Are RL trademarks used in-world intended to be ironic?

Look at it this way... if I made a suit in SL and called it an Armani, I would be wrong. If I made a house in SL and called it a Frank Lloyd Wright I would be wrong. If I made a shoe in SL and called it a Nike I would be wrong. Like Trout said, all those companies started from one person with an idea to make an excellent product. Each one of those designers worked his butt off to become the ideal and to brand his product. It's flattering, sure, to use the name, but it's also unfair to ride the coat tails of someone else. Put your OWN name on it and you'll be that much more proud of it when it becomes famous in its own right.

Buying a VR product with a RL name when you know that company was in no way involved in the creation of said VR product would also be unethical.

It would be participating in Copyright/Trademark infringement on whatever scale.

How "wrong" it is, I have no idea.

Maybe because they won't resort to trademark infringement to boost their sales and let their items stand on their own merit?

If you wanted to pay homage to Nikon you could simply use the logo and keep the brand name out of the item name and/or description, but it sounds like you're marketing it as a "Nikon Camera" rather than a "Michael Bigwig camera" so I personally don't buy the "I like the brand" story.

I normally stay away from threads that morph from whatever the topic was to being about Michael Bigwig, but this one offends me on principle...something Michael cannot seem to grasp. It's not about Michael in particular, and he is no martyr here. The practice is wrong. Period. It is not something that should be dismissed simply because it serves a person's selfish ends, however profitless. We shouldn't condone it just because it is happening to a big, seemingly faceless company. It's not about jealousy - a ludicrous concept considering that most of us do not compete in that market. But loosening up that rule leads to loosening elsewhere, and someone may eventually think it's okay to trade off the Glowbox Designs name because they're huge in comparison to them. This is exactly what is happening to Stroker, and I'm damn sure VC thinks it's okay because Stroker's business is so huge in comparison to his.

On the other hand, I HAVE seen "Rike" shoes in SL and I laughed my ass off at the audacity of the designer. They're obviously not Nikes but everyone recognizes the name and has a little chuckle. *shrug*

I'm voting for Robbie Dingo et al. But especially Robbie Dingo, because his stuff is amazing.

You'd have to call it a Cantilever House, lol.

--Hugsy

Mike is definitely not the only one who does this.

It was a well established practice in SL before he even got here. And it used to come up as a Forum topic before wed ever heard of Mike.

He is of course, as far as I know, the only regular forums poster who has a shop selling a RL named product. And he did bring it up in the other thread. Which wasn't about this issue at all.

how about a lolex

Like it or not, there's a lot of people in SL that want the real world products here. If the real-life company doesn't remake their stuff in SL, then somebody else is going to do it. And that's not the worst thing in the world for someone to do. If the real world company comes in and orders a take-down, then that's different.

--Hugsy

I'm not straying too far off topic here, but the Frank Lloyd Wright analogy got me to thinking. If you designed houses based on Wright's style of architecture and his philosophies of design, without specifically copying his work, you would be well within your rights to say that you designed buildings inspired by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, or in the tradition of Frank Lloyd Wright. Nobody would be under the impression that your builds were in any way sanctioned by Frank Lloyd Wright (or his estate...whomever is in control of the IP now - I know he's dead).

At any rate, Michael, why don't you do that with your products instead of just taking the brand name. It's your design, after all. Say that it was inspired by Nikon's classic lines and handling or something like that. Obviously, from your posts that's true, and then you would be paying your respects to Nikon without pilfering their brand.

I notice and pay attention to "brands" in SL. If something I spot looks good, I might buy it regardless of brand (unless it said something like "Mercedes" and I didn't see any connection between the real Mercedes and this product in SL; I am very hesitant about buying a product if it looks like it might be infringing some law - one reason I didn't buy that Nikon camera). I am aware of what I buy and will "reward" good designers by taking a risk and buying something else of theirs. And so forth and so on.

Oh, and this also goes for the freebies. Be aware that some might "buy" the freebie to sample a content creator, and if the freebie is subpar, there will be an assumption that the for sale items will also be subpar (likely of better quality than the freebie, but still subpar).

I love my Dominus Shadow, which lead me to try the clothing sitting for sale near the car. And I found that I like those clothes also.

I do understand that, but that is what licensing is for.

All personal opinions aside, this is from the SL Knowledge Base:
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Trademarks and Copyright in Second Life

In Second Life, we hope creators will use their imagination to make content. Some create things that are inspired by real life objects, like cars or jewelry. As Second Life gets larger, we receive more questions about usage of copyrighted or trademarked material in Second Life.

