Porn Giant Vivid to Take Legal Action Over HTC Vivid Name
from the there's-a-fap-for-that dept
Trademark... *sigh*. Such a decent idea twisted horribly, horribly wrong at times. I'll try to keep this one simple for fear of flying off into some kind of puntastic boondoggle.Reader sinsi sent in the Tom's Guide story about Vivid, best known for pumping out pornography, sending a cease and desist notice to HTC, best known for pumping out phones. The issue, apparently, is that HTC's latest smart phone is called "The Vivid," a word fairly commonplace in the English language. Now, Vivid Entertainment has crossed paths with the technology sector in the past, when they sued the enigmatically-named PornoTube website (I wonder what they have to offer), or when their executives decided that it was Google and Yahoo's fault that kids were seeing the fine cinematography Vivid produces.
Still, I find myself asking the same questions about many of these Trademark suits lately: doesn't there have to be some kind of industry crossover for this to be valid? And at what point are moron-sturbators in a hurry going to confuse a smart phone for a the latest Superhero porno parody? Seriously...how does this happen? Did someone at Vivid overhear an HTC customer say, "This phone blows," and get confused?
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Filed Under: phones, trademark, vivid
Companies: htc, vivid entertainment
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Vivid films
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Re: Vivid films
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Re: Vivid films
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You bastard!
"And at what point are moron-sturbators in a hurry going to confuse a smart phone for a the latest Superhero porno parody? Seriously...how does this happen? Did someone at Vivid overhear an HTC customer say, "This phone blows," and get confused?"
Brilliant sir! Brilliant.
I guess that Vivid's lawyers were having a boring day at work so they decided to sue. What I can not understan is how can you be bored if one of your clients is a porn company.
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Re: You bastard!
No, no, sir. I really think we need to discuss this in person, preferably at one of your sets. I'll bring the blow....
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Re: Re: You bastard!
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Re: You bastard!
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Love PPPPPorn!!!! Thats right I said it.
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Re:
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Blame Apple
"As a condition of the settlement, Apple Computer agreed not to enter the music business, and Apple Corps agreed not to enter the computer business."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer
These trademark things of "not in the same industry" cause problems later when the upstart spreads into the industry they initially weren't encroaching on.
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Re: Blame Apple
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IPMAX In Thunderdrome!
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Re: IPMAX In Thunderdrome!
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I was wondering why enabling PowerDVD's Vivid mode didn't make everyone naked, like I expected...
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First off, Vivid needs to zealously protect it's trademarks. That is sort of a requirement. Second, Vivid does offer online porn via smart phones / mobile phones. So there is potential at least to some extent for some marginal confusion. Thirdly, the name might suggest to some that Vivid has partnered with HTC on a phone, which is just not the case.
Without taking this action, Vivid would leave themselves open for others to use their tradename is other ways that the company might get involved in, say like "Vivid Blu Ray Discs" (blanks).
Mike, you need to think past your nose, you are so in a rush to slam things that sometimes you just don't think.
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Re:
Zealously protecting trademarks is fine, if there's a chance of market confusion. In this case, there isn't. Morons in all kinds of hurries wouldn't think HTC was partnering with Vivid. The very idea of a technology firm like HTC snuggling up with a bunch of cum-dumpsters like Vivid is silly. The fact that you try to pawn it off as some kind of confusion makes you silly too.
I suggest being less silly. Perhaps there's a class somewhere....
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Carry on. Ignorance is bliss, and you are proving to be a pretty happy helmet today.
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Uh, yeah he did. You claim there is a genuine chance of market confusion - he claims you're an idiot if you actually believe that. And I hate to break it to you, but I think he's right.
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He entirely ignored the fact that Vivid does play in the online marketplace, and that their content is delivered by smart phone, and they have potential to actually have a named phone or service in the future (not unlike ESPN's phone service, example).
Of course, I wouldn't expect you to ever side with a rights holder on any issue.
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Dude....lay off the drugs....
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Also there would be some sort of blue pill-shaped addon that would give you 4hours battery life......
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Espn also plays in the online entertainment marketplace, under the name “ESPN”
The difference with Espn is that;
one, the name is made up,
two, it’s the name they trade with,
three, they use a “name” not an adjective
If your point was the case, I fail to see why Vivid entertainment has not gone after the following companies/people for also using “vivid” in some of there names:
vivid Sydney - vividsydney.com
vividwireless - www.vividwireless.com.au (maybe vivid did branch out into this )
vivid group - www.vividgroup.com.au
Vivid publishing - www.vividpublishing.com.au/
vivid – the Japanese band
vivid – the album by living colour
Vivid imaginations - a uk toy company (not those kind of toys ;) )
Vivid – a centre for the production and exhibition of media art
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- For the Mozart and Schubert they travelled back in time to collaborate with classical composers. And of course the Mondrian was styled by the painter himself
- They got movie tie ins for the (I am) Legend, the Incredible(s) and the Buzz (Lightyear).
- They even dabbled with making phones out of alternative materials for the Gold and the Sapphire, although the Espresso was not well received. And that's before we even get onto the Stallion, that was messy.
How were we to know that for this phone HTC had instead just picked a random word, just like how every other company names every other product in the world.
[sent from my Motorola RAZR. Ow]
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waiting
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no confusion
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nice
You win the internets until something else grabs my atten..... ooh, squirrels.
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Actually it was when the phone did NOT blow, that the confusion was caused, the reputations were damamged, and the trademark claim filed.
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what can i say, i saw the topic and got a little ummm over excited.
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