Gaijin Entertainment Demands Gaijin.com, Which Predates Them And Doesn't Infringe Their Trademark

from the trademark-abuse dept

Tue, May 7th 2013 10:03am — Mike Masnick

In the latest example of extreme trademark abuse, video game company Gaijin Entertainment is not just claiming a trademark over "gaijin" but using it to demand the domain name Gaijin.com, which was registered by Brandon Harris back in May of 1995. The legal nastygram that the company sent is quite incredible, suggesting that Harris registered the domain later and is somehow infringing on their mark:

It came to our attention that you registered and maintain a website www.gaijin.com (“Infringing Website”) that infringes Gaijin Mark. By maintaining and offering to public your content via the website, i.e., Infringing Website, having the same domain as Gaijin Mark, you create consumer confusion and mistake as to the source, sponsorship and/or affiliation of the Infringing Website and Gaijin, thereby infringing Gaijin Mark.

Luckily, Harris has Mike Godwin (yes, that Mike Godwin, so get your Nazi references in early) as a lawyer, and he quickly sent back the following excellent response.

Dear Mr. Goldstein-Gureff,

Please be advised that my client, Brandon Harris, disputes your trademark-infringement claim in every particular.

That is the most polite way to state how vigorously we dispute your attempt to assert flat ownership of the word “gaijin,” a word so well-established in English that it is an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Currently, I’m advising my client to publicize your demand letter, so that the entire game-consuming public will be made aware of your client’s overreaching trademark assertions. In addition, we will of course continue to make clear that Brandon Harris’s website in no way gives rise to any kind of marketplace confusion of the sort that American trademark law is designed to address.

In the interests of allowing you and your client to gracefully retract your claim, we have chosen to refrain from publicizing your demand until you respond to this message, provided that you respond no later than close-of-business Monday. Since I am currently in DC, Eastern time applies.

–Mike Godwin

P.S. I understand that your clients are possibly Russian nationals. You may wish to explain to them the scope and limitations of the Lanham Act in the United States.

–MG

Obviously, they did not retract the claim in time, and thus, the trademark bullying is now public.

Gaijin Letter Re Gaijin Com As (PDF)Gaijin Letter Re Gaijin Com As (Text)

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Filed Under: brendan harris, domains, gaijin, mike godwin, trademark bullies, udrp
Companies: gaijin entertainment

54 Comments

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S. T. Stone, 7 May 2013 @ 10:09am

And the Japanese all had a laugh about how a bunch of gaijins ended up fighting over the word "gaijin".
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ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:10am

Why?
Why give them time to rescind? That just gives them the opportunity to target people who don't have Mike Godwin on speed dial without leaving a wake.
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Zakida Paul (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:10am

Re:
Funny and insightful. Well done, sir.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 10:12am

"Luckily, Harris has Mike Godwin (yes, that Mike Godwin, so get your Nazi references in early)..."

Not True Techdirtian would ever resort to such cheap logical devices.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 10:13am

Re:
You know who's a true Techdirtian? Hitler, that's who.

...

What do I win?
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Oblate (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:16am

The next target for Gaijin Entertainment: ge.com

Fortunately, they're in luck due to the explosion of new TLD's: gaijin.asshats is still available.
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Ninja (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:16am

I am very interested in how this will make all its way to Hitler. Oh wait....
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out_of_the_blue, 7 May 2013 @ 10:18am

Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
Meets Techdirt standards for game-related, lawyers, and obvious villain to boo for the ginned up "two-minutes hate" -- heck, this villain is even GOLDSTEIN!
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Ninja (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:20am

Re:
According to techdirt trolls Mike is the evil reincarnation of e-Hitler that came to take all those poor musicians and grocery stores workers in e-concentration camps (most commonly referred as bittorrent swarms). Or something. The e- prefix gives that XXI century feel that is missing from Godwin Law.
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Baldaur Regis (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:20am

Re: Re:
Three boxes of SABAM laundry soap, delivered to your door by gaijin ninjas.
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Rich, 7 May 2013 @ 10:35am

Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
You aren't supposed to drink wood-grain alcohol.
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Goldstein, 7 May 2013 @ 10:35am

Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
I... What?
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Ninja (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 10:37am

Re: Re: Re:
I'm laughing hard at your comment because SABAM sounds like the Portuguese word for soap (sab�o). Have my personal funny vote dear sir.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 10:45am

Re:
I'm thinking that Time Travel or Necromancy are the most likely options at this point.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 10:48am

Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
uhhh....

