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Can Usernames Violate Trademark Law?

Legal Issues

from the fun-with-over-anxious-lawyers dept

Thu, Feb 2nd 2006 10:10am — Mike Masnick
Aviran writes "I found this via digg.com. Bluecollardistro.com got a legal threat this morning from FamilyPants.com because a user on their forum chose 'FamilyPants' as their username. They're upset because Google (and only Google) puts the user's profile on the first page of results for "familypants"." A lot of the comments on Digg and the original post seem to confuse trademark and copyright law, but it's quite hard to see how this is a violation of trademark law. We've said it over and over again, but a trademark does not grant you full control over the trademark. It just lets you prevent others from using it in ways that are likely to be confusing. A user in a forum discussion is quite unlikely to confuse people -- though, it may depend on what the person is saying. If that user is constantly making statements to suggest that he or she is associated with the entity that owns the trademark, then they would actually have a claim. However, from what's been said, it doesn't sound like that's true at all. Instead, it sounds like someone's upset about someone else's Google rank.
26 Comments

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  • identicon
    Mikester, 2 Feb 2006 @ 10:21am

    Database of trademarks

    So what do they expect? Forum admins to deny the creation of any username that contains a trademarked word or phrase? Highly unlikely.
    If this gets before a judge, I would hope he or she sees how ridiculous this request is. Otherwise, anyone who runs a forum or site that registers users will have to check each name against a database of trademarks to make sure every user is not infringing.

    No, I think the real story here is that someone has a bad case of Google-rank envy, plain and simple.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Tech Dirt Support Staff, 2 Feb 2006 @ 10:43am

      Re: Database of trademarks

      I wonder if my name will pass muster, then?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Mike (profile), 2 Feb 2006 @ 10:58am

        Re: Database of trademarks

        Ha! Yes, that would be an example where there could be confusion, and someone could (in theory) claim trademark infringement... though, it's pretty clear here that you would be protected for parody.

        [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Damian, 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:32am

      Re: Database of trademarks

      Can you imagine what would happen in all those Star Wars themed forums where just about every member has a charactor's name as a screenname.
      It would be nerd-anarchy.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Henry Troup, 2 Feb 2006 @ 1:02pm

      Re: Database of trademarks

      Once upon a time, Intel claimed a trademark on the letter "i". If everyone had to protect that trademark in every circumstance...

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:38am

    No Subject Given

    I wonder if this would work the other way around. If I can prove I've had a user name before a company opens with that same name, could I sue them?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ben McNelly, 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:41am

    hmmm....

    sdsd

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    CEO of Disney Corp., 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:41am

    I eat babies

    Lots of 'em.
    Hail Satan.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Microsoft, 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:42am

    No Subject Given

    OH MY GOD MY NAME IS MICROSOFT.

    Just kidding around ;p

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Ben McNelly, 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:43am

    hmmm....

    wups, disregard that last post. Doh!


    So, I know how greedy people can be about thier google ranking, but this is rediculus. You mean I cannot be "mcdonalds" in all those forums I am in?

    What about my other nick, "Big mack"?!?!?

    Sheere, nerd-anarchy.... I hope they at least boost the forums ranking with all tis press. :-P

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      mrb, 2 Feb 2006 @ 3:43pm

      Re: hmmm....

      So, I know how greedy people can be about thier google ranking, but this is rediculus. You mean I cannot be "mcdonalds" in all those forums I am in?


      What if your last name is mcdonalds?

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Luke, 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:49am

    Hm.

    Well, I was going to say something funny, but my name's Luke and my last initial is an "S" so I go by Luke S. a lot...could that be used as confusion towards making myself out to be Luke Skywalker? (Probably not, but it suddenly occured to me as I was typing.)

    My original thought:

    What if my last name was Comfort. And let's say my conception had a little help from a whisky and to remember that my parents made my first name Southern. So my parents name me: Southern Comfort - could problems arise? (I heard a story about some locals doing something very similar, but I think it was Jack Daniel Brewer or something - you get the idea.)

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Bandito, 2 Feb 2006 @ 11:51am

    City of Heroes

    In this MMOG where you create a super-powered persona, the publisher (NCSoft) was sued by Marvel because you could make a character that resembled (and was named) Wolverine or other Marvel characters. To settle this lawsuit, NCSoft has taken to renaming characters in game whos name even closely resembles a "trademarked" name to Generic#####. Obviously then, a precedent has been set (however ridiculous that precedent may be).

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Wolverine, 2 Feb 2006 @ 12:07pm

      Re: City of Heroes

      Well in this vase there technically is copyright infringement. Since they are not only using the name but likeness. I am a huge COH fanboy and I hate that marvel did that to their own fans but they are coprorate bloodsucking parasites like the rest of big businesses. I'm sure this crap will get thrown out of court if not I'm going to do the reverse and sue some companies that use my standard forum name. Maybe I can get rich and become a blood sucker too!

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Paul, 2 Feb 2006 @ 12:27pm

      Re: City of Heroes

      Whats really funny is when I look up family pants in Google, the first item is now familypants.com. So regardless of what happens, some free publicity has been generated.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anti, 2 Feb 2006 @ 12:02pm

    Envy

    A classic case of pen..err, pagerank envy.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    drkkgt, 2 Feb 2006 @ 12:02pm

    Patent time

    So this might go before a judge to decide? Well since we know intelligence isn't going to be considered, I guess I need to create a vague patent to create a method to search thru trademark databases which will intergrate with other software in some way.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    System Administrator, 2 Feb 2006 @ 12:17pm

    So I suppose my name is acceptable if...

    If I posted go to http://www.-.com & enter your username & password?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    parched, 2 Feb 2006 @ 1:15pm

    Break it up. boys and girls

    Does anyone else think that the trademark/copyright disputes have come to resemble nothing more than a kindergarten sandbox fight?
    "Teacher, he said my name and I don't want him to say my name; MAKE HIM STOP!
    I wonder how the judicial system is going to like playing preschool teacher to a very whiney crowd?

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DavidT, 3 Feb 2006 @ 12:27am

    Irony

    The key irony is, of course, that any search for "FamilyPants" will now bring up TechDirt and other stories instead of bringing up the actual company name. Whoops.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Dosquatch, 3 Feb 2006 @ 12:11pm

      Re: Irony

      The key irony is, of course, that any search for "FamilyPants" will now bring up TechDirt

      Just as well, the strip isn't funny anyway. We'll call all of the Google search hits to TD & others "property improvement" and move on.

      [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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