#trademark — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #trademark, aggregated by home.social.
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In Trademark Fight With Far-Right Party, Ikea Scores
A Belgian campaign borrowing Ikea’s look has hit a legal wall in Europe. The EU’s top court…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #Belgium #campaign #Freedomofexpression #ikea #Immigration #internationalcourtofjustice #ruling #trademark #VlaamsBelang #World
https://www.newsbeep.com/725277/ -
"Tweet" and the bird logo apparently enter the public domain
Comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49621751
#HackerNews #Tweet #bird #publicdomain #Twitter #trademark #ProjectBluebird
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Questionable Climate Active certification scheme is coming to an end https://www.edo.org.au/2026/07/28/questionable-climate-active-certification-scheme-is-coming-to-an-end/ #trademark #greenwashing #certification
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Questionable Climate Active certification scheme is coming to an end https://www.edo.org.au/2026/07/28/questionable-climate-active-certification-scheme-is-coming-to-an-end/ #trademark #greenwashing #certification
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Questionable Climate Active certification scheme is coming to an end https://www.edo.org.au/2026/07/28/questionable-climate-active-certification-scheme-is-coming-to-an-end/ #trademark #greenwashing #certification
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Questionable Climate Active certification scheme is coming to an end https://www.edo.org.au/2026/07/28/questionable-climate-active-certification-scheme-is-coming-to-an-end/ #trademark #greenwashing #certification
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Questionable Climate Active certification scheme is coming to an end https://www.edo.org.au/2026/07/28/questionable-climate-active-certification-scheme-is-coming-to-an-end/ #trademark #greenwashing #certification
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Take-Two’s Leak Burying DMCA Attempts Snared GameStop & Gaming Journalist That Did Nothing Wrong
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Sydney Sirens unveiled as new Super Netball brand – in shock to ice hockey team of same name https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/aug/20/sydney-sirens-super-netball-brand-ice-hockey
The arrival of Sydney’s second netball team has caused consternation in the Australian Women’s Ice Hockey League amid fears they will be forced into a name change. #trademark #sport #auslaw -
Clarification on the Notepad++ Trademark Issue
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/news/clarify-npp-trademark-infringement/
#HackerNews #Notepad++ #Trademark #Clarification #TrademarkIssue #OpenSource #SoftwareNews
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Court Dismisses Pepperdine’s Nonsense Trademark Suit Against Netflix Over ‘Running Point’
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Formula 1, Others Oppose Arean Football One’s Logo Trademark Application
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Nut Huggers Apparel Plans To Battle Back Against Bullshit Buc-ee’s Bullying
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Is unauthorised fashion #upcycling lawful? Not according to French first instance court #iplaw #copyright #trademark #law https://ipkitten.blogspot.com/2025/07/is-unauthorised-fashion-upcycling.html?m=1
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This item I found in my grocery store may LOOK like a regular cheapo Hot Wheels car, but it's actually a legal maneuver by the Mattel company to protect a toy trademark going back at least to 1984, having NOTHING to do with Hot Wheels.
In 1984 Mattel introduced a line of plastic robot toys called "Robo Force." The leader of the Robo Force robots was named Maxx Steele. The line was short-lived, but around 1990 Mattel used "Max Steel" as the name of their 12" action figure line designed to compete with Hasbro's 12" GI Joe line. The line was popular in the U.S. for may years, and even when it faded here, it remained popular in Latin America for years more. In various forms, it was sold up until 2022.
The franchise also spawned two TV series, multiple direct to DVD movies (mostly issued as toy premiums) and a live action (which was a commercial and critical failure). But in total, though little known, this was a BIG franchise for Mattel.
We regress to intellectual property law here (with the proviso that I am NOT a lawyer and this is not legal advice), but unlike Copyright, which is in place for fixed (except when Disney changes the law again) period, Trademarks are intended for active business properties, and must be both used AND legally defended over time to remain active. In the past, Mattel has used a variety of ways to "use" dormant trademarks, such as limited edition trading cards, and limited edition (often cheaply done and very short run) action figures sold at places like Comicon San Diego.
