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).
Hide this

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


  1. identicon
    steel buildings blog, 27 Oct 2004 @ 3:29pm

    No Subject Given

    Nintendo is just clueless. They should be penalized for such a stupid lawsuit.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Mikester, 27 Oct 2004 @ 3:53pm

    You too

    And now you're going to be sued for mentioning Coca Cola. Dammit! Now I am too...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    dorpus, 27 Oct 2004 @ 3:54pm

    Riska, the new game not coming from Nintendo

    Japanese are into virtual-character "mania" games, you know. Expect to see games like this in the US tech fringe soon.

    http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~adc52520/risukagazou.htm

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 27 Oct 2004 @ 4:02pm

    Re: Riska, the new game not coming from Nintendo

    Dude, DOWN, not ACROSS.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Brian, 28 Oct 2004 @ 6:16am

    Coke and a smile

    I don't know, Coke has been hurting lately, maybe that's a sound revenue growth strategy. j/k

    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 thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.