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[PA Comic] Friday, January 24, 2014 - Sagacity
Geth
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
LegionPerseus VeilRegistered User, Moderator, Penny Arcade Staff, Vanilla Staff vanilla
Posts
Gamer Dater - My Video Game Dating Website full of Faygo
Strip Search Wastebasket of Broken Dreams App I made
Or heroes! Heroes of farms!
1. It involves vikings, or a facsimile thereof.
2. It's epic
3. It's a tale that's suitable for being retold around a fire.
Banner Saga: Fullfilling conditions one, two and three.
Candy Crush Saga: Not fulfilling any of the conditions above.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
I'm less enthusiastic about it now.
Isn't this whole trademark thing like the guy who trademarked the word 'edge'? That got shut down by the courts.
(Eventually. And I think that a big part of that was the fact that he hadn't done anything with the name himself for a few decades, so that wouldn't apply here.)
Also, I had no idea it was called Candy Crush Saga until this silliness started.
"Word jail" has now been sent to the ambiguity gulag, where it will break rocks in its pyjamas.
Though, it seems like My Friend at The End Mr. Period ought to have been involved.
Word jail, and all.
My friends at work are like "Lucas, you should totally play Papa Pear Saga with us so you can give us extra lives" and I'm like "I already played that game 4 years ago when it was called Peggle."
I know he's called Mike a "Thought Criminal" before in one of the 4th panels.
I think it was when Mike made a reference to "bruised vaginas" while composing this comic.
The beer industry got shut down too when 'light' was ruled off-limits for trademarking. Which is why you see the word 'lite'. You can't take legal possession of a basic, common word, and not only that, if the name of your product gets so iconic that it becomes a basic common word, you lose trademark protection. Companies like Kleenex and Xerox have to deal with that on a daily basis; 'thermos', 'escalator', 'heroin', 'zipper', and 'yo-yo' all used to be trademarks but got declared generic.
Also, how did they pull this off when Paris Hilton couldn't get a copyright on the TWO word phrase "that's hot", and Donald Trump couldn't copyright the phrase "You're Fired!"?
Also it turns out that their concern about names that might cause confusion in the marketplace is ever so slightly selective:
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Disney tried to Trademark Seal Team 6, not Copyright. Copyright is for protecting original works. Trademark is for something that identifies with your product. Which could have existed long before you started using it, but might now be very well associated with you. There is at least an argument for a TM on Seal Team 6. The crazy claims on ordinary speech are usually Trademark filings.
See: all appellate courts in the south.
Man, that is....something weird. What kind of product does Disney have that's affiliated with Seal Team 6?
It's going to be something totally obvious, given Disney's size, but I'm guessing there's not going to be a Lone Survivor Marcus Luttrell Disney Princess™ coming anytime soon
EDIT:
Reading a WSJ article about it after a quick Google, it seems Disney didn't even have a product related, but just tried to file a trademark in ADVANCE of developing something?
Hahahahhaha.
It is a common practice to trademark just about anything before you drop cash into it if the branding is important to the final sale. I have seen "huge" deals fall apart because in the end the trademark is tied to the marketability and the lawyers have stated that its impossible to enforce or has a high chance of failure then risk assessment says no go.
Occasionally you are even trying to out position your opposition by driving them to a less marketable name but this is extremely rare
This is a really weird case it should NEVER gotten this far. It will get bounced at some point but its progressed so far that the courts will be involved. They are in a weird sort of catch 22, somehow they got the trademark, and now they have to protect it or they will loose it.
Isn't that why Lego keeps insisting people refer to its products as "LEGO bricks" rather than just "Legos"?
Dark Fibre: Fiberoptic cable placed in anticipation of future demand
From my understanding, which may be wrong, Mojang was accidentally trying to do what King is purposefully doing now. At the the time, Mojang was trying to trademark "Scrolls" as the title of their game, but instead wound up applying for trademarking the word in general.
Though, with one-word titles, they could be the same thing.
Either way, I would be extremely not upset if something very bad were to happen to King.com as a company.
I awesomed this post. It was excellent. And then I noticed the layers. Now I wish I had more awesomes to give.
Unfortunately their fans are the ones that will never even hear about all of this crap.
No, it's because referring to Lego as Legos is fucking wrong.
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
I have one sheep. I have lots of sheep.
I have one Lego. I have lots of Lego.
Saying or writing Legos is directly and wholly equivalent to Hitler punching a baby.
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
I have that legos minifig.
I employ "lego" as a massnoun, and "lego-piece" for specifics.