But this is a DIFFERENT way of doing things. I suspect this isn't the first time Mattel has used this tactic, but it's the first time I can recall seeing it in the wild. If you look VERY close at the name on this hot-rod, it is Max Steel, and next to the name is a nearly MICROSCOPIC "registered trademark" symbol. (An upper-case "R" with a circle around it. The trademark is now active and being used, for legal purposes anyway. I can't read the full line because of the reflections, but it's something along the lines of "Max Steel Customs," a fictional entity that now can be slapped on most any custom car design they happen to issue, whenever the their lawyers tell them it's time to kick the skateboard of trademark a little further down the road. It's almost diabolically clever. Don't be surprised to see this again on a different car, or maybe the "Polly Pocket Racing Team," or a custom racing dump-truck called "He-Man"
Sorry, this sort of stuff just fascinates me. (And if any actual attorney sees something I got wrong, please feel free to call me out on it.)
#trademark #copyright #toys #mattel #hotwheels #IPLaw #IntellectualProperty #law -
🚨 Bungie faces a new lawsuit!
RC vehicle maker Traxxas claims the "Traxus" trademark from Bungie’s upcoming game Marathon is too similar to their own.
Legal battle ahead! ⚖️
https://gamingfoodle.tech/traxxas-sues-bungie-marathon-trademark/
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New Paper Alert: An Empirical Evaluation of the Trademark Modernization Act
I've just posted to SSRN a preprint of my forthcoming article reporting the first empirical analysis of the Trademark Modernization Act's new ex parte reexamination and expungement proceed
#EmpiricalResearch #Scholarship #Trademarks #empirical #IntellectualProperty #LegalScholarship #PTO #Trademark
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Matter Labs drops ZK trademark applications after industry backlash - It follows a public letter from ZK researchers and top industry experts ... - https://cointelegraph.com/news/matter-labs-drops-zk-trademark-applications #shafigoldwasser #sandeepnailwal #zeroknowledge #eliben-sasson #silviomicali #matterlabs #zk-proofs #trademark #zksync #zk
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@fediversereport @manton I agree that he has every right to trademark “Mastodon”. Actually, I thought he did exactly that sometime 2017 and 2018, because this was not the first time this happened, nor was it the second time.
#Mastodon is not a generic term as far as #SNS / #SocialWeb space is concerned. It is not a stand-in or a replacement or a sweet term for the #fediverse. It is a product. It is a brand. Always has been from the beginning. Thus, it is only right that he protects his trademark.
Now, as for a new name, there have been attempts to change it even before 2020, it's not new. But one has to wonder why there are a million complaints about the label ‘fediverse’ yet whenever people talk about suggesting names, only less than 100 participates? Ironically, those who do are usually the people who are fine with ‘fediverse’. ;)
A little background: Fediverse has been in used since 2012, first coined by Mark Eckenwiler; and in 2013 it was also coined by Marjolein Katsma, and from there it picked up (at least based on what I was able to find in web archives). It was natural. There was no voting. No discussion. The ‘fediverse’ just came naturally. And I think this is why it became the alternative label to the #OpenMicroBlogging > #OStatus > #ActivityPub protocols. Everyone simply picked it up.
However, I am open to using a different label, and I understand the point of those complaining about it. But, for it to fly, it has to be a global effort. People need to stop complaining about it, and start taking action.
So, let's have another round of discussions. Here are the suggestions floated around, in order of vote result (the instance seems to have died, it's not loading, so no link but see attached screenshot), based on 11 voters.
36% Mycelial Network (inspired by #StarTrekDiscovery)
18% The Wired (inspired by #SerialExperimentsLain #anime)
18% Torinet (tori is a bird in Japanese)
18% Omnipotamus (as in all the rivers)
18% suggest something else (see below)
9% Ganggang (a type of Cockatoo in Wiradjuri language)
9% Mushrooms
9% Fungivine
9% WebbingNo votes:
Flocks
Grapevine
Wired (inspired by Serial Experiments Lain)
Protocol 7 (inspired by Serial Experiments Lain)Other suggestions:
* The Federation. Inspired by, well, #StarTrek. A lot replied they like this one. (note: this is also the name of the #diaspora network)
* Rebellion. Inspired by #StarWarsPersonally, I like #Mycelial. But, as was pointed out by others, it's a bit of a challenge to say, and to remember. The other options then, at least based on the above poll results, would be #TheWired #Torinet #Omnipotamus.
