If you want the true full story it is here: http://squadvillage.blogspot.com
Totally unrelated, but a similar story on copyright/trademark misuse...
http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/index.html
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Can You Trademark Someone's Island Name And Then Shut Them Down? |
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Judie Zenovka
Registered User
Join date: 7 Mar 2007
Posts: 26
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12-05-2008 19:09
Totally unrelated, but a similar story on copyright/trademark misuse... http://jmri.sourceforge.net/k/index.html |
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Matthew Dowd
Registered User
Join date: 30 Jan 2007
Posts: 1,046
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12-06-2008 00:48
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. Well, it looks like someone in the US is trying to trademark (in the US) a name which is legally registered as a trading name for a business in Czech (http://dw.czso.cz/rswj/detail_en.jsp?prajed_id=2141653) in order to obtain an island in SL being run by a representative of that company after that representative offered then withdrew to license them the use of the company name within SL. Matthew |
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Ceka Cianci
SuperPremiumExcaliburAcc#
Join date: 31 Jul 2006
Posts: 4,489
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12-06-2008 01:22
if i wanted to keep the name just have periods added between the first 3 letters.
_____________________
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Jezebella Desmoulins
Registered User
Join date: 4 Nov 2005
Posts: 561
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12-06-2008 05:03
AFAIK, "domme" and "sub" aren't recognized classes under U.S. law, so good luck using any of that as justification in legal filings for who should own the sim.
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Ralektra Breda
Template Painter
Join date: 7 Apr 2008
Posts: 1,875
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12-06-2008 07:52
So, a female has taken advantage of weakness and usurped a mere male to take control of a female supremacy environment? Pep (Unironic) well men make it so damned easy I have nothing of value to add to this thread. _____________________
 Mainstore: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Phantasm/51/164/501 http://rbzdesign.blogspot.com/ I'm not a designer IRL, but I RP one on SL! |
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Darius Lehane
Registered User
Join date: 18 Apr 2005
Posts: 180
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12-06-2008 08:59
I checked this scenario for one of my products -- someone decided to trademark the name after I started using it.
A trademark CANNOT stop you from using a name already in use. Likely, also, such a contest would require the person owning the trademark to press their case in court, which would be costly -- it is highly unlikely given what you describe to occur. Put the offending parties on ignore. Offer no information to them (i.e., RL contact information). And, hard as it may seem, don't worry about them. If they DMCA LL (unlikely), just respond -- and BTW if they do you now have a reason to sue for damages. |
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Gordon Wendt
404 - User not found
Join date: 10 May 2006
Posts: 1,024
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12-06-2008 10:06
Don't forget Methodia Rascal and the Battle of Koom Valley. The only battle where both sides were able to ambush each other. _____________________
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Kidd Krasner
Registered User
Join date: 1 Jan 2007
Posts: 1,938
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12-06-2008 12:17
if i wanted to keep the name just have periods added between the first 3 letters. Really? I bet I could make a gazillion dollars by writing H.a.r.r.y P.o.t.t.e.r and the Amateur Lawyers. Amateur lawyer quiz of the day: 1. Who owns the copyright on my first paragraph above? 2. Could "H.a.r.r.y P.o.t.t.e.r and the Amateur Lawyers" be used as a book title without getting permission from J.K. Rowling and related parties? 3. Could it be used in the content of a book without getting such permissions? |
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Kidd Krasner
Registered User
Join date: 1 Jan 2007
Posts: 1,938
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12-06-2008 12:26
I checked this scenario for one of my products -- someone decided to trademark the name after I started using it. A trademark CANNOT stop you from using a name already in use. That reminds me of the Nissan v. Nissan case. See http://www.internetlibrary.com/cases/lib_case454.cfm for a good summary of the appeals court decisions. Then read the summary by one of the parties at http://www.digest.com/Big_Story.php, particularly the item at the very bottom. |
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Kalderi Tomsen
Nomad Extraordinaire!
