Wait, so The Banner Saga isn't an epic story about a gamma-irradiated scientist?
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.)
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.
Sure you can (take legal possession of a basic, common word). Just try to name a computer program of any sort "Windows" and see how far you get.
Wait, so The Banner Saga isn't an epic story about a gamma-irradiated scientist?
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.)
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.
Sure you can (take legal possession of a basic, common word). Just try to name a computer program of any sort "Windows" and see how far you get.
First of all, "Windows" is the entire name of the program, and so yeah, creating another program called "Windows" could conceivably confuse a consumer between the two products, damaging the original product's brand. The same does not apply to the word "saga" when used anywhere in a very different name.
Second, the type of product and content of it is a factor in whether or not a brand has been infringed upon. So if I made a movie called "Windows" about portals to another dimension, Microsoft would have a comparatively difficult time claiming that I was infringing upon their program or brand. The content between Banner Saga and Candy Crush Saga would not have ordinarily made me think of the latter just by playing the former. The only reason we are even talking about it is because King is throwing a fit; otherwise the two would pretty much be considered totally distinct products.
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Sure you can (take legal possession of a basic, common word). Just try to name a computer program of any sort "Windows" and see how far you get.
First of all, "Windows" is the entire name of the program, and so yeah, creating another program called "Windows" could conceivably confuse a consumer between the two products, damaging the original product's brand. The same does not apply to the word "saga" when used anywhere in a very different name.
Second, the type of product and content of it is a factor in whether or not a brand has been infringed upon. So if I made a movie called "Windows" about portals to another dimension, Microsoft would have a comparatively difficult time claiming that I was infringing upon their program or brand. The content between Banner Saga and Candy Crush Saga would not have ordinarily made me think of the latter just by playing the former. The only reason we are even talking about it is because King is throwing a fit; otherwise the two would pretty much be considered totally distinct products.
I think Tycho would enjoy the game titled "Candy Verb Saga"