decoration decoration
Stories

GROKLAW
When you want to know more...
decoration
For layout only
Home
Archives
Site Map
Search
About Groklaw
Awards
Legal Research
Timelines
ApplevSamsung
ApplevSamsung p.2
ArchiveExplorer
Autozone
Bilski
Cases
Cast: Lawyers
Comes v. MS
Contracts/Documents
Courts
DRM
Gordon v MS
GPL
Grokdoc
HTML How To
IPI v RH
IV v. Google
Legal Docs
Lodsys
MS Litigations
MSvB&N
News Picks
Novell v. MS
Novell-MS Deal
ODF/OOXML
OOXML Appeals
OraclevGoogle
Patents
ProjectMonterey
Psystar
Quote Database
Red Hat v SCO
Salus Book
SCEA v Hotz
SCO Appeals
SCO Bankruptcy
SCO Financials
SCO Overview
SCO v IBM
SCO v Novell
SCO:Soup2Nuts
SCOsource
Sean Daly
Software Patents
Switch to Linux
Transcripts
Unix Books

Gear

Groklaw Gear

Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.


You won't find me on Facebook


Donate

Donate Paypal


No Legal Advice

The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

Here's Groklaw's comments policy.


What's New

STORIES
No new stories

COMMENTS last 48 hrs
No new comments


Sponsors

Hosting:
hosted by ibiblio

On servers donated to ibiblio by AMD.

Webmaster
So Google is now responsible for other peoples | 360 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
To delete the word mark...
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 03:17 PM EDT
...is actually the direct translation of the process of nullification, which
isn5called nullification over here. In German this is called "die Wortmarke
löschen": to delete the registered word mark.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Corrections < - Keerectshuns
Authored by: nsomos on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 03:24 PM EDT
Please post em in this thread. A summary in the title may be helpful.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Off Topic Thread Here...
Authored by: lnuss on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 04:24 PM EDT
...

---
Larry N.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Newspicks Thread Here...
Authored by: lnuss on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 04:25 PM EDT
...

---
Larry N.

[ Reply to This | # ]

COMES Thread Here...
Authored by: lnuss on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 04:26 PM EDT
...

---
Larry N.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Who pays the Fee?
Authored by: rsteinmetz70112 on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 04:37 PM EDT
According to the article a fee of 300 Euros must be paid by someone.

"A fee of EUR 300 must be paid within three months from the filing of the
request."

---
Rsteinmetz - IANAL therefore my opinions are illegal.

"I could be wrong now, but I don't think so."
Randy Newman - The Title Theme from Monk

[ Reply to This | # ]

Who has standing in a situation like this?
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 05:10 PM EDT
Perhaps someone who knows better, or who knows exactly how to look for the
authoritative information could supply the information to the rest of us.

Specifically, under German trademark law, do non-Germans have any right or
standing to complain about a German trademark? If so, then good. People from
outside of Germany can send opinions and evidence to the German trademark office
and possibly be listened to.

But if according to German law any "valid" complaints must only come
from within Germany then the situation is clearly a different one. If that is
the case, then all efforts need to be directed to supporting any German
companies and organizations which would take the lead.

I do not have any idea what the answer to this question is, but it obviously
needs a definitive answer.

In a worst-case scenario, one could be looking at a rerun what happened in the
Netherlands, in the case about whether "Windows" was or was not a
valid trademark and whether "Lindows" was or was not an attempt to
encroach. A similar case in the US had recently run into snags and had been
speedily abandoned by the plaintiff, which then took its complaint overseas. In
the Netherlands, opinions emanating from the US expressing the fact that
"windows" has lots of generic meanings and established generic usage
in English did not seem to matter to the court. The language of the country is
not English.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Some material from Wikipedia sources
Authored by: OpenSourceFTW on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 05:42 PM EDT
http://www.haskell.org/haske llwiki/Hackathon
- Haskel has been holding an event called Hac : Haskel Hackathon since at least 2006, including one in Freiburg, Germany in 2007.


