Comments on: Don’t Mess with Verizon, Motorola, and Lucasfilm

By: Mark

Mark — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:12:53 +0000

So much for the idea that trademarks are only relevant to a specific market (what does a phone have to do with robots in a Star Wars film?) – how nice of Lucasfilm to claim ownership on the English language!

The word is simply an obvious contraction of Android, anyway.

Nevermind domain squatting – if you want to make money, why not do as Lucasfilm do, and trademark obvious variations of the English language? Then if anyone else wants to use that term for any reason, they have to pay you money.

(Can I say “Droid” here, or do I need permission for that too?)

By: John Humphrey

John Humphrey — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:54:33 +0000

How timely! Just in case you didn’t already see this. From Fusible.com
Beginner’s Mistake: LOCKHEED MARTIN Lawyers Come After Us for Domain Name F35JSF.com
http://fusible.com/ourblog.php?entryid=246

By: John Humphrey

John Humphrey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:47:43 +0000

Got it!
Certainly I had to learn my lesson. Not exactly the hard way (i.e. legal action), but couldn’t wait for some of the first few to drop!

By: Elliot

Elliot — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:31:52 +0000

@ John

2 keys to my post:

1) “you really need to be very careful of the usage of related domain names”

2) “Obviously there are way to use “droid” in a domain name without potential liability, but I am sure there are plenty of people who don’t realize the risk of owning these with the intent of profiting off of the Droid mark, by selling, parking, or otherwise monetizing phone-related Droid names.”

By: John Humphrey

John Humphrey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:13:32 +0000

Apart from the Lucasfilm ‘droid’ for wireless devices tm. they also have ‘droids’ for toys, more specifically skateboards. Google has the tm for ‘android’ as applied to wireless devices, but there are also ‘android’ tms for automated car manufacturing, watches, and a testosterone pill.
Having closely followed this issue around a tm a friend got for his esongs.com domain, it appears to me (WAY not a lawyer) that there could be hundreds of different tms with the same name- it’s the use attached to the trademark that makes it unique.