I propose a new category to go along with week's "funniest" and "most insightful"

it will be called "Wtf troll... just... wtf"
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gnudist, 7 May 2013 @ 10:53am

Re: Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
Most insightful posts tend to be responses to trolls so you kind of have that now since there's a link to the original thread/commen(and thus the troll) in the insightful awards
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 10:59am

Re: Re: Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
yea but what insightful comment can follow this magnificent piece of insanity??

This is on level with watching an old man demand his child be returned to the bank from a flower in the middle of a busy street.
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Noah Callaway, 7 May 2013 @ 11:08am

Gaijin Entertainment, not Gaijin Games
Just as a heads up to any gamers that may be considering sending off angry e-mails: There are several games companies with the name Gaijin. The offender in this case was Gaijin Entertainment (ent.com/en/games/navigation/57/).

There is another company that would be easy to confuse with this action. Gaijin Games (makers of the excellent BitTrip runner games) are not involved in this action as far as I can tell.

Just want to make sure we all point our angry in the right direction.
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t3rminus (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 11:14am

Of Note...
Of note is that this is "Gaijin Entertainment" (http://www.gaijinent.com/), makers of the MMO-flying-sim War Thunder, not "Gaijin Games" (http://gaijingames.com/), makers of the BIT.TRIP series.

You'd think people would be more confused with these two, as opposed to some random website that just happens to use http://www.gaijin.com...
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t3rminus (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 11:17am

Re: Gaijin Entertainment, not Gaijin Games
Augh! Beat me to it by 6 minutes.

+1 for directing Awesome Vibes at Gaijin Games
+1 for directing Angry E-Mails at Gaijin Entertainment
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 11:18am

Re: Gaijin Entertainment, not Gaijin Games
Good call Noah, Gaijin Games are good people.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 11:31am

if Congress hadn't have made such a fuck up of the patent/trademark/copyright laws, this situation wouldn't arise. if Congress were to correct the fuck up they made in patent/trademark/copyright laws, these situations would then be few and far between. i appreciate, however, that it may mean a reduction in their bank accounts, but they should think of the smaller amount of work that would then be involved for everyone. would that not be a better option??
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 11:33am

Domain Seizures
Now imagine what would happen if warrantless seizures of allegedly infringing domains were the rule of law.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 11:33am

Re: Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
I think that rewarding the trolls by pointing them out would only further encourage them and new ones.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 11:55am

I'm impressed!
Twenty-four comments in, and not a single one spouting the "oh, they had to do this or they would lose their trademark" BS.

Well done, Mike - I think your educational efforts are starting to pay off!
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Sunhawk, 7 May 2013 @ 12:01pm

Re: Why?
I imagine it's mostly to look gracious in any upcoming court action.

"See? We disputed it vigorously, but we were kind enough to not go public about it without giving them a chance."
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 12:03pm

Re: Re: Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
The trolls aren't in it for the recognition. They're in it for the money.
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Nastybutler77 (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 12:07pm

Re: Of Note...
No kidding. Why isn't GE suing GA for trademark infringement? Or vise versa. That would at least make sense. More sense than this, anyway.
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ChrisB (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 12:09pm

Re:
Trademarks are not about protectionism, but about protecting consumers. There is not much wrong with trademark laws.

Patents/copyrights are totally messed up and are grinding the technology industry to a halt, and justifying massive spying on individuals. They should be curtailed or sh!tcanned altogether.

I'm clarifying because they tend to get lumped together and are not the same.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 12:11pm

Re:
And the most insightful comment goes to... someone who doesn't know what gaijin means.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 12:21pm

Re: Re: Re: Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
Trying to use logic and reason with that one is like trying to get Sheldon Cooper to comprehend sarcasm.
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Killer_Tofu (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 12:22pm

Re: I'm impressed!
Which means he is more effective than any RIAA or MPAA education campaign to date.
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 1:12pm

Re: Re:
Unfortunately Trademark infringement cases do not start with "Could the consumer be confused?". Just ask all the Olympic Pizza's that lost their name to the IOC!
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S. T. Stone, 7 May 2013 @ 1:32pm

Re: Re:
Gaijin is a Japanese word meaning "non-Japanese", or "alien". The word is composed of two kanji: gai (外), meaning "outside"; and jin (人), meaning "person" � thus, the word could also, in some contexts, be translated into English as "outsider".