Any more to contribute? Particularly German examples?

[ Reply to This | # ]

Correct me if I am mistaken
Authored by: Anonymous on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 06:55 PM EDT
but the word "Apple" had been in use for centuries before it got
trademarked.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Trademarked for what purpose?
Authored by: hardmath on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 08:50 PM EDT

The operative issue is for what Hackathon is purposed to be a trademark. Here's what I get from the German website PJ links to, via Google Translate:

Class (es) Nice 25: Clothing, footwear, headgear

Class (es) Nice 35: Advertising agency services, radio and television advertising, business information, market and opinion research, public relations, online advertising on a computer network, outdoor advertising, publication of printed matter (including in electronic form), for advertising purposes, sponsors, sponsorship in the form of advertising, advertising by mail , marketing, recruitment, consultancy in human resource issues

Class (es) Nice 38: Providing access to information on the Internet, providing Internet chatrooms, electronic exchange of messages via chat lines, chat rooms and Internet forums

Class (es) Nice 41: Presentation of live events, organization and implementation of cultural and sporting events; entertainment

I would have no problem with the word being used as a trademark on running shoes, for example, but it appears the intended use is much broader and likely to create confusion.

---
Rosser's trick: "For every proof of me, there is a shorter proof of my negation".

[ Reply to This | # ]

A Restaurant in Baltimore trade marked "Hon"
Authored by: kawabago on Monday, May 13 2013 @ 10:38 PM EDT
A similar kind of word around Baltimore. The restaurant owner
started sending cease and desist letters to any business
displaying the word Hon anywhere. The result was immediate
and lethal for the restaurant, citizens organized a boycott
of the restaurant that was totally effective. The owner had
to relinquish the mark, make a huge apology and do a lot of
community service to rebuild the restaurants reputation. Just
a little warning to that business owner in Germany. Careful
what you wish for...

[ Reply to This | # ]

What about "Olympics"
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 12:43 AM EDT

Thousands of years and it's now trademarked.

[ Reply to This | # ]

I do not understand why
Authored by: cricketjeff on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 05:44 AM EDT
All Trademark and Patent applications do not require the applicant to do a due
diligence search and to disclose to the relevant office all the prior art they
discover. Failure to do so should be interpreted as attempted fraud. This would
shift the balance of work from overworked and under-qualified patent clerks and
back onto the inventor who stands to benefit from the grant.

A cast iron opposition to the grant would be to show that on the date of
application a reasonable search found relevant but not disclosed art.



---
There is nothing in life that doesn't look better after a good cup of tea.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Common Practice - Hackathon Trademarked in Germany? Now What? ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 07:46 AM EDT
I can see someone printing tee shirts for a Hackathon, and running into a
problem if the trademark is not deleted.

[ Reply to This | # ]

A possible way to fight a thing like this
Authored by: Tkilgore on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 05:39 PM EDT
I was the one who raised the question of standing to challenge the trademark
application, a few posts above.

To me, the answers do not seem to be universally pleasant and hope-inspiring.
Especially, one of them seems to be rather pessimistic. It says, essentially,
that any challenge has to be mounted from within Germany, and it will take an
attorney to draft the challenge. The post seems also somewhat pessimistic about
the success of a "cancellation on the grounds of nullity" challenge,
claiming that the mere previous use of a word is not considered sufficient
ground for the cancellation.

Explicit disclaimer: I have no easy way to do independent checking of what that
post says. I obviously can not vouch for its accuracy. Nevertheless, it seems to
me to be valid. It also says that the poster will look more into the matter.

