Trademark infringement and cheap knockoffs

Hello all.

I am a sexgen rep and have been dealing with people trying to market there cheap knockoff beds under our company name, But i have noticed it is not just us. It seams each time a company in Sl works it's butt off building up a name for them selfs some greffer or second class builder/scripter jumps on the wagon and trys to profit off of others hard work. like with our company someone takes the free Mlb script and puts " Sexgen " in there search to draw customers away from the real thing. I have also noticed it with cloths, homes, weapons.. etc.. someone starts making cheap cloths and puts b@r in there search hoping customers will go there and not know they are buying knockoffs. I guess my point in this small rant is what is the use of working hard to build up a Sl business from scratch and a good reputation if then anyone can take your company name, stick it in there search or put the name on there own products and there is nothing you can do to stop them???

becasue this is a virtual world...... , the ONLY comment you can really make is somebody calling their product a "SexGen" but certainly theres nothing cheap and certainly knockoff...

If it does the same thing as a sexgen or pretty close to it and they call it something different and price accordingly ... then thats fair game competition.

If it does the same thing as a sexgen or pretty close to it and they call it something different and price accordingly ... then thats fair game competition.[/QUOTE]

IF the knockoff bed was anywhere as good as the real thing then the builder would not need to include the word sexgen in there search to trick people there to see it. By putting the better competitors name in there search they are all but admitting there version is not as good and they need to trade on the more respected company's reputation because the bed would not sell otherwise... This is my whole point.. people trading on more respected companies names to get there products out there.. like putting a Coke sign outside of your RL store when all you sell is a cheaper store brand..

I've not seen this anywhere tbh.

That's not really true. Marketing is not simply a function of quality. Consider that MacOS is recognized as having greater usability and reliability than MS Windows, yet Apple mentions PCs in their ads.

Quality in a product doesn't yield results until consumers know about it. That takes advertising, and it's perfectly legitimate to have explicit product comparisons in their advertising. It is also legitimate when such comparisons produce search results.

What's not legitimate is gaming the system to achieve search results, but again, that has nothing to do with the quality. Someone who has produced a superior product would still correctly perceive that gaming the search the system is an effective way to advertise. And it is effective, but also unethical and potentially illegal.

The sad truth is that SL is rife with IP (Intellectual Property) infringement....from paintings to photographs to sound clips...while I love the creativity afforded bySL in this regard I'm quite worried that LL is but one lawsuit away from a situation not unlike that with RIAA and digital distribution of music. We can only police ourselves in this regard, but more careful we are with not selling reproductions of RL art works, the better off we'll be in the long run. IMHO

You're assuming - and it's a big assumption - that everyone agrees with you as Sexgen being "the best" bed.

However, "the best" anything is always purely subjective, and people are merely using "keyword association" when they mention "Sexgen", so people looking for something "like" a bed with poseballs on it.

Why not just wait till this lawsuit gets dealt with, then start trying to stop other people using a word?

Broccoli

Ok, allow me to give you all an example of what i see going on.. this is the search for a sim called ":: NeXus 2.0 :: The Ultimate Sex Place"

"FREE SEX,Sex, Beds,Fantasy,R***,Capture,BD**,Fetish,Sexgen,XXX Porn,Kinky,Biker,Or**,Lesbian,AN**,Girls"

i have gone here and looked for myself.. The beds they are selling all use the Free MLB script but do you see the word "MLB" in the search..... NO.

Because it is a free script and free animations.. i do however see Sexgen in there search when they clearly are not selling a sexgen product.. So they are using "Sexgen" as a flag to draw people there to see a bed that would not sell as much if they made it clear that it was a MLb-Free system..

It is trickery and deception.. because if they removed sexgen from there search and replaced it with MLB would sell alot less...

They are not even bothering to say "sexgen like, or sexgen type system".. like the good old fashion bait and switch

Selling or advertising somehing as a SexGen bed is infringing the trademark.

Advertising or describing something as better than SexGen, cheaper than SexGen etc. isn't.

Also you do need to keep in mind that many newcomers to SL get inundated with a whole raft of new terminology (alongside all the other new things) such as sexgen, sploders, AOs, auto-rezzers, landbots, money trees, campers, poofers, anti-idles, multigadgets, orbiters, tipjars etc. with no real indication of which of these are generic terms and which are trademarks (would you be able to definitively state which of those are generic and which are trademarks).

All they have to go on is what everyone else in world appears to be doing (and many in world don't even know about these forums, btw!).

