Copyright Infringement...

Hello,

I hate to have to do this, but sometimes you have to take responsibility for yourself.
I'd like this to be public, so that anybody can read about it, before i take legal action.
Hopefully i won't have to take any actions, but my requests have been ignored.

I am hoping that it will help you protect your content in Second Life.
I have been seeking legal advice on this subject, so i know what i'm talking about.

I want it to be known, i have nothing agenst anybody in SL who have created their
own brand, content & customer base, on the fact that they provide good content to SL

But i do feel bad that other providers in sl can take advantage of other businesses in SL
In regards to using other people's business names in their advertisments and key words
(If you haven't registered your business name, then you haven't a leg to stand on)

My business name is registeres under the companies registeration office in Ireland
Dreamstream Medis is a trade mark name - www.cro.ie

The way i see it, Second Life is full of illegal activities, piracy, child pornography etc.
It only takes investigation in-world for any legal authorities to find evidence of this.
And hopefully that doesn't have to be the case here, if the labs help me resolve this.

There is a hands off approach to these issues in SL, if a problem arrised, the content
is removed, before any outside authorities get involved, no evidence = no crime.

Here's my question, i allready know the answer, i'm intrested in your opinions

You register a business name, this means that name belongs to you, it's your trade mark.
Which makes it illegal for anyone to use this name without permission from you.

Let me give you an example,

When Coca Cola had their name used all over Second Life, they took action
Obviously Linden Labs had to take action and remove any content using their trade mark

My trade mark name has been used in other provider's key workds and advertisments
long before i decided to register it as a business name.

I've asked these providers if they would remove my name but obviously this was ignored

Now that i own this name, i feel they are breaking the law, which is infact is copyright infringment.

I've asked Linden Labs to assist, just to ask these providers to remove my name from
their advertisments, but this has been ignores, also by the persons using my name.

So as the owner of a trade mark name, i'm asking Linden Labs to investigate my issue
So far this has ot been resolved, don't i have some rights here as the owner of the trade mark?

I will change this topic if i find mistakes, but the way i see this is simple, if you own a business name
Then it is illegal for anybody else to use this name for their benifits.
The only benifits in using a business name in your key words and advertisments, is obiously
to benifit your business, for example, if someone searches your business name
Your name should come up first in the search, but in my case, if you search my business name,
you won't find my name at the top of your search.

How does anyone using your business name in their keywords an infringement on your copyright?

If i want everyone to know that i have a product similar to the more popular "bombastic widgets", then i am going to put 'bombastic widgets' in my keywords or description to let people know.

No infringement there.

At least none i know of.

I suspect this is ultimately the impetus for this thread and your primary issue.

So it's legal for anybody to use your registered business name in their advertiments without your written permission?
Answer is no

You might have found a sympathetic ear here except for throwing the extortion part in. And your legal council should have advised you that there is no way in hell any company seeing wording like that is going to help you.

You need to seek better legal counsel.

So, umm, what? You saw that and decided that it would provide a perfect opportunity for extortion?

.

What extortion on my behalf are you refering to?
I'm not posting this to improve my business.
I'm not trying to distroy anyone elses content
I've asked nicely and was ignored, then i registered the name.

I feel it's illegal for someone to take advantage of my situation.
I own the name, anyone using it is breaking the law.
The content provider is responsible for the content in their community
If laws are being broken then that makes the content provide responsible
If they ignore that issue, then they are responsible, i don't run SL

Did you register it worldwide just like coca cola? Or only local for protection within your country's borders?

your way simply don't work. I could register 'sexy' as business name and hunt everybody down using it in any form?

Sounds silly but that's what it comes down to imho

I see a lot of problems with YOUR problem as you describe it.

First off: registering a business name in one jurisdiction does not give you world wide right to that name. I own a business and have it registered in two jurisdictions in the country I live in. That doesn't stop another person from registering the name and using it in other jurisdictions in this country or in other countries. Coca-Cola is registered as a publicly traded multi-national corporation. It seems unlikely that your business is.

Second, even if you did have world wide registration of your name, that doesn't stop people from using the name of your business in their advertising. They can't claim to BE you, but they can claim their product is cheaper, faster, better and smells nicer than XYZ's.

Finally, I can't comment on how things work in your jurisdiction, but in mine, registering your company name isn't the same as trademarking. If you want to trademark your name and logo, that is an entirely different process.

I'm unaware of any laws that govern the use of search terms within an internet web page. Search terms only affect 3rd party results, and are not the same as direct legal infringement. Also unaware how this situation in SL would be any different.
Another vote for obtaining better council.