Join date: 10 May 2007
Posts: 888
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12-10-2008 07:39
H.a.r.r.y P.o.t.t.e.r and the Amateur Lawyers. Which would make a great name for a band.... _____________________
Kalderi, General Manager, Hosoi Ichiba and Hosoi Design
- - - Hosoi Ichiba - High Quality Classically-styled Asian buildings, furniture and home decorations in an old-fashioned Japanese market garden on Japan Kanto. http://hosoi-ichiba.blogspot.com/ Hosoi Design - High Quality prefabs and furnishings, plus commercial buildings. |
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Trias Etoile
Registered User
Join date: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 2
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12-19-2008 10:29
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. to add from Roxie post, people should know that OWK was dying from its ashes, michaal was not online much anymore, not blaming anyone but it was dead and it needed a renew. michaal felt it, that s why he tried to give it up. so either he wants 300 or 3000 or 30 000 he was about to sell it, not to keep it going. even the staff he had was leaving because of the internal issues. so , either you sell it and dont care of what OWK will become, or you get a staff who try to make it be alive again. Shayna is a lifestyler, and wants to keep it alive. michaal had offers, and was and i think still is welcome to join in. if thats just whining because he doesnt get the 4000 usd he wanted, too bad, business is not all, its also about to keep a land active and people enjoying it there. its too easy to flame and blame, for some femdom sim (not all but we knows the one at least ), that was the opportunity to send owk to its grave, and attract people to them... at least OWK will reborn and for those who enjoyed it, they are welcome to come join in. others blaming , good travel to you in sl |
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Morgen Maculate
Devil's Bride
Join date: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 54
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12-19-2008 10:43
For those that are morally bankrupt: Just because you want someone's project does not mean you try to trademark it in another country and attempt to take it.
It will be a sad day in Second Life when content creators that invested their talent, energgy and money to create a community of 1,800 residents can be taken over by an illegal trademark. michaal never completed the sale to this person and no money changed hands. Therefore she had no claim to the OWK server. The real life owner of OWK in the Czech Republic did not grant her a license to use the facility name in Second Life (which michaal was granted - since he is the real life secretary at the OWK in Czech Republic). A few unscrupulous women in the group got together and decided to take what was not theirs by bullying the creator. So now they can ride on the coattails of michaal's successful project and convince themselves they were owed this from him. Whatever blows your skirt 'ladies'. michaal developed a wonderful project and had the misfortune of trusting the wrong people to help lead his community. I hope to see more work from him in Second Life. |
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Amity Slade
Registered User
Join date: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 2,183
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12-19-2008 11:02
First registration of a trademark is not the only consideration as to who legally owns a trademark, or whether infringement exists.
However, the first to register a trademark has the legal presumption of ownership, and it takes a court's ruling on solid evidence to overcome that presumption. And I mean a lot of meticulous, verifiable, credible evidence. From the standpoint of Linden Lab's legal liability, the safe move is respect the registration until a Court rules otherwise. They will not expose themself to liability if they respect the registration. As everyone has already commented, legal action is expensive. If you're not making a lot of money from the trademark you think you own, it's not worth the fight. The lesson is that if you have something you think will be of value to you as a trademark, it is far cheaper for you to register it, rather than fight a subsquent registrant to keep it. |
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Morgen Maculate
Devil's Bride
Join date: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 54
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12-19-2008 11:22
But since michaal had purchased two islands from LL a year ago and had them named OWK at that time and was using the OWK texture to represent these islands in SL - these women will not get far in trademarking it in November of 2008 and insisting LL enforce thier trademark. If that were the case there would be a whole lot of project poaching going on in SL.
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Trias Etoile
Registered User
Join date: 24 Aug 2006
Posts: 2
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12-19-2008 14:20
But since michaal had purchased two islands from LL a year ago and had them named OWK at that time and was using the OWK texture to represent these islands in SL - these women will not get far in trademarking it in November of 2008 and insisting LL enforce thier trademark. If that were the case there would be a whole lot of project poaching going on in SL. i dont understand your business in that matter. you must be the kind of people who wants to have the last word according to your posts. michaal wanted to sell, there was some offer, he was even invited to the new project even as invited if he had no time to keep it on , as he s selling. owk is run by Ladies , not men, even in rl, what do you think ? you pay a sim and have all rights ? dont forget that there are teams , a staff working on it. and when you see the staff go, you can tell something went wrong. how do you think Norsim and other high traffic sims are popular and working ? ( beside bots in sims) good luck in your future flaming post, you like it or not , that s the way it is. i would suggest the 2 concerned persons to talk together, without bullshits in their ears. its a 2 personns affair, not yours good day to you |
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Morgen Maculate
Devil's Bride
Join date: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 54
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12-19-2008 14:37
i dont understand your business in that matter. owk is run by Ladies , not men, even in rl, what do you think ? you pay a sim and have all rights ? None of you had a problem with paying him to join his group. He never hid the fact he was a man. Your just using this as an excuse to take what was not yours. dont forget that there are teams , a staff working on it. and when you see the staff go, you can tell something went wrong. the women in charge were attempting to take the OWK from the founder and created a unpleasant atmosphere for the workers - to create a situation that would force michaal to sell. Staff leaving does nto reflect badly on michaal. It reflects badly on the women he allowed to make up the senate that was suppose to run the community. These same women that insisted michaal give them his project. good luck in your future flaming post, you like it or not , that s the way it is. i would suggest the 2 concerned persons to talk together, without bullshits in their ears. its a 2 persons affair, not yours This thread was quiet until you decided to start cheerleading the OWKtm lady. Again, this is not between two people. There were 1,800 members effected. Most were not informed at all - even Mistress' were not asked what their opinion was. And we all know why. |
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Lee Ponzu
What Would Steve Do?
