Nintendo Confused About How The Web Works
from the let's-try-this-again... dept
Following the story earlier today about Rolex threatening a site for receiving fake-Rolex spam it appears that Nintendo's lawyers are trying to surpass Rolex's in internet cluelessness. Their lawyers are threatening a site where someone's profile mentions their favorite video games -- which happen to be Nintendo video games. The problem is that the site, SuicideGirls, is a porn site. However, there's no actual trademark violation going on here. Trademark violation includes confusing people into believing that your product is someone else's product. This is just someone saying they like the game, and Nintendo freaking out that someone involved in porn might dare to mention the name. Trademark doesn't mean you own all uses of the name. It's designed to avoid customer confusion when companies try to appear as a different company. As the owner of the site says: "I enjoy an ice cold coca cola on a hot day. Do you think Coca Cola is going to sue me for posting that?" Update: Nintendo now admits they screwed up and have apologized (and offered a free Nintendo system and game to the site owner, and the person who posted the profile).Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
No Subject Given
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
You too
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Riska, the new game not coming from Nintendo
http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~adc52520/risukagazou.htm
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Riska, the new game not coming from Nintendo
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Coke and a smile
When will these guys learn, when you sue people willy nilly only lawyers get rich. Speaking of which, I think I'm in the wrong line of work.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]