Porn Giant Vivid to Take Legal Action Over HTC Vivid Name

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cobra5000

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Yes, Morons. Vivid is a word. So are Apple, Windows and Valve. Vivid has every right to protect their Brand. We will see how this shakes down, just give it time.
 

g-thor

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Yes, big law firms charge by the hour of work done for a client. So, if a lawyer spend 8 hours researching other companies that use a portion of the clients name, they get to bill for 8 hours of work. Then, they bill for writing up the legal docs, then they bill for - you get it.

Starbucks Coffee threatened a lawsuit against a single oulet restaurant on an island off the coast of Canada because their name was Haida Bucks - not one word, and not even close. The Haida are aboriginals in that area. Buck is a common term, similar to dude. When I wrote a letter of protest to Starbucks, I got a canned response - "We will vigorously defend out trademark ..." (I want to see a lawyer say "We're going to defend our trademark casually", just for a change.)

I asked them if they planned to sue the town of Starbuck, Manitoba (yes, it really exists, and they had the name long before some coffee upstart). Never did get an answer.

I truly hope the court not only throws this out, but delivers a strong criticism of the lawyers for not having good sens.
 
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I live in Atlanta. Back when the Atlanta Thrashers hockey team had chosen their name, which is for the state bird of Georgia, the Brown Thrasher, some skateboarding magazine in California called 'Thrasher' sued them for using the name 'Thrashers'. I thought logically there would be no chance of them winning, but they did and the hockey team had to pay the magazine for the rights to use the name. Silly and stupid. But you just never know anymore. Common words can and are trademarked. Money, not common sense, rules all.
 

hetneo

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[citation][nom]bunga28[/nom]No chance that it (vivid ent.) will win. zero, zip, dipadood, nope; no chance in hell or on earth. Vivid is an English word describing strong, clear impression or chroma. It's not ubiquitous. I think there a few similar cases that were thrown out by the judges. (I don't remember the specific, but I do know that they were thrown out.)[/citation]
Microsoft's copyright submitting for Windows, all Vivid can get is trademark, meaning that only they can be porn producer company bearing that word as part of name.
 

hetneo

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[citation][nom]archange[/nom]Yeah, so is "windows". Check to see if that is patented. Dunno if you guys can remember another lawsuit, some time ago. A fresh start-up company set out to make their own version of Linux and made the mistake of naming it "Lindows".Guess who got all hot and bothered and sued the heck outta them? Yupp, you guessed it. And they won too, so Lindows had to change their name to "Linspire". (http://www.linspire.com)OK, perhaps this isn't the same situation and Vivid is definitely not Microsoft, but still, I think it qualifies as precedent. Which goes to show that given enough leverage, you can patent everything.[/citation]
Nope, MS was dragging them for more than 2 years through various courts and in the end had to settle to bullying them into sell trademark for $20 millions. It's similar situation, Vivid can get trademark but not copyright and because they are in different trades it's not protected.
 

back_by_demand

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Porn Giant Vivid to Take Legal Action Over HTC Vivid Name
Because a lawyer costs less than a marketing campaign and is guaranteed to get directly to it's most regular customers via news posted in technology forums.
Genius.
Next week Brazzers is taking Kentucky Fried Chicken to court for creating the KFC Brazer.
 

back_by_demand

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[citation][nom]willwayne[/nom]All HTC has to do is promise not to enter the porn industry. It worked out well for Apple and Apple Records, didn't it?[/citation]
Funny you should mention that, Apple screwed the Beatles good on that one, but Paul McCartney had the last laugh after Jobs funeral.
 

drwho1

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Same thing happened to the Wrestling group WWF now WWE.
WWF name was their own (World Wrestling Federation) for many years prior that "other people" WWF animal group (World Wildlife Fund).

One was a widely known BUSINESS while the other was (still is) an animal not-for-profit group.
I still wish the Wrestling group would have Wrestle them in court, instead they threw the towel.
 
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