Or,
#TheFederation – let's unify diaspora* and #ActivityPub and be done with it.
Or, #SocialWeb since it was how it all started anyway in 2005.
Or, maybe, it doesn't matter as long as one is not violating someone else's #trademark.
^_^
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@smallcircles @neil Are we really discussing this now? And Is it the FOSS project you know that I'm thinking of? 🙂
I've been mired in the issue tracker lately, but I've only got so much time to spend.
Here's my take. MIT and BSD licenses are nice but subject to capture, and designed to work in a world that was generally without patent trolls in a sharing, institutional education environment.
Scientists share - corporations rip you off, injecting proprietary closed sourced code into MIT licensed code they don't have to show you (a mere copyright notice stating that the product contains at least some freely licensed code will suffice in satisfying the licensing terms)... And if there's a novel "process" involved (i e., federating capabilities) they patent YOU and YOUR COLLEAGUES work for themselves.
A few years back, I was stunned to find out that #Microsoft was receiving about $7 from every single #Android device shipped for #patents they hold related to Linux.
But again, I digress...
Okay...
Basically, and for my part, I say "Copyleft", in the most general terms, and if it's software that is well suited as a self or commercially hosted SaaS offering environment, then #AGPL - but then, that begs your question: AGPL v3 or later, or AGPL v3 only?
Yes, if you say, "or later", then you run the risk of unfavorable licensing at some point in the future, but that's not a certainty.
But it is a constant, distinct possibility. Always has been.
Being a pain in the ass to go from "3 only", or to "or later", or to some other constraint is an inconvenience - that's all. Time, labor, money. That's pretty much it when it comes to re-licensing. That cost goes down if #CONTRIBUTING.md specifies that contributors agree to the project re-licensing their contributions under some other #Copyleft license at some point in the future.
To answer the rest of your question, I'mma just gonna get all #Socratic on you...
1. ) Do you trust #RMS and the #FSF? - that used to be the question to ponder, because you were actually assigning control to them.
2. ) What would #Linus do?
Actually, what did Linus do?
He chose #GPL v2 a long time ago when he re-licensed the #Linux kernel.
He also chose GPL v2 "only" - and you can search on #PeerTube for videos that have him explaining why, and further, why he is happy that he didn't choose, "or later", and how he feels that, in retrospect, that would have been a very bad thing.
So here's my 2¢, and I've already expressed this in my typical "IMNSHO" fashion a couple of times before in the project's Matrix room (if we're talking about the same project), but I'll give it again here one more time.
A.) Do it now, rather than later, or do it yesterday if that's possible yet (you may need to consult H.G. Wells or Einstein in that regard).
B.) Use a Copyleft license - specifically, I'm advocating for AGPL - but as long as it's Copyleft, preferably AGPL v3, my immediate concerns are alleviated. Whether that's "only", or "or later", that's of very little import AFAIC.
C.) Ensure that CONTRIBUTING.md states that the project is at liberty to contribute patches to the deprecated, antecedent project in the form of patches gifted to them under the terms of the MIT license - after all, we want to be good neighbors and software stewards in the #FOSS space
I've already discussed the simplicity of doing so in chat and consensus was roundly in favor with this approach, and also in doing it now.
D.) Hard fork now.
Finally, there had been much concern expressed from several of the other project members that we're going to suffer recruiting issues by not being able to insure to potential new contributors that their efforts won't be subject to #corporate or #special_interest or #trademark lobby #capture, where they could likely see their blood, sweat, and tears released as #closed_source #proprietary products, until such time as we do re-license under a Copyleft license.
I hope that helps! 🙂
#tallship
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