Let me translate, from your original post:

Translation: "If Linden Lab don't do something about this, then I'm going to tell the world that Second Life is full of illegal activities, piracy and child pornography. And when I do that, won't Linden Lab be sorry they didn't help me?"

Apologies for the bluntness, OP, but like others here I was willing to read your post and take it seriously until I saw that thinly-veiled threat. As to your issue, then as has been stated here by others, unless you registered your company name worldwide, then trademark rules only apply* in the jurisdiction under which you registered it.

(*IANAL)

You cannot copyright titles or business names. You can trademark them. Until you trademark your SL business name you have no case at all, and even if you do manage to pursue a trademark campaign (and it is much harder than registering a simple copyright), you still cannot stop someone from mentioning your business or product in their advertising. Surely you've noticed that companies are forever comparing their products to their competitors' products and doing so by name.

Your problem is with SL's search engine, which they're working on. But I'm sure they enjoy thinly-veiled threats.

this thema is really hard to deal with - especially in SL

am I reading this correctly...that you have registered the company name "Dreamstream Media"? because I have bad news for you lol....that name has been trademarked for a long time. by someone else.

A very quick search indicates that this area of trademark law isn't fully resolved, though a recent case suggests that US law is learning towards the side of the original poster.

One article, dated 2007, explains how different courts have reached different conclusions: http://www.rivkin.com/rivkinradler/Publications/newformat/200710lewis.shtml.

However, one of the cases mentioned in that article was overturned and sent back a few months ago: http://newmedialaw.proskauer.com/2009/04/articles/trademark/second-circuit-reverses-in-rescuecom-v-google-adwords-use-of-trademark-is-a-use-in-commerce-under-the-lanham-act/ . (Note that this just means a particular point of law was overturned; Rescuecom still needs to prove the rest of their case to win.)

IANAL, so I wouldn't even hazard a guess on how this will play out - perhaps with Congressional action, as suggested by the court as reported near the end of that second article. In the meantime, I don't think anyone here can authoritatively say that using a competitor's trademark to gain in search is or is not a violation of trademark law.

I would, however, encourage the original poster to put more effort into understanding the distinction between trademark and copyright law, using the correct terminology in this type of post (as well as other proofreading), and avoiding gross generalizations that may hurt your credibility.

You wasted your time, money and effort in that registration didn't you?


Think I'll go down the street to taste a McDonald's Big Mac...........as a comparison to my famous Peggy Burger. Peggy Burgers are a well known burger of unsurpassed quality compared to that assembly line thing McDonald's put out and calls a hamburger!! Of course my burger is registered..........among my friends.

Come sue me McDonald's.

Interesting topic.
Companies use their competitor's trade marked names in advertising all the time.
X out of Y people enjoy Product A over Product B*. Legal to do and morally OK IMHO.

I think the real issue is using a competitor's trademarked in a misleading way to increase market share. If these places sell your items too bad they are advertising your product for sale. If they are using your trademarked name to bring people in but do not sell your product or directly provide a means to acquire it you might have a valid case (still being decided in the courts~how much money are you planning on spending on this case?)

"Hello I came in to buy Paul's Pancakes."
"We don't carry Paul's Pancakes, we sell Sara's Strudels."
"But your ad says..." OK you get the point.

I think the best you can do is require that people using your name for legitimate advertising is require them to attribute the trademark to you.

*Product B is a registered trademark of Company Soandso.

"Dreamstream Medis" I thought the same thing when first reading the post.

On the basis of the OP's apparent (il)literacy in the original post, I wouldn't place any reliance on the spelling of any claimed trademarks . . .

Pep ( . . . or anything else he/she says!)

You lost my sympathy right here. This is bunk and I call this a crude extortion threat. I expect this kind of stuff from underage kids, not adults.

point taken

Absolutely not. It's perfectly legal.

You are mistaken. Anyone can use the name of another business in the publicity. E.g. My sex beds are better than SexGen sex beds. An RL TV ad example in the UK is when supermakets compare their benefits to other named supermarkets. Another company's name can't be used if the user is trying to make out that it *is* that company, or is trying to benefit from the other company's name, such as in the Keywords tag in a webpage. But there are no keywords in the SL search systems, so that can't be done.

In other words, there are legitimate uses of another company's name, and permission is not needed to use it. There are illegitimate uses too.

If your legal advisor has been telling you different then either the law is different in Ireland, or s/he is not very good at his/her job, or s/he wants you to take legal action so that s/he can get your money even though s/he knows you'll lose.

If you want to rank highly for your business, work at it - just like you'd have to do with web search engines. Owning a business name does not give you the right to rank #1 for it in *any* search engine.

If it is legal, then why did the SLX Gestapo shut down my listings until I removed the word TRUly? Am I missing a secret law that places SLX above the constitution?