The Second Life® Brand Center vs. Bloggers

[ArminasX Saiman]

I've just finished scanning the overly lengthy new branding rules just announced by *that-company-I-am-not-sure-I-can-safely-mention-here*. There are several points in there that may affect bloggers, and many more that affect business owners. A few items of possible concern to us bloggers:

• "In the United States, always use a trademark notice symbol"
• "Always use a legible and reasonably prominent trademark attribution notice "
• "Always follow a Linden Lab brand name with an appropriate generic noun"
• "Use an appropriate generic noun after the Second Life or SL brand names"
• "Always capitalize and spell Linden Lab's brand names exactly as they are shown"
• "Do not use any Linden Lab logo, icon, slogan, or tagline."
• "Never modify, imitate, or register any Linden Lab trademark"
• "Never use any Linden Lab trademark in a disparaging or tarnishing manner outside the bounds of fair criticism or fair use"

Huh? Do I have to consult an attorney every time I mention S****d L**e in my blog posts? (Ooops! I just modified a trademark!) Is this for real? I have never heard of such extensive guidelines, and feel that these are highly restrictive rules to impose on our blogging community.

What do you think?

[Crap Mariner]

The domain name restriction is going to be the biggest pain in the ass:

"Domain Names. If you have a domain name that includes a Linden Lab trademark (such as http://secondlifesoftware.com), obtain a new domain name that does not use our trademarks, or that complies with our Guidelines and Terms for using "SL" or "inSL" with a domain name. Use the 90-day transition period to educate your customers about your new domain name. You can contact us about the original domain name for further guidance on what to do."

Goodbye, secondlife.isfullofcrap.com, eh.

[Noelyci Ingmann]

Mmmmm, this isn't that different from using their logo now.... the way I get around this and the legal boilerplate to add is: "Second Life® and Linden Lab® are trademarks or registered trademarks of Linden Research, Inc. All rights reserved. No infringement is intended.This fansite is in no way affliated or endorsed by either Linden Lab® or Second Life®." This should protect you even if you're criticizing them.

[Dedric Mauriac]

I believe that you can modify/imitate the trademark as a parody. Think of the get a first life website. Maybe this only pertains to copyrights.

Either way, I am a bit freaked out about the whole issue. I am wondering if I am liable to have papers serviced to me for mentioning, linking, or tagging any trademark of theirs. I'm also wondering about the statement located at the bottom of http://sl.com and how this affects that company.

[Harper Ganesvoort]

My take on this is at Around the Grid; it's lengthy. (Yeah, I know; shameless promotion [grin].)

Peace, Harper

[ArminasX Saiman]

Great article! I agree with your thought that this is part of the IPO plan.... anything involving lawyers is a clue. The move of Philip is also part of that plan, in which Linden Lab will bring in a big-time corporate type to lead the company.

[Kanomi Pikajuna]

A company as dependent as Linden is on the goodwill and contributions of their community cannot possibly be stupid enough as to harass their fans for failing to put a TM after their company name.

My guess is these guidelines are there to give them protection and cause to go after bogus currency exchange web sites and other profiteers.

Electronic Arts is infinitely wealthier but for the most part they left the Sims fan sites alone.

[Noelyci Ingmann]

I will do a more full comparison of this when I get back from surgery but I don't believe this is any different from the policy they had in place concerning their hand in eye logo. They just called attention to it with this new logo and the post on their blog. They have always had a trademark policy on their site for the older logo and to my knowledge they generally do not pursue it unless someone claims endorsement or official status. By the way the first life site has their official endorsement.

[Harper Ganesvoort]

I'd agree with you and Kanomi, at least in part; but the amount of verbiage there sure makes it seem as if they're adding in more stuff, and appearances are everything. In the same vein, to be vulgar about it, their timing at announcing this sucked an ostrich egg, what with the concerns over Resident merchant copyright/intellectual property and LL's inactivity on this issue in the face of the JIRA vote.

[Vint Falken]

They used to dispense the eye-in-hand-logo to put it on your blogs. Now they dispense the inSL logo for the same use. So you have ninety days to remove the eye-in-hand-logo.

[Harper Ganesvoort]

That is probably the most I will do at this point. After that, and with the disclaimer, I think most bloggers should be safe.

Peace, Harper

[Ravishal Bentham]

How does this affect us Wordpress bloggers hosted by wordpress? My URL is Ravishal4SL.Wordpress.com. Similarly GoSpeed's is Secondlifeimagery.wordpress.com.

It would really suck for me and Crap because if we have to change URLs then there is no guarantee that Tao Takashi will fix the listings in World of SL. Damn shame iheartsl.com didn't pan out. :(

[Vint Falken]

Ravishal, Crap could keep the old feed and just 'refer' that to the new feed. (If you're already using feedburner, that's even easier).

I don't know for WP.com though, how to do that.