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2000ad suspected IP infringement thread

Started by The Enigmatic Dr X, 06 August, 2010, 12:48:47 PM

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Richmond Clements


Judge Olde

Quote from: SmallBlueThing on 06 August, 2010, 02:12:25 PM
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 06 August, 2010, 12:48:47 PM


And, with that, I give you:

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/cultculture/2000ad+gifts


Is that noise I hear Commando Forces exploding, or ejaculating?

SBT

We could all get rich selling CF stuff with just 'Dredd' on, old cars, motorbikes - it could run & run*




























*nah

BPP

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 06 August, 2010, 03:18:36 PM
Isn't Dredd a trademark? If not, then on a site with a url ending "2000ad+gifts" I think it would be shooty-in to show that it was creating sufficient confusion among customers to establish infringement of "Judge Dredd".

The site even uses 2000ad as a meta-tag.

Heck, I found it because I was looking for a Judge Dredd mousepad - how much more do you need?

hadn't seen the URL.

Your friendly legal consul would tell you to go after that rather than the Dredd as its clearly passing-off (a misrepresentation offence) under trading standards.

As to the is Dredd a TM or has Copyright arisen in it - TMs you apply for - that they are granted doesn't mean they will be upheld when either (1) challenged or (2) used to litigate on. 

TMs need several criteria including distinctiveness and originality. Judge Dredd would more than likely give rise to one BUT it would be feasible to see that the extent of the TM (where it can be applied) is limited to causes involving comics or visual media / lit. Should Judge Dread (the DJ) have been Judge Dredd in name he may well have been able to argue that the scope of the TM dosn't extend to that - especially if he is not 'borrowing' any other '2000ad' iconography or given that his genre has more than one artist called 'Judge'.

You need to keep the extent of the TM distinct as an idea from misrep / confusion - ie a fish n chip shop called Judge Dredd would be less likely to be allowed as its more obviously misrep (at the very least misrepresenting that they have a licence) although again things like the use of '2000AD's' fonts etc on the shop front would add weight.

Dredd without the judge is yet more difficult to see as a stand alone TM (leaving aside the issue of the name of the site). Obviously someone releasing a comic called 'Son of Dredd' about a future dystopia could have problems even if they avoided 'judge' or references to MC1 etc because the TM may well extend to characters called Dredd in future / law enforcement roles. But would it extend to say a Marvel mutant called Dredd? Maybe not. Am sure people who read more comics than I can come up with characters with the same surname. Must be another Savage out there.

In the opposite direction 'Judge Dredd & the Mutants of Mega City One' is quite clearly enforceable because its greater specificity makes it less likely to be anything other than an unauthorised taking.Of course the problem there is that TMs need registered and rebellion undoubtably dont have a guy doing that for every possible TM.

Hence we have Copyright..

Copyright arises automatically in text but the copyright (protection) of individual words is very problematic - hence the use of Trademarks and the other tools of Intellectual Property (design right, patents) to cover them.

A simple phrase is unlikely ever to give rise to copyright ("i went for a walk") unless it arises and is used as part of a wider work (this reply). Whereas a piece of Wagner prose would clearly generate it time after time. From that you can see why single words are hard to copyright but then why names, in turn, are slightly less hard provided they meet the criteria for copyright including 'originality'.

Does the word Dredd have originality? Anyone with any knowledge of US constitutional law will tell you of Dredd-Scott a very famous case allowing slavery to continue in the C19th. Judge Dredd would have more of a claim to copyright than simple Dredd but again since dredd isn't an entirely fictitious surname (unlike say Judge Quadradbam-SiSpencer ) there may well be an argument as to whether it IS sufficiently original. Again a judge (in our world) would much rather hear arguments on fraudulent passing-off (the misrepresentation) than look into the providence of the copyright. Especially if he's a member of the Dredd family of East Grimsby who has finally fought years of jokes to become a member of the bench. 

thats al long answer to say - its complex but yeah that URL means undoubtably they would get shot down but not necessarily for either (C) or TM in 'Dredd'. 


Humm.. I could write a very nice seminar problem question on all that.
If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

http://futureshockd.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/FutureShockd

COMMANDO FORCES

I'm in the process of having a small run of tops made with a stitched in Judge badge but with my name across it, so I think I'm safe  ;)

As for all the above, I have seen loads of stuff like this over the last few years of searching for any Dredd/2000AD merchandise and have kept well clear of it.

Emperor

Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 06 August, 2010, 03:18:36 PMIsn't Dredd a trademark? If not, then on a site with a url ending "2000ad+gifts" I think it would be shooty-in to show that it was creating sufficient confusion among customers to establish infringement of "Judge Dredd".

The site even uses 2000ad as a meta-tag.

It doesn't - the metatags are:

Quote<meta name="keywords" content="cultculture" />
<meta name="description" content="" />

The tag cloud is dynamically generated, I suspect, based on keywords people enter to find the goods.

Equally the "2000ad" in the URL is being dynamically generated and doesn't seem to be something the shop is specifically doing to mislead people. It is a little misleading as they are clearly using a trick to create search engine friendly URLs but if you enter "2000ad" in the top search box you get:

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/2000ad+gifts

So they people selling the T-shirts don't seem to be deliberately trying to mislead people.

That said, and talk of copyright and trademark side, you could just hit the site with a cease-and-desist notice (that anyone can put together, you don't need a lawyer) and they'll drop the T-shirts like a shot. Hosts with no incentive to get into expensive legal arguments tend to fold like soggy bog roll (as I found out to my cost once, but have also deployed it against image-stealing toe rags in the past)
if I went 'round saying I was an Emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!

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Jim_Campbell

Now, I'm as much for thread drift and off-topic tomfoolery as the next man, but doesn't it kind of defeat the point of the exercise if someone from Rebellion checks this thread and can't easily find the posts relating to actual copyright infringement?

Could we not try and keep the thread strictly to on-topic posts and take any wider debates about, say, copyright law (which I actually do find fascinating) to another thread?

Cheers!

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

mogzilla


Judge Olde

I thought I was back at school, however, any tips on getting rich quick - post them here  ::)

Buttonman

#24
Quote from: COMMANDO FORCES on 06 August, 2010, 07:50:06 PM
I'm in the process of having a small run of tops made with a stitched in Judge badge but with my name across it.

Hell-Trek uniforms already?!

COMMANDO FORCES

:lol: Only if you have my surname. Each name has it's own start up costs. I'm sure there must be a cheaper way. This is where 2000AD could use bulk purchase power to get individual names stitched into tops at a decent rate!
I best put this onto the merchandise thread  ;)

JeffreyMT


Here is another one on ebay

2000AD Any Prog 1 2 and all others + 32Gb USB pen drive

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110564471400&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Hope the link works, Here is the auction number in case it doesn't: 110564471400

James Stacey

Quote from: bIG dADDY jEFF on 18 August, 2010, 12:55:41 PM

Here is another one on ebay

2000AD Any Prog 1 2 and all others + 32Gb USB pen drive

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110564471400&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Hope the link works, Here is the auction number in case it doesn't: 110564471400
What a cheeky fecker that guy is.

JeffreyMT


Are these legal?

Seller has a whole shop full of them!
I thoght Kevin Walker was working for Marvel now...


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Judge-Dredd-Oil-Painting-NOT-giclee-Large-40x28-inches-/120525811101?pt=UK_Art_CanvasGiclee_RL&hash=item1c0fe5ed9d

Auction number: 120525811101

Alski

Hmmm... I don't know - as long as it's not a direct copy of another artist's specific work, is it legal?

Sure someone will enlighten us.

I quite like it.
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