I know Wikipedia doesn�t exactly count as the most reputable source of information these days, but�
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Keroberos (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 1:32pm

Poetic Justice
I think a suitable punishment for these guys would be for the court to order them to change their name from Gaijin Entertainment to Baka Entertainment, then there'd be no possibility of confusion about what kind of asshats you're dealing with.
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Keroberos (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 1:43pm

Re: Re: Re:
Since this is also the translation used in the trademark listing, I'll go with that definition.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 1:49pm

I really hope they come after me for trademark infingment on My tatto, that simply reads "Gaijin". this will be fun.
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Watchit (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 3:42pm

Re:
Personally, I am offended you didn't shoehorn in a nazi joke in there...
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 4:25pm

Re:
Just for you they will claim patent infringement instead, ya know cause the method of applying Gaigin causes the tattoo artist to, ya know, use Gaigin. :)
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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 4:31pm

Re: Re:
Gaigin=Gaijin, twice. Sheesh! And Clavell is one of my favorite historical fiction authors.
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Samuel Abram (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 4:47pm

Re: Re: Gaijin Entertainment, not Gaijin Games
Gaijin Games sure are good peeps. I met their dev team at Blip Fest 2009. Some of buddies in the Chip Music scene (like Anamanaguchi, Minusbaby (who did the artwork for my album The Aftermath) and Bit Shifter) have their music in their Bit.Trip games.

My favorite would have to be Bit Shifter's "Strange Comfort".
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Samuel Abram (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 4:49pm

Re: Re: Re: Gaijin Entertainment, not Gaijin Games
Sorry, "Some of buddies" should be "Some of MY buddies".
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Ryunosuke (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 5:03pm

well... might as well
despite, no, because Mr. Godwin is involved... this seems like a case for... Copyright Nazis
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John85851 (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 6:23pm

Re: Re: Re:
Cases like the Olympic Pizza/ IOC don't have much to do with customers confusing one company with another, but with the customer assuming there's an endorsement. Obviously Olympic Pizza has nothing to do with the IOC, but the IOC doesn't want people to think the pizza place is an official sponsor when they haven't paid the licensing fees.

This is the same reason why no one can say "Super Bowl" any more because they fear the NFL will sue them for using those words without paying the licensing fees.

Sorry to get off-topic.
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S. T. Stone, 7 May 2013 @ 8:47pm

Re: Re:
Too easy. Low hanging fruit's for suckers and OOTB.
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Bergman (profile), 7 May 2013 @ 9:08pm

Re: Re: Re:
And yet, Washington state still retains both the Olympic Mountains, the city of Olympia and Mount Olympus. Apparently a U.S. state is too big for the IOC to bully.
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Anonymous Coward, 7 May 2013 @ 10:57pm

Just uninstalled War Thunder, after popping into about 20 instant actions and letting everyone know what was up in broadcast. Fortunately I never spent any money with them but I was reaching the point where I likely would have had I kept playing.
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PaulT (profile), 8 May 2013 @ 1:36am

Re: Re:
What do you think it means? I remember taking some Japanese classes a few (OK, a lot of) years ago where I learned that the definition for that word was essentially "foreigner". So Stone's comment in correct with that definition in mind.

Which definition do you use?
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G Thompson (profile), 8 May 2013 @ 2:25am

Re: Re: Re: Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
They should be in it for the lulz since Blue gets a LOT of them - admittedly about him/her/it though
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PaulT (profile), 8 May 2013 @ 2:55am

Re: Re: Of Note...
Quick kneejerk assumption? They just want the domain name, and this is easier/cheaper than trying to get them to sell it through normal channels (or they've already failed to buy it and this is their response).
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Anonymous Coward, 8 May 2013 @ 5:39am

Re:
No, next will be GaijinPot. gp.co.jp
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D, 8 May 2013 @ 11:48am

Re: Not only anomaly, but no action beyond a letter.
OOTB - go stuff yourself and stop making yourself a laughing stock. You must be really, REALLY thick-skinned (or maybe just thick?) if you don't realise that everyone is laughing at you. Your comments are not needed.
Oops - just fed the troll. Never mind, I could do with a bit of sophisticated entertainment, which I certainly won't get from OOTB.
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kitsune361, 8 May 2013 @ 12:39pm

There are so many ways...
There are so many ways to pull this off without being a jerk.

If they REALLY wanted the domain name they could have offered to buy it for the ludicrous amount of money they're paying their legal council. They could come up with an agreement to buy the domain if the guy ever stops using it (some sort of right of first refusal if he ever sells the domain). If they were really interested in disambiguation they could have asked for a link on the guy's page ("if you're looking for Gaijin Entertainment...").

Instead they sic the lawyers on a blog that's been around since nearly the dawn of the commercial internet. /facepalm

If they're so worried about such a tarnishing of their mark, why haven't they gone after Gaijin Games yet?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 May 2013 @ 4:30am

Re: Re: Of Note...
Could it be because they're sitting on the GaijinPot?
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