Can You Trademark Someone's Island Name And Then Shut Them Down?

this is sl, they wouldnt even need a trademark/copyright/etc. they could just file frivolous dmca claims and run you out of business.

Don't do any of that.
Don't even think about it.

Do not ever act on the basis of cartoony lawyer threats from anyone.
Cartoony lawyer = someone making lawyer-type noises.


The OWK name was in use by you before she registered it.
She could try to claim that you are abusing her trademark and passing yourself off as her. Your use of the OWK before she registered it (IF she registered it) weakens her case,

She is in no way entitled to the possession of anything anywhere (never mind in SL) that has "OWK" written on it. That would be ridiculous.
Check if "China" is a registered trademark. If not, register it and tell the Chinese government that you are taking over.


Changing the name from OWK would remove any cause for action.
Then of course she could register that name. Repeat and rinse.

If fact.... why not find a nice sim in SL, register its name as your trademanrk and then tell the owners to give it to you.
Good luck with that one.


Warning:
I am not a lawyer qualified in the field of international trademarks.
DO not listen to me.
I am a cartoony lawyer.

I'm sorry but OWK just don't sound like a name fighting over.
When I google it I get a BSDM site in the Czech.
I wonder how they fell about an american trying to steal their glory.
They problem will show up at his/her door steps and give them some RL BSDM for free.

He has been scammed.




No--all the person has done is APPLY for a registered trademark. That is not the same thing as getting a trademark registered. It takes at least a year normally for a trademark to go from application to registration.



Note that by the "Owner" entry there is the word "APPLICANT)" and that the mark lacks a Registration number.

It gets worse. She applied for a mark in International Class 035 for the Goods & Services of "Managing and operating resort hotels and business conference centers of others". Even if she were granted the mark, it would not restrict the original owners ability to operate an island in SL under that name. She's applied for trademark protection on something he is not doing! Second Life is not Real Life. She should have applied for a trademark in a International Class approriate for offering entertainment or computer services (such as IC041 or IC042) with a correct description of Goods & Services.



Ignoring the facts that she has an application, not a trademark, and that her application is for the wrong IC and goods and services, the DMCA has nothing to do with trademarks.



He folded extremely fast. But he might try a call to concierge and explained how he was scammed. They might be able to reverse the action of making her an owner.



No



Possibly, but not like this, and they would have a fight on their hands.

Wow this person sure has some e-balls to trademark the name of a real-world place that already has an SL manifestation and community. I'm sure her actions will really endear her to the D/s community. *rolls eyes*

As others have stated, the trademark applicant really has no case, and the island owner should be ashamed of his/herself for cowering to this bogus threat so easily. There are two simple remedies for this situation:

1. Rename the island, and call it a day. This would be the easiest way out, although arguably not the best thing to do.

-OR-

2. Challenge the validity of the trademark application. Trademark law is more about protecting the public than protecting the trademark holders/applicants. Just because one applies for a trademark doesn't mean it will be granted. Anyone can apply for anything; it doesn't mean squat in and of itself. The whole point behind trademark is so that the public can be reasonably certain they know who they're dealing with when they see a brand name or symbol. In this case, the brand in question is already well established. For someone to come along and say "I just filed for trademark today, so you have to abandon the brand," is not something that would hold up under challenge. If it were me, I'd have my lawyer get medieval this moron.


Either way, the person should obviously be kicked out of the group, and banned from the island. Also, Linden Lab should be informed of the situation (in writing) immediately, so that nobody over there jumps the gun and deletes any branded content.

But whatever happens, tell your friend not to delete the island. There's nothing to be gained by doing that.

Uh, I am on speaking terms with a well-known patent attorney (DC attorney that seems to pick several awards every year - I couldn't afford him) from a board we're both on. He also does trademarks. I haven't met a trademark attorney and until I do, if I have a problem with a trademark, my first stop would be him.

If I could afford him.

They could probably file a DCMA complaint to stop her using "her" trademark!

Matthew

If you want the true full story it is here: http://squadvillage.blogspot.com

The OWK in SL now owned by OWK™ owners.

A well known and liked by many BDSM HotSpot in Second Life has Officially been taken over by new Owners, Real FemDom.

What really happened. In the beginning the owner of OWK offered OWK and OWK Village for sale to Shayna Paine and a group of unknown women who called themselves the Secret Sister Society.

Michaal Ultsch the owner of the 2 sims in SL offered to sell this to the group for about 4300.00 and agreed to take 13 months of $350.00 payments. The contract they signed stated that he would turn everything that has to do with OWK over to them including his account.

Which is against TOS. Also, the contract stated that upon first payment and thereafter each month he would reveal to the Secret Sister Society all income and expenses. When Shayna
Theti-Sheri aka Shayna Paine in Second Life, went to give Michaal $350.00 for the first payment he refused to hand over the finanicals for that month.

The payment didn't go through. This didn't happen. Michaal then told Shayna that he didn't want to do it that way that OWK and OWK Village were not making any money and he was going to sell her the Rights to use the trademark OWK in Second Life for 3500.00 USD.

