..wait, what?

[Frizzle Fry]

http://gogpaintball.com/hompage_gog.html#

eXTCy

eNVy

G1

These are all smartphones, yes? Hell, they even stylized "eNVy" the same way...

Remember MacDev, with the DROID? Let's see how SPs legal team likes dealing with the combined legal powers of Google, LG, and Virgin Mobile. They don't call Rich Branson "the rebel billionaire" for no reason, I'm pretty sure there's a branch of LG who makes a functional OICW, and Google owns freakin' everything these days... Could've picked some softer targets.

[koleah]

Could you elaborate a little? I think I see what you're saying, but want to make sure. And no, I've never heard of anything to do with Macdev and the Droid. (being serious here)

[koleah]

If you's a drinkins, feel free to do it tomorrow morning

[xero28]

What he's saying is that all of the new guns coming out from GOG (SP) have the exact same names as already existing smartphones. I'm not sure if the names are trademarked though, but if they are, I do hope to see something come of it. I did also wonder about the MD droid and how they got around things since the word droid is trademarked by LucasArts.

[Frizzle Fry]

Could you elaborate a little? I think I see what you're saying, but want to make sure. And no, I've never heard of anything to do with Macdev and the Droid. (being serious here)

A few years ago, MacDev made a marker called the "Droid". It was their first spoolie, similar to their current marker the "Clone" but without external gaslines and minus a few tweaks. They received a cease-and-desist from Lucasfilm LTD, who owns the rights to the word "Droid" and is usage... Take a peek at your next Verizon commercial - under the "Droid X" or "Droid 2" you'll see a licensing statement that credits Lucasfilm LTD (they actually make a "Droid R2D2").

My point is that Virgin Mobile and/or Kyocera probably own the rights to the various stylizations and spellings of "XTC" - usually big-huge-monster companies will snatch up variations on the names of their products to allow for expansion in the line, and protect against similarly named knockoffs. My guess would be that LG did the same thing with the Envy (or whatever), and you can bet that GOOGLE slapped it's name