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old Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

New Rex
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Is Unreal software any kind of registered mark, registered trademark, trademark or something?

Because in the logo I don't see any index of it.
And WeirdPals there's a © there...

old Re: Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

DC
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"Unreal Software" is not a registered trademark. It's just a name I use to publish (freeware) things.

Everything I make is under my copyright of course. That counts for all my games as well. It's always that way. Even when I do not add a copyright-note. It's my intellectual property and you are not allowed to take my stuff for other/unrelated projects without my permission.

old Re: Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

Lee
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Since DC isn't doing any type of transaction of financial instrument, there's no need for him to trademark any of his products. and © is only a statement that all proprietary rights of the software developed by him are credited to him only. The two are in different and not mutually exclusive

old Re: Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

jeepohahyo
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Actually a trade mark ist just the registration of any name for a certain type for products. But involvement of money does nothing have to do with it.
One example ist Linux. It is free software, meaning you can get it for free, and have several >other rights, but there is a trademark "Linux" registered for things that have to do with computing.

Linus Torvalds doesn't enforce that trademark (at least not as much as many companies do), so when you use the name, you will most probably not be sued. But htey culd if they wanted to. And most importantly, nobody can claim that he actually is the owner of the trade mark "Linux". That is actually, why Linus has it. Linus Torvalds got sued because someone registered a trademark on the name, but Linus won the case.

Note that it is only limited to computing. In Switzerland there is a company which sells detergents which names like >"Linux", >"Micro & Soft" or >"Mäc Oxi", and it is all perfectly legal since you can't register a trademark for "everything" but just for a small scope.

And that copyright statement with the circled C ist actually not needed because it would all fall under protection of the Berne Convention anyway. It's just there to show who has done it (who the copyright actually belongs to), and to serve as a reminder that you are not allowed to copy and publish it or to do derivative works based on it. But even if it wasn't there, there would still be "All Rights reserved" unless stated otherwise.

old Re: Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

Lee
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Actually a trade mark ist just the registration of any name for a certain type for products. But involvement of money does nothing have to do with it.


Incorrect, while the de facto definition of a trademark does not include the exchange of any monetary instrument, most trademarks are solely incentivized by this exchange, either direct, or through other means. For example, you bring up the case of Linux being trademarked by someone else first, and the trademark was later transferred to Linus. This is a protective measure in that the holder of the trademark can dispute that those who uses his trademark must give a fraction of their sales to the owner in terms of royalties.

However these are all besides the point, the fact still remains that DC has no need to register a trademark for the obvious reason (a rational imperative) that no business nor other useful transaction is made that would violate his hold on either Unreal Software or any of the software he provides.

old Re: Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

jeepohahyo
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This is a protective measure in that the holder of the trademark can dispute that those who uses his trademark must give a fraction of their sales to the owner in terms of royalties.


No, actually Linus has even directly stated in his biography that without that direct threat of a lawsuit, Linux would still not be trademarked. Transferring the trademark to Linus was just recommended by his lawyer, because the chances of winning the lawsuit were better compared to Linus trying to void the trademark, what he actually intended to do.

Linus is fine with anyone charging for Linux or using its name. That is actually the whole sense of the GPL! (contrary to BSD license for example)
But still he needs to hold the trademark to protect himself of having sued the hell out of him, and not to protect some of his users from royalties.

My post still holds right, be careful what you declare as "Incorrect".
I never said that your post was completely incorrect either, you just said that trademarks were useless without any financial reasons, which is a small portion which I wanted to clarify.

The tone of your posts always sounds as if I was directly offending you...

By the way, I chose this Linux stuff because it is actually what could happen to DC. If the judges fail to recognize all this stuff as "prior use" of the name "Unreal Software" (which is unlikely), or when that hypothetical company was founded before DC made his first Unreal Software releases (which is unlikely as well), he could lose the right to use this name, including this domain for example.
But as I said now, it is luckily unlikely
edited 1×, last 13.07.09 09:59:51 pm

old Re: Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

spartan029
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The tone of your posts always sounds as if I was directly offending you...


well you two always do seem to be attacking each other with "nice words".

BUT! i thought you can only have a "Registered" trademark if you are selling things. I know Unrealsoftware is not a non-profit. it might produce freeware but all the adds Unreal has make money. but then again maybe Unreal needs to buy software to keep creating such games and things as it has...

old Re: Unreal Software - (tm) or ®!?

Lee
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The tone of your posts always sounds as if I was directly offending you...


Oh no, coming out of varsity level debates, I guess I'm blessed or cursed with an aggressive tone of voice when going into any argument. And I tend to use this tone either for leverage or as a "poker-face" mask while I'm building my arguments. Nothing personal is intended. I'm quite cheery if you can catch me chatting with my (former) clan mates.

Dicker has written
No, actually Linus has even directly stated in his biography that without that direct threat of a lawsuit, Linux would still not be trademarked. Transferring the trademark to Linus was just recommended by his lawyer, because the chances of winning the lawsuit were better compared to Linus trying to void the trademark, what he actually intended to do.

Linus is fine with anyone charging for Linux or using its name. That is actually the whole sense of the GPL! (contrary to BSD license for example)
But still he needs to hold the trademark to protect himself of having sued the hell out of him, and not to protect some of his users from royalties.


An alternative version of the story that some of us new breeds have heard was that Croce begin to threaten the Linux community with possible invocations of his "legal rights" in the trademark. (Remember however, a trademark still does not equate to proprietary ownership of the property, whether intellectual or material). Which prompted Linus to act.

However, let's just generalize for the sake of staying on the topic of whether Unreal Software should or should not trademark its titles.

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My post still holds right, be careful what you declare as "Incorrect".
I never said that your post was completely incorrect either, you just said that trademarks were useless without any financial reasons, which is a small portion which I wanted to clarify.


I've never explicitly invalidated your points, only what you've defined a trademark to be. However I've left enough room for my rendition of the definition so that all of your points are still left in tact. What I am pointing out is that trademarking doesn't necessarily benefit the holder of the trademark and in such a sense gives no incentive for Unreal Software to trade mark its titles, especially given the semi-open nature of many of Unreal Software's projects.

However to address your concern that someone may in the future "steal" the name Unreal Software and use it with malicious content directed at us: rest assure, Unreal Software has thousands of users as testimony and that even if the name is trademarked, they have no hold on the IP itself.
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