyone doing secondlife.blah-blah.com unless that person was officially partnered with Linden.

>I doubt they would go to the extreme of shutting down individual bloggers who aren't using LL logos to make a profit.

I think you're right about that.

Thanks Snark! So I'm assuming lunettes-second-life.com or any variation like lunettessecondlife.com, lunettes-sl.com, etc. would be no good. That makes sense.

I'm still confused.

Maybe I'll change the name so it doesn't say anything about Second Life® or SL™ at all, just to avoid any potential problems down the road. I know some other bloggers have linked to it, so it will break apart the social network I was starting to create for myself. But I guess it's better to do it now and get it over with, than wait until it is even more of a problem.

What's the confusion? We've seen plenty of questions and advice, ask away.

Also, no need to be dramatic about a change. Contact those other bloggers who have linked to you, ask them to update their links.

You can DEFINITELY use SL & inSL, they say that (LOL, unless they change their minds again?). It's just a question of how. To be really safe, follow their guideline of using SL or inSL along with 2 non-trademarked nouns. Perhaps
lunettes-thoughts-sl.blogspot.com

If it's a third level domain name, why not just leave it as is?

Perhaps I should trademark 'Egotherapy' and 'Conifer Dada'. Am I celeb enough to bring out a perfume?
The 'Fragrance Conifer Dada' range.
There must be a market for virtual perfume.

Just call it "Conifer". Isn't that what the big stars do? With a name like "Conifer" you could have it smell like those little cardboard pine trees that people buy at car washes and hang from their rear view mirrors.

I'd date a girl who smelled like the woods. But then, I'm not normal, so I might not be the best source of data.

Wish I just beat them to the punch with trademarking it can you just imagine all the L's I would have to get paid by them?