I don't buy or sell SexGen beds so it doesn't affect me, but I hadn't realised before that it wasn't a generic term invented by the SL community.

Matthew

Is the word "Sexgen" actually trademarked, legally, or is this simply just all fluff?

If so, please provide proof.

All I am seeing is trying to create a case that the word is automatically associated with the item regardless of its designer - like someone might call any old vacuum cleaner a "Dyson" or a "Hoover", or someone might say "Get me a coke" when there's only own brand cola in the refridgerator.

Broccoli

Yes, the term " Sexgen" is legal trademarked by Stroker Serpentine as a sexgen partner. it has been trademarked for over 3 years..

As for providing proof what would you suggest, posting a copy of the legal paperwork here on line with RL information on the trademark holder on it? bet the criminals and identity thives would love that, not to mention it is agent the sL codes of conduct.

Its not the best, its just the most well known - and I think thats why others use the name.

I think they have to actively protect their Tradename to maintain it - thats part of Trademark law from what people have been hinting at.

My quick two Lindens:

People will always compare to the better known products or to give reference. i.e. nothing wrong with "Paradise Bed, XYZ, .... (like SexGen)". Coke and Pepsi have had their comingling comparisons on the past too. Competition is healthy.

But I also strongly believe that the most ardent shoppers, and the biggest mouth pieces will care about quality and WILL do the research and NOT be taken by marketing gimmicks.

A good friend loves her SexGen, and she can spot a fake a mile away... but she can also see "like-SexGen" products and give them the nod of appreciation. It's personal preference.

If a product is made well, it will rise above.

The worst thing that can happen to any risen or well known product is to rest on one's laurels and not do anything to improve their product. With all due respect, a friend of mine in SL makes some pretty amazing MLP furniture and has a new line out -- they kick ass like nobody's business. The vendor keeps improving the line of products and in my books, that's taking something already great and making it awesome.

And that was five Lindens, sorry.

Cheers! And good luck!

I see this kind of thing mostly on a large SL market website, and a lot of it. Usually a bunch of people all selling beds with the 60+ stolen/exploited anims in them.

That makes you wonder something - how many of Stroker's animations are actually uniquely created by his company.

I know may sex animations start out as downloads for Poser .. freely availble on the web ..

If you compare the quality of Stroker's Sex animations to Bits and Bobs, for example - Stroker comes up pretty short.

Not a problem, there's enough information known about Stroker and the case via the various SL news sites that a few minutes on Google would probably give you all the information you needed to track him down should you want to. But don't worry, I don't want to or need to.

Honestly I'm more suprised that people have paid $45 for a 'sexgen' bed . Seems a lot of money for a few prims and animations.

Broccoli

It was registered June 11, 2007, evidently in preparation for a lawsuit. The court papers are online, including a facsimile of the trademark application.

Strokers animations are all original and comparing them with bits and bobs is not fair, that guy is a professional animator and has a motion capture system. Stroker made all his himself, you can tell by looking in the beds contents and looking at the property's of each animations, the same for Briggi.

But... if they're not as good as Craig's, why are they so expensive?

Admitting your product is not as good as teh one you claim is 'ripping you off'



ROFL

Perceived value.

It's also preference. My friend loves cycling through the SexGen anims. I have another friend who is militant about his passion for Bits and Bobs and PondLife because he's a major romantic and RPer. (I'm still an SL virgin -- what do I know other than through friends LOL)

Because you are getting 150 animations in a low lag system that allows you 420 prims worth of pose balls for just 7 prims usage. that was even someone with a starter piece of land can have a large selection with just a click. vs.. picking up one set of pose balls and setting out a new set each time, or having 100's of pose balls all over your house.

http://www.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2007/07/virtual-sex-bed.html

court documents attached

How can I tell that? I cant see what files he uploads and from where.

I can only see the animations creator name in Second Life.

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Yeah Craig's a genius. But you are right you pay more per animation than you do in sexgen. And of course you dont get the neat user interface with bits and bobs.

Sexgen's advantage isnt that its the most realistic sex animation system

its that its
-Easy to use
-Easy to own (just reset all scripts if you get a problem, and you can move it easy)

-Has lots of animation for the price
-Is totally ready to go out of the box
-And it has awesome name recognition / which is the problem you are dealing with.


I own 4 sexgen products myself.

and of course the entire bits and bobs line

and a few other designers as well.

I dont think anyone from sexgen claimed Bits and bobs ripped them off.

I was more comparing animation quality.