You should not use copyrighted or trademarked material in Second Life, unless of course you have a right to use the intellectual property. Your rights are defined by applicable copyright and trademark law, including the law of fair use. These are complicated laws, and understanding our Terms of Service and DMCA information is only a very small start to understanding applicable laws. Real world laws apply to intellectual property infringement, and nothing about your use of Second Life will shield you if you are infringing on someone else's intellectual property -- the rightful owner of the IP can take direct legal action against you in real world courts of law. The following describes more detail about how Linden staff treat trademark and copyright issues inworld:
Trademarked Material

Linden staff generally removes content that uses trademarks without apparent authorization, with or without giving notice to the object owner. This generally includes all real life corporate logos and brand names.

It is often difficult to tell what may or may not be trademarked. However, use of designer logos and brand names without permission, such as Gucci, Nike, Louis Vuiton, etc., are usually not acceptable. Any resident may file an abuse report if they see any other resident making unauthorized use of trademarked material in Second Life.

For more information, visit the US Patent & Trademark Homepage: http://www.uspto.gov/index.html

You can also use the trademark look-up feature on that website:

1. Use the Search tool under Trademarks on the left navigation when you go to US Patent & Trademark Homepage.
2. Use the "New User Form Search (Basic)".
3. Under View Search History, select the Plural & Singular & Live radio buttons.
4. Enter the name of the business in question (ie. Nike).
5. Click Submit Query.

Copyrighted Material

Linden Lab follows the procedures described in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) regarding copyrighted materials. This generally means that Lindens will not remove copyrighted material unless the owner of the copyrighted material notifies Linden Lab in accordance with the DMCA process noted on our website, at http://secondlife.com/corporate/dmca.php.

If a DMCA notice is filed, and it meets the standard for a complete claim, Linden Lab will then expeditiously remove the indicated materials inworld. Note that the item must appear inworld for Linden Lab to take any action.

Repeated copyright or trademark violations by a resident can result in their account being placed on probation or permanently banned.

Again, this is just a very brief description of laws pertaining to intellectual property. Residents interested in this topic are encouraged to more fully examine the materials available at:

http://www.copyright.gov/
http://www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Copyright
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Trademark
http://fairuse.stanford.edu/

Bottom line: we prefer that our residents be as original as possible when creating their content, and we ask that all of our residents respect the intellectual property rights of others.

Got one on my arm right now in RL. $27.99 from the guy at the swapmeet and it tells the right time twice a day without fail.

I've gone to the Playboy sim and they have a boutique where they sell actual Playboy licensed clothing.

At some point were the 3D web idea to really take off. I presume that Nikon and Ford and Marshall and Fender all might wish to have their own lil Virtual memento stores.

(Somewhat on-topic) In case someone missed the article last month:

"Herman Miller Combats Knockoffs in Second Life with Freebies"
http://www.virtualworldsnews.com/2007/10/herman-miller-c.html

Yes I remember this coming up before, and ARs were used to remove some RL named products in the past.

Yep ..I get my Lolex's from a guy on Canal Street, along with my Loach bags.

Didn't Coca Cola give away the licensing in SL?

Just curious.........

Gnucchi LoL

i think this is SL ffs.
i reckon there is a huge difference between making a sl nikon camera, and making a rl ripoff nikon and trying to pass it off as the real thing. and thats what lantham and that sort of thing are all about; protecting the image and trademarks of companies in a relevant way. nobody thinks a glowbox camera is built by nikon.

Sorry, Brenda, but I have to disagree. A discussion - and then this thread - was started on the general subject of the use of RL brands in SL. No flaming was intented and there was no attack on Michael personally. His mention of his Nikon camera sparked the discussion, but it was a general question.

Look at the posts.

So perhaps we should be asking another question: Why does one particular person feel the need to turn any and every discussion of certain subjects into a discussion about himself and interpret said discussions as personal attacks? And why do so many of this poor, ill-understood person's posts begin with the words "You guys....", lumping so many different people with different opinions into one group set solely on attacking this poor defenceless soul?

I assume (which means I could easily be wrong) that licensing isn't necessarily quick and easy to get, but I agree that's the proper thing to do.

To me, there is a matter of scale here which is purely gut feeling. There's a point where a real-world company is so large and the SL resident who "ripped them off" is so small that it's simply not worth anyone's time worrying about it.

--Hugsy

I really like the replica label for branded items, as it's ever so appropriate to SL's environment, rather safe, without possibly being goofy (Rike? omg I really hope the joke(s) I see in there doesn't piss off a few more sensitive people than I) although I will say some of the more imaginitve and funny 'almost' trademarks probably boost sales just on the amusement factor
EDIT: I'd buy GNUcchi (which is a joke all it's own)

@OP
as to WHY womeone would WANT to buy these items? I can think of a few off the top of my head

Status Symbol (and the mistaken notion that such status translates well in SL)

Dream Item (I can't afford a Korg synth, or a steinway baby grande IRL, so I might buy it fufill that dream to some extent)

Role Play (not as integral as the others, but if I'm striving for a specific authenticity it makes sense)