Being a business woman, Shayna then went and did research on the name and found out that Michaal Ultsch did not own any trademark on OWK for her to use, therefore he was trying to sell her air.

The whole time that the people at OWK were running OWK Michaal Ultsch was not there.. He was rarely on he stayed away. He didn't do things they needed to do that would help them function.

So the group of Ladies of Secret Sister Society and the staff of OWK were left to run things on their own with out the Owner. And he kept promising that he would sell the sim to them.

When Shayna realized she was being sold air. She met with the others and they decided to move on. So she collected funds from the group and they Trademarked the name they had been working under for almost a year in Second Life.

As far as Shayna ThetiSheri is concerned they did this as a group. She acted as their representative and is taking the full brunt of this because chaos and drama ensued.

This effectively made it look like a hostile takeover. Branding in Second Life have rules and owning a Trademark has guidelines. By law the trademark has to be protected. So the only course right now is to file a DMCA and get back what the women worked for. So Currently, Shayna ThetiSheri has branded OWKtm in Second Life.

You may be asking why this happened Well the public of Second Life often questioned the fact that a real life slave from OWK owned OWK in Second Life and not a Mistress from OWK How could a slave run be successful at a FemDom sim Is the person behind the avatar really a slave This assumption stifled OWK in Second Life and caused it problems.

So many ask why is a slave running OWK in Second Life The women their after a while felt like he was pimping them and it got pretty degrading because he would come on for 2 minutes at a time and tell them they needed to make him more money. This got a little old.

Michaal Ultsch left for a short unpleasant vacation unable to get online for 10 days when this was all about to happen. So no one got to talk to him till he came back.

The Ladies of OWK sick and tired of waiting on him. Went forward and started to work on a new OWKtm with Shayna ThetiSheri and several other people in Second Life. Michaal Ulstch showed back up in Second Life finally and was told he needed to meet with the Ladies.

Shine Rolls and Loes Shi attended this meeting along with Shayna ThetiSheri. Shayna did all the talking for the three in chat. While he Im'd with others in the background. Here is a recollection of what unfolded. First Shayna asked Michaal in front of them. Did you want to sell me OWK trademark for 3500 USD His reply was Yes.

She asked him this to clarify. Because, to this day Shayna still cannot believe that this slave was trying to scam her out of money for things he didn't own. They had offered him payments. She even offered him 2000 USD for the sims but yet nothing had changed hands. Was he playing them So she then continued the conversation and told him that she was sorry that business is business and because he was trying to sell her Air that she had bought the Trademark herself since he didn't own it for 325.00 from USA.

Upon seeing that the trademark was established in the US, Michaal immediately got angry with the Ladies and left. Instead of being rational decided to announce that Shayna Paine took over OWK in SL and that he was ending it. Shayna Paine aka Shayna ThetiSheri. This alarmed the group of course and caused a lot of controversy.

So alot of information was misinformed in rumors and such throughout the day. Shayna ThetiSheri of course knew that this was going to happen. So she made sure she covered herself ahead of time by trademarking several names to stop this from happening in Second Life. Dominant Females do not take lightly to being scammed on, threatened or harassed by a slave.

Especially, in the FemDom Community. Shayna ThetiSheri stood up for Her rights and did this to protect herself and her friends with these things happening in the future.

Please refer to:
http://www.otherworldkingdom.org for information on what is trademarked by Her.

Group members were divided when the news was broadcasted by Michaal that he was closing down OWK in SL. Then later on he decided to open a new group called Other World Kingdom. Still this slave tries to take control of the business that is ran by Women.

The group was divided because they had no background information about what happened and it just looked like Shayna stepped in and took over. So without knowing the story these people were in the dark and thats when people make assumptions and spread rumors.

Hopefully this article will give them in insight on what happened to the Women who actually ran OWK in SL.

Michaal announced that he would be giving the OWK in SL group to Shayna Paine because she now owns the US Tradmark of OWKtm. He feels that this was unfair to him. But its ok to sell someone Air for 3500.00 USD in Second Life and get away with it. Not only that he led these women on for over 6 months believing they were going to own it. The group broke out into a discussion and several of the ladies involved in OWK and that are moving to the new OWKtm reassured people that they would not have to pay a new fee.

The only thing that will happen is that everything will be moved to a new location and made into a real replica of OWK. The future of OWKtm awaits because though Shayna ThetiSheri wont give out too much information at the moment. This whole project has to do with something unfolding in the BDSM Community in the future in the United States. And has been a project/dream of hers for most of her life.

She's been working toward this dream online and getting people and resources together to make it happen.

The Sim has been reported to be under construction and awaiting completion, However the new build will be something like a replication of the Real Life version for those who cannot visit or will never get the opportunity to visit the real world "Other World Kingdom" when it is sold. Not all aspects of the land will be the same but for the most part the feel and look will be captured on the second Life grid.

All Staff, members and slaves, including Michaal Ultsch are welcome to be involved in the new OWKtm, free of charge. The vendors are even free. Since this venture has to do with a Real Life venture in the United States and will be funded through donations and some key investors. The Investors are hard working a way so that the virtual world can be more enjoyment to the participants without the burden of needing to pay extra for things.

Without knowing the details, there's an awful lot of options that could be taken, but I will assume for the purposes of this post that what has been described is the complete truth of the situation. I am not a lawyer, so take this for what it is worth in terms of advice: next to nothing.

If someone came to me and asked me to stop misusing their trademark on something *I* created before their trademark ever existed (and, in fact, happened to be someone that worked with me on the project so named), I would first ask for proof that it was trademarked. Receiving that, I would then have to make a decision.

First, you CAN fight it. If you create something that has had a name for a significant amount of time, and has become more or less well-known as being yours, someone else can't trademark your usage, because it constitutes significant pre-existing usage, which is supposed to be revealed in the investigation phase of a trademark application. IE, you have to show you made due diligence to determine that the name being requested for trademark protection is yours and is unique, within the industry sector you are registering it within. Since the person who trademarked it knew it was not hers, and is not unique, she committed perjury, more or less, and if it went to court, it would most likely get voided immediately, once that evidence came to light.

Second, you can opt to deflect it. Change the name of the island and group to something else. Names are a dime a dozen. Now, she has spent all that money to get a trademark for nothing. If she does it again, then it is time to go the first route and fight it; she'll be looking at some hefty fines.

Ok, who smuggled in bottles of soda?

It is a common theme in most forums to discredit new posters, which is fine.

Just covering bases so people aren't misinformed on this situation.

I posted that at the same time Roxie posted Shayna's side of the story.

It sounds to me like it's being resolved in RL terms, and that posting this here was more to incite drama than to ask a legitimate legal question.

Thus, to answer the original question, outside the context of the actual situation, it depends, but in general, if it isn't yours, then you can't trademark it. If you do actually manage to trademark something that isn't yours, then it can get very expensive for you, if the original owner has enough cause to fight you for it.

Anyway, since the actual situation is being sorted out in RL now, any further points on the topic are moot (well, except to feed us forum trolls with more popcorn ).

Not only that, but Trademarks are not automatically conflicting. They only conflict if they are in active use in the same region, *and* there is a likelihood of confusion. Of someone's making "OWK brand chairs" and someone else has an "OWK" that's not part of the furniture business, there is no conflict.

hehe trolling with popcorn is one of my favourite past times thus this being a forum I am not a regular at I would not grace this place with anything that was for paradi purposes or drama sturing.

Don't shoot the messenger lol

Might have to get more involved here some day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well back on topic:

No the OWK isn't shutting down, just changing hands.

Someone will always find a problem with something they dislike or dissagree with, it's the way of business really, businesses, change, grow, change ownership etc.

Just another location in SL that is growing and changing.

Hopefully for the good.

Might aswell be adult about it.

I love SL

Not looking for forum drama. Just wanted michaal (who has been here a long time but never posted here for anything) to see that many people do not think this is legal or fair. Happily he saw this thread and decided to move forward. Thank you all for the information.

Not exactly true. An account can be transfered with the approval of Linden Lab.





Shayna needs to consult an trademark attorney.

1) She has not trademarked it. She has applied for a registered trademark and begun to use "AWK" as a common law mark. However, if someone else is using "AWK" in trade, any rights to that mark from slapping the "TM" after it are probably tenuous.

2) The international class she applied for registration under is almost certainly incorrect for her usage of the mark.

3) I am pretty sure that DMCA takedowns are only for copyright violations. A different procedure is likely needed for trademark infringement.











Until you all can separate your role-playing from your business, you will continue to have problems. There are clearly two sides to this story. You need to be able to face each other over a virtual table and talk this out as business people; not domme and sub.

What he did may not have been legal or fair, but I believe that the statements made by the person alleging that they "own" the "AWK" are based on either a misunderstanding or misrepresentation of trademark law.

Wow. A big long explanation to say 'I got together with a select few people to steal what he would not sell to me'. They had no problem joining knowing he was a slave. They used that to stage this nonsese takeover.

I feel they should open their own FemDom Community (oh, wait - most of them have their own islands with FemDom commmunities on them - but none with groups as large as michaal's) And leave michaal to continue - with his SL project.

And the people who (according to whois) registered owk.cz back in 1997 might have something to say about her trademark claim and use of "AWK" too!

Matthew

"AWK" has prior use by chickens since 1066

Pep (Loose vowels?)

Don't forget Methodia Rascal and the Battle of Koom Valley.

If it is not a business, I would guess ( i'm not a lawyer) it could fall under copyright and intellectual property rights as applied to its use in SL. I do hope he contacts an attorney to find out what his options are.

This is so poorly written for what it's trying to say that it doesn't help much. It identifies some of the people and history, but for figuring out who's right or wrong, or what the legal situation is, it's much too jumbled.