I was reading a long time in the post about Hasbro suing those game developers, and I am completely on your side. However, in one post I read "BattleShip vs. Battling Ships" is an infringement on a trademark. Let me remind you that a trademark is on EXACT wording. game developers, and I am completely on your side. However, in one post I read "BattleShip vs. Battling Ships" is an infringement on a trademark. Let me remind you that a trademark is on EXACT wording. Therefore, (using an example from MY area) US West has a trademark on US West. The trademark, however is not on United States West, or USW, or even USWEST. Anyones could use any of these as a name. On the flip side, using a name like USWEST instead of US West could cause problems with trademarking, because the trademark is not necessarily on US West instead of USWEST... If you catch my meaning. SO Any change of wording/lettering to a trademark makes it completely legal. In other words, I could then name my company US Westerner and be safe from Trademark infringment. The same goes for any trademark. If I have a game named, ''Ripley''s Revenge'', it would be completely legal for Bob, my buddy in Europe, to have a game name ''Ripley Gets Revenge'' That wasn''t the best example, but hopefully you get the idea BJ Cardon Premonition Software

What about ''Tetris'' and ''TetriMania''? Does TetriMania
violate the Tetris trademark?

quote: Original post by Knight24

What about ''Tetris'' and ''TetriMania''? Does TetriMania
violate the Tetris trademark?

And the reason I ask is, according to Hasbro, it DOES.

Also, note that the name of the game was not up to the
developer. The publisher names the games and owns the
title/trademarks. The developers get ''sucked in'' to this
lawsuit because of what the publishers did. Still, the
developers will have to spend tens of thousands of dollars
on attorneys to represent themselves in court. The loser
will NOT pay the winner''s legal fees.

Is it fair for Hasbro to sue developers like this?

Actually it is not quite right to say that trademark protection extends only to the exact wording of the mark.

The test is if another mark could be so close to another mark to be "confusing" to the intended customers. So, for example, "USWEST" would certainly be considered an infringement of "US West."

There is no clear distinction in the law between infringing and non-infringing marks. But the law is very clear that exact wording is not the test.

Actually trademarks and copyrights [in general] are to protect a company.
Competing companies using a name on their product that is the same as another comapny''s are violating the trademark [if it is registered.] i.e. You can''t make a computer that''s called an Apple of a Mac [unless your apple of course], but you can make a console gaming system called Apple. The same goes for logos. As for similar names, it usually is either decided by a court or worked out between the companies. Some companies do make honost mistakes in naming their product, usually becuase the market is limited.
Copyrights are a lot more vague. For example, you can''t play a recording company''s title in a public space and charge, but if you perform it yourself you can [charge.] Then there is free use, infringement, etc. I wish I had a good site to point you to, but...

Didn''t somebody look up the trademark "Tetrimania" a while back and determine Hasbro didn''t own it?

I think the big question is, is "tetri" generic enough that you can''t trademark it. Like, for example, I can''t trademark the "Fast" in Fastgraph. There''s another game developer tool maker out there called "FastTrak" and I can''t do anything about it. (Not that I probably would anyway, I don''t really care about that one).

So what does "Tetri" mean, anyway? Isn''t it Greek for something? Is it three? There''s another game called "Pentagrams". Is the the Penta part trademarked?

So, if you own the trademark "tetris" does that you own all the syllables, and anything anybody can do with the syllables, like "Megatris" or "TetAttack"? Just how far does a trademark stretch?

Does it make a difference if the intent of "Megatris" is to inform the reader that it is a Tetris-type game, or is the intention irrelevant?

Good issues, sayeth the issue fairy.

Diana

BJ Cardon,

You are quite wrong on your understanding of trademarks.

A trademark protects ***more*** than just the exact word or phrase that has been legally registered with the Patent and Trademark Office. It protects anyone else from using a confusingly similar word or phrase.

For example, do you think you can come out with a game called DOOOM and not have id all over your ass!? ;-)

Another thing about trademarks that most people do not know, is that there are dozens of classes that a trademark can be registered within. So, if DOOM is registered in the video and computer game class, another company can register DOOM for the name of a motorcycle, because the law assumes that even though the names are the same, people will not confuse the two because they represent very different products.

And there are many other confusing points about trademarks that I often see people get all mixed-up on, so if you're interested in becoming aware of these things (I recommend all serious developers do a little self-education on this critical subject) then please read a book like Intellectual Property (ISBN: 0-314-75738-4) or visit sites like this one: http://www.ggmark.com/

Scott


Edited by - MaxNukem on 3/22/00 10:43:05 AM

Would anyone be confused, as a consumer, by the following 2 names:

Tetris

TetriMania

? Just curious.

quote: Original post by dgruber
So what does "Tetri" mean, anyway? Isn''t it Greek for something? Is it three? There''s another game called "Pentagrams". Is the the Penta part trademarked?

Tetra means four, but "Tetri" is not a greek form. (You can have tri-diagonal or tetra-diagonal, but tetri-diagonal is gibberish or poor spelling.)

I''ve never heard of "Pentagram", but there is a game called "Pente" which is itself trademarked (I want to say by Decipher games, but I think they sold it, so I don''t know anymore). It''s based on five. Think go-maku with captures.

The latter example makes a good case for the corruption of greek forms being legal trademarks.

Tetris and TetriMania may not be confused, if it wasn''t for the fact that there was also a TetrisManis released.

quote: Original post by SiCrane
Tetris and TetriMania may not be confused, if it wasn''t for the fact that there was also a TetrisManis released.

What if TetriMania was released *first*?