Quote:
Originally Posted by injury log
Where do you get this stuff from? Someone infringing trademarks cannot defend himself by saying "someone else did it, therefore I'm allowed to infringe the trademark too". A trademark holder does not lose their trademark by failing to enforce it universally. It is only when that failure to police leads a court to conclude the trademark has become diluted, generic, or abandoned that the trademark protection is lost. None of that would apply to OOTP's usage as far as I can tell.
At least that's my understanding of trademark law. I'm not a lawyer, but it seems a lot of people on these forums are offering legal opinions about trademark law, and if they're lawyers, I'd like to know that, and if they're not, I wish they'd say so.
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You don't have to be a lawyer to understand this stuff. Your bold above is illogical. If one owns trademarks and
doesn't police everything made known then risk exists.
Letting it get close to court would be gross incompetence. By policing everything that comes to your attention you protect yourself from instances that escape your notice, and some will. The consistency of effort matters. That's why trademark owners provide customers/partners who produce ads with specific copy, logos and color schemes and proof the ad copy before publication
When you work for a business, your internal and external use of trademarked names, capitalized and with correct symbols is important. If such words are allowed to be come generic (Kleenex, Xerox, Frisbee) or are misapplied and misused risk increases. Proper use in email and paper communication including footnotes matters a lot.
This back and forth is more about countering some of the emotional posts regarding MLB motives. I'm stunned that more people don't understand that this is business 101. I find it hard to believe that anybody here who owned a product/trademark that had real value to them wouldn't take steps to protect it.
From the asleep at the wheel file See what happens when you don't pay attention. Nissan Motor Co. only has itself to blame for diluting their trademark.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Cou...anComputer.pdf