Join date: 28 Jun 2006
Posts: 1,770
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12-20-2008 08:59
I love SL  "Your honor, the plaintiff has no standing, as he is a slave by virtue of his gender." _____________________
So many monkeys, so little Shakespeare.
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Jezebella Desmoulins
Registered User
Join date: 4 Nov 2005
Posts: 561
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12-20-2008 09:26
Another intriguing look at what happens when business mixes with an attempt at self-government in SL. I can't quite decide if this falls under "hostile takeover" or "political coup." Obviously LL will only recognize the person who paid for the island as the owner, as we've seen too often what happens when a "partnership" buys an island and the individual who placed the actual order has a falling out with the other parties.
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Phil Deakins
Prim Savers = low prims
Join date: 17 Jan 2007
Posts: 9,537
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12-20-2008 09:39
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. 1. The thinking seems to be somewhat silly; i.e. a slave didn't own OWK - the owner did. The fact the he was a slave in the roleply is irrelevant. So it seems that some of the reasoning is skewed by things that aren't real. 2. Whilst it may legal, it's despicable to knowingly register a trademark of someone else's business (or whatever it is) in an attempt to take it over, even though it would be operated somewhere else. Whether or not the guy wanted to sell it, and whether or not he indicated a desire to sell it, and whether or not he tried to sell something that he didn't own (possibly innocently), it's still a nasty thing to do. In terms of morality, the Secret Women don't have a leg to stand on, imo. What they should have done is start up a new operation with a different name. _____________________
Prim Savers - almost 1000 items of superbly crafted, top quality, very low prim furniture, and all at amazingly low prices.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seymour/213/120/251/ |
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Amity Slade
Registered User
Join date: 14 Feb 2007
Posts: 2,183
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12-20-2008 10:24
2. Whilst it may legal, it's despicable to knowingly register a trademark of someone else's business (or whatever it is) in an attempt to take it over, even though it would be operated somewhere else. Whether or not the guy wanted to sell it, and whether or not he indicated a desire to sell it, and whether or not he tried to sell something that he didn't own (possibly innocently), it's still a nasty thing to do. In terms of morality, the Secret Women don't have a leg to stand on, imo. What they should have done is start up a new operation with a different name. I have to respectfully disagree. The owner of any Intellectual Property has to take some sort of reasonable steps to protect that property. Trademark registration exists as a way to make it as easy and cheap as possible for someone to protect the trademarks they want to own. (And Phil, I know that you specifically, in other contexts, are a big believer in the idea that there is nothing wrong with taking fair advantage of the rules with which everyone is playing. I agreed with you then, but for the same reasons, I disagree with you now.) I think it's great that Second Life provides a way for people to create their businesses or other content without requiring them to have degrees or industry experience or a lot of capital to invest or a lot of time to invest. But if one wants to be treated like a legitimate business or organization, one needs to operate like a legitimate business or organization. I aboslutely sympathize with the SL owner who has worked so hard creating their work, to have it ruined just because they didn't spend their lives working on a degree in business, or did not have the luxury of affording an army of lawyers to advise their every action. It's not their fault that the situation has occurred. But just because I sympathize with them or don't blame them, that does not translate into blaming the other company. It's not their fault either. (One of the reasons that my SL art shop is uncreatively named "Amity Slade's Shop" is because one's Second Life account name is the only truly unique indentifier one can have in Second Life. I had all kinds of great ideas for other names, but the truth of the matter is, I knew Linden Lab would not protect my shop name, and the legal options available to me to protect my shop name would require more expense and time than worthwhile for me.) Don't blame another company for following the rules that the SL organization either did not research, or chose not to follow. It is not the other company's responsibility to tell others how to protect their own property. Now, if Linden Lab wanted to encourage SL business to flourish, Linden Lab would do well to provide information to would-be SL business owners on the simple things they can do to protect their SL businesses. I have long wished to see Linden Lab do something simple and proactive- like just providing information- which would help it's idea of a virtual economy become a reality. Second Life has not lived up to its expectations as a real business platform because Linden Lab, quite frankly, still has not shown that it knows how to act like a real business. |
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Matthew Dowd
Registered User
Join date: 30 Jan 2007
Posts: 1,046
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12-20-2008 12:29
I have to respectfully disagree. The owner of any Intellectual Property has to take some sort of reasonable steps to protect that property. Trademark registration exists as a way to make it as easy and cheap as possible for someone to protect the trademarks they want to own. Legally, you don't have to register a trademark in order to own it - just being the first to use it gives you common law ownership rights (including the right to exclude others from using it or to license its use to others). Although it is of course advisable to register it - see http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/trademark-ownership for example. The sisters have merely applied to register this trademark - according to TARR it hasn't even been assigned an examining attorney (one of whose role is to check that no-one already has common law ownership - and there is a period during which anyone who feels they already have common law rights can file objections). As such the sisters do not yet own this trademark, as opposed to say the Czech company who appear to have been using this trademark for over 10 years. Matthew |
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Jezebella Desmoulins
Registered User
Join date: 4 Nov 2005
Posts: 561
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12-20-2008 12:35
Even if these "ladies" win the use of the trademark in the U.S., that doesn't automatically give them anything with regards to the Czech company that's been using the name for longer than SL has existed. I hope they're willing to spend lots of money to wage an international court battle. Methinks it'd be cheaper just to buy their own island.
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Phil Deakins
Prim Savers = low prims
Join date: 17 Jan 2007
Posts: 9,537
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12-20-2008 12:37
I have to respectfully disagree. The owner of any Intellectual Property has to take some sort of reasonable steps to protect that property. Trademark registration exists as a way to make it as easy and cheap as possible for someone to protect the trademarks they want to own. A guy starts something and many people join it and like it. After some time, a small number of the members decide that they don't want the owner in charge any more, so they take steps to have the system for themselves, but instead of starting an alternative, they decide to take what he has. I consider that to be a despicable act, even though it's probably legal. I'm not a lawyer, but I'm certain that she can't have the trademark if the organisation's owner doesn't want her to have it. I.e. he can challenge it, and I'm sure he'd win. (And Phil, I know that you specifically, in other contexts, are a big believer in the idea that there is nothing wrong with taking fair advantage of the rules with which everyone is playing. I agreed with you then, but for the same reasons, I disagree with you now.) _____________________
Prim Savers - almost 1000 items of superbly crafted, top quality, very low prim furniture, and all at amazingly low prices.
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Seymour/213/120/251/ |
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Morgen Maculate
Devil's Bride
Join date: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 54
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12-22-2008 12:33
Another intriguing look at what happens when business mixes with an attempt at self-government in SL. I can't quite decide if this falls under "hostile takeover" or "political coup." Obviously LL will only recognize the person who paid for the island as the owner, as we've seen too often what happens when a "partnership" buys an island and the individual who placed the actual order has a falling out with the other parties. |
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Morgen Maculate
Devil's Bride
Join date: 18 Jan 2007
Posts: 54
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12-31-2008 12:02
Well we have an update: Shayna has sent a notecard to the new Czech Owner of OWK Village island (the other island, OWK, was sold and re-named Velvet Thorn). OWK Village Island was purchased a year ago and has been an active residential island for Mistresses and submissives ever since.
Shayna now claims she received her trademark for OWK in the United States (even though the trademark already exists in Czech Republic). She has given us 3 to 5 days or she will file a DMCA. She owns OWK - we have OWK Village and it has been here for months. Since our name is OWK Village and she has this trademark for OWK - I do not see what the issue is. We shall see in 5 days what Linden Lab will do, if anything at all. |
