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?

[Alex Fedotov]

Use of (r) and (tm) on products that in fact ARE NOT trademarked violates the patent and trademark law (in the US). :) hehe . You have to SUBMIT... lol... an application to USPTO first. :)
ROFL

[Sciamachy Moran]

So, whe®e can we find out™ if Linden Lab have done this?®™

[Alex Fedotov]

http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/gate.exe?f=tess&state=44sg7q.1.1
in particular:
Reg. # 2813096

[Alex Fedotov]

Of course, of course :)
However in nowadays they recommend NOT to use tm sign but use a language like: "are registered or unregistered
trademarks of ... in the United States and/or other countries"
It's considered to be 'wiser' for many reasons. There was a precedent I guess. :)

[Sciamachy Moran]

I'm lucky™® - I'm in the UK®. :-)

[Harper Ganesvoort]

No need to apologize. We could use an actual lawyer in all these proceedings.

Peace, Harper (whose computer is back home -- provisionally)

[Eladrienne Laval]

LOL! That way too funny last night Zoe! I could see our commercials running a little something like this: "Are you worried that your 2nd Lyfe needs brand protection? Have questions about the latest "comply or cry" policies? We also handle tp crash and lag-related accident settlements, as well as damages related to inventory losses. The virtual world can be a confusing place and we can help YOU today...Contact Laval & Connolly LLP now! We'll get the job done!"

[Zoe Connolly]

@Eladrienne

Yes! I can just picture our late night commercials now.

[Raul Crimson]

LAWL!!! We all wait for this visit ;-)

[Miguel Yesheyev]

Arminas... we, as all of us, were totally caught by surprise. And we feel totally outraged. For as long as we served the cause, it was ok to publicize whatever related to them and their platform. I feel like we now are by far too small for their outstanding might lol and ambition.

We have a blog in portuguese which we already were forced to change its logo and motos. Why? Simply because we are part of a portuguese network of blogs about lots of subjects including this one. I have never seen any other corporation imposing people like us to write a ™ or a ® after their brands. Like Coca-Cola, Coke, Pepsi, Nike, Adidas, Nokia, Microsoft, Colgate, Boeing, Airbus... you name it! I mean, it's normal to refer to brands which are part of your daily life, ain't it?!

I gotta tell ya, this sort of action is rather shocking as it shows quite clearly the way ahead for the "new world era". We don't spend big bucks in here... Personally, I am thinking to leave this platform for good. I feel totally outraged that I am not in this environment to make any money, I do actually spend a lot for a service provider who does this to me... Are you joking?! I just hope for OpenSIM and "likewisers" to show up as soon as possible as I do really wish to move!

Oh and don't forget to change the logo here... what's the point of giving them too much importance when, for sure, there is so much more out there. I have started not enjoying substancially neither them nor their marketing team or partners (whatever!).

Cheers!

[Harper Ganesvoort]

Actually, like I said in my blog article, this is really nothing new in a way. I haven't read Writer's Digest for a long time, but it used to run a legal column periodically; and, about twice a year, a cluster of companies would buy display ad space in that column, instructing authors how they should refer to their trademarks in anything they wrote about. I assume that the nonfiction authors may have paid some attention; I doubt many of the fiction authors did, except to place disclaimers on the title verso of their work (the copyright page [grin]).

[Ian Betteridge]

The quick answer is no, you don't need to add TM to every instance of Second Life, and a lot of this has been overblown. It's worth reading PubLaw's article on fair use of trademarks for more details, but the short version is that as long as you use a trademark nominatively - to refer to the product or service - you're covered by fair use.

Think of newspapers: every newspaper reports on hundreds of trade marks daily. Do you see their pages littered with TMs? Of course not.