IMAX Threatens Open Source 3D Engine With Bizarre Reasoning

from the say-what-now dept

Proffer alerts us to the bizarre story of how IMAX (last seen suing competitors and misleading people about what an IMAX film really is) is now threatening the folks behind the Sandy3D open source 3D flash engine. Apparently, IMAX has some sort of 3D drawing system called SANDDE. So, maybe, if you squint, you could see how IMAX might be complaining about a trademark issue. But the letter from IMAX is quite odd. It doesn't mention trademark at all. Instead, it mentions a French patent.

This is quite odd, considering that there's clearly no patent issue here (beyond the fact that Sandy3D isn't in France and the products are entirely different). So why isn't IMAX talking trademark? Well, perhaps because IMAX's trademark on SANDDE was considered abandoned as of March 8, 2000. Yes, more than ten years ago. There's also the fact that this open source project is not a commercial endeavor at all, meaning that IMAX might have a lot of trouble proving "use in commerce" even if it actually had a trademark. Perhaps IMAX could get away with claiming a common law trademark, but even then, its ability to do anything to Sandy3D would be quite limited, and it's difficult to see anyone finding a likelihood of confusion existing between the two.

In the end, it looks like some IMAX lawyers decided to just threaten these open source developers, hoping that by spewing some totally unrelated info about a patent, it might scare the developers into changing the name on a product, even though the patent has nothing at all to do with the issue, and the company has no registered trademark on the name in question.
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Filed Under: 3d, imax, patents, threats, trademarks
Companies: imax


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  1. icon
    Rikuo (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 11:50am

    its the lawyers

    simple really, the lawyers need to keep themselves busy so they can justify their salaries. Since they couldn't find anything that actually made sense, they just went on a bender and started this.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:13pm

    There needs to be a quota for law students. Only x amount (hopefully a low number) of lawyers can be produced. This is basically how you control animal populations, )though animal control also includes hunting...).
    Anyway, with less lawyers, there'll be more work for each lawyer, and thus less need to "create work" . That would stop stuff like this from ever happening.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:17pm

    and the needle and the damage done

    a little bit in hollwood ones OHHHHH ohhh the damage is now done.

    YUP IMAX retards have now begun the boycott 3d movement to now go viral EVERYWHERE
    and ill be losses form this act of threat are far more then any actual damages some open source 3d engine can do, whats next ITS LINUX's FAULT
    OH WAIT thats SCO's area

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:19pm

    correction

    P.S. i wrote at 12 years of age a sentence parser for the vic 20 why cant spell checker do somehting similar so i make even fewer mistakes....


    be = BET

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. icon
    Spaceman Spiff (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:25pm

    Lawyers, shmawyers

    I hope the SFLC gets involved with this, and smacks down IMAX about this. Now if I can just get my lawyer to pay his bill for fixing his network... :-)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    Ima Fish (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:37pm

    Re:

    That's the purpose of state bar associations, unfortunately they have not been doing their jobs as of late.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    :Lobo Santo (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:37pm

    Re:

    Ya know, it would be even more effective if a lawyer hunting season were implemented...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Ryan, 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:42pm

    Re:

    Well, limiting supply could also simply drive up the price of lawyers(and thus create even larger incentives for lawyers to find more reasons for lawsuits). This is another reason for high health care costs, in that we have licensing requirements for most care and then turn around and allow colleges to set low limits for new medical students(which then drives up tuition prices) creating a shortage of available providers.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:51pm

    Re: its the lawyers

    Well then, the solution is simple as well. Just make it so that any time a lawsuit is filed, the lawyers must state, under penalty of perjury, that they are filing in good conscience. Then, when these ridiculous lawsuits come up that any unbiased lawyer with a brain would see was winnable if it ever came to trial, enforce that penalty. You end up with a bunch of overly-litigious lawyers in disbarred and behind bars. Problem solved, right?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:52pm

    Re: Re: its the lawyers

    Same AC here. winnable->unwinnable. Stupid lack of proofreading :(

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:54pm

    Re: its the lawyers

    Sadly this is probabbly the most logical reason for what's happening.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    taoareyou (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:58pm

    Re: correction

    You wrote a sentence parser in only 3583 bytes of RAM? Or did you have the 16K Expansion cartridge?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. icon
    ConceptJunkie (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 12:59pm

    The default strategy of lawyers...

    These days, it seems that the default strategy of too many lawyers is to make an endless series of empty threats in the hopes of scaring some poor victim into capitulating. Of course, when large companies do this, they can simply win by virtue of being able to throw more money than a small victim, denying the victim's ability to defend himself. A small victim will have to destroy itself financially to fight back, and then may still not win because you can find a judge to make just about any ruling you could want if you shop around.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. icon
    Haywood (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 1:06pm

    Dammit I like IMAX

    I don't want to boycott them, but if they behave like assholes, then I'd be required to do so, by my higher self.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. icon
    Atkray (profile), 17 Mar 2010 @ 1:49pm

    Re: Re:

    I'm in.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 17 Mar 2010 @ 2:08pm

    Re: Re: correction

    It's easy to fit a parser in RAM. It is the dictionary that kills you.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. identicon
    DJ, 17 Mar 2010 @ 3:28pm

    Re: Re: Re: correction

    Sorry, I guess correct sentence structure/grammar/ENGLISH(!!!!!!) isn't being taught in schools anymore, because I have no freaking clue what he said. Just to be clear, I don't mean that I didn't understand the terms, I mean that it looks as though he randomly grabbed words from somewhere and threw them together.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    DJ, 17 Mar 2010 @ 3:32pm

    Monster effect

    Didn't monster cable try this tactic like 8 billion times?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 17 Mar 2010 @ 5:15pm

    sentance parser

    taoareyo

    i used the tape recorder as a database and it would go forward and back looking for proper parts of sentances in a zork like game i created

    the vic 20 despite is low mem of 3.5 K had oddles of ability to load stuff off the cassette recorder
    and later yes when i got a 16 K ram expander i thought OMG how can i ever use this much memory

    thats when i added some graphics to said games

    basically it would search for patterns of the at first a basic sentence

    walk over there
    go to house

    sooner later longer and more exhaustive sentences.

    I'll say also that you could use a serial cable later on and hook as many vics to each other and use the resources

    amazing what ya learn on BBS boards with a .3Kbytes modem

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. identicon
    Any Mouse, 17 Mar 2010 @ 9:57pm

    Re: correction

    Since you can't seem to parse your own sentences, or make any sort of sense at all, I'm going to have to call bullshit on this one.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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