Under the circumstances, it occurs to me that there is another way to deal with
a thing like this. Fight fire with fire. Something like the following:

1. Look for a synonym for "hackathon." The names "hackmeet"
and "hackfest" come immediately to mind, for example.

2. A trusted nonprofit with standing in Germany (examples could include FSFE or
any national organization for Linux advocacy or some adjunct of OSI) applies for
copyright and trademark on the substitute word, making explicit that
organizations (and companies, too, why not, because that is the right and
consistent and "nice" way to act) have the right to use the
trademarked name under certain broad but specified conditions which do not
include the transfer of money. For example, if the law requires it for the
purpose of defending the trademark, then permission has to be asked but will be
given. Or something like that. An attorney with knowledge of German copyright
law needs to be consulted about such matters, obviously. The rights extended
should explicitly include such things as the use of a logo, the printing of
programs and posters, and the distribution or sale to participants of such
things as T-shirts. Probably, such things would require for fine print to be
present on the programs, posters, T-shirts and whatever, explaining that whose
trademark it is, perhaps with the word "thanks." Donations from the
conference, meet, or whatever, to the "parent organization" welcomed
but not compulsory. As I said, an attorney would need to be consulted.

It appears to me that (2) just above is probably a practical necessity.
Otherwise, someone else can trademark whatever it is, and one is back to square
one.

3. (optional, but it would obviously strengthen things) Simultaneous
applications in other countries in Europe and in the US.

4. Publicity. As much publicity as possible, which explains the reasons for all
of the above.

The only fly in the ointment that I can see is that some people might be
suspicious about which organization(s) is(are) doing the filing. I would see
something like this as a broad and inclusive attempt to serve the broad
interests of freedom, but some might not agree. So. clearly, one has to be very
careful about which organization it is, and the intention of the organization in
doing this should be made crystal clear. Groundwork should be carefully done, in
that the prior agreement of other, affected organizations ought to be sought and
obtained first. As a specific example, if the organization which does the filing
is not haskell.org, then haskell.org ought to be consulted. That, because it is
mentioned above in a post that haskell.org has been holding
"hackathons" in Europe for some time back. Also, it goes without
saying that if it is FSFE which does the filing, then the executive board of OSI
ought to be approached and asked to give its nod of approval, and if it is OSI
then FSFE should be similarly approached. Maximum publicity about the current,
somewhat undesirable state of affairs ought to be very helpful in getting
something done, too.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Hackathon Trademarked in Germany? Now What? ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 08:34 AM EDT
One acronym ;-)

[ Reply to This | # ]

Hackathon Trademarked in Germany? Now What? ~pj
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 08:44 AM EDT
One acronym

[ Reply to This | # ]

So Google is now responsible for other peoples
Authored by: albert on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 11:30 AM EDT
searches in Germany. The German court is saying, in effect, that their people
are too stupid to realize that auto-complete is computer generated data, that
may or may not be garbage. If 1 million people search for "Willie
Weber"* and "troll", does that make Willie a troll? Most likely
they want to find out if he is a troll.

Do German courts think everything on the Dreaded Internet is true?

This is extreme liberal-socialist hand-holding. It reminds me of all those
idiots in the US who think the Constitution guarantees them the right not to be
offended by legal free speech.

Apparently, our level of stupidity is exceeded only by our level of stupidity.

"Everybody's stupid!" - mantra of "This Is Hell" radio show
(www.thisishell.net)


*It's a fictitious name. 'Weber' is the second most common surname in Germany.
In a fit of unusual restraint, I did not choose the number one name: 'Muller'
{:-)>

[ Reply to This | # ]

Does this mean... (if true)
Authored by: Anonymous on Wednesday, May 15 2013 @ 08:27 PM EDT
A. Microsoft is violating the DMCA for
distributing an application that bypasses
restriction controls?

B. Microsoft is liable of $250k per copy
its induced it's users to illegally copy?
(Including the copy of the copies?)

C. Microsoft is abusing its desktop
monopoly to advance its position in
another market? (Windows 8 being the "
same" on desktops, tablets and phones)

D. Violating it's contractual obligations
spelled out in the TOS? (It has entered
into by utilizing the APIs, click-
through?)

E. Displays why Microsoft cannot be
trusted.

[ Reply to This | # ]

Groklaw © Copyright 2003-2013 Pamela Jones.
All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners.
Comments are owned by the individual posters.

PJ's articles are licensed under a Creative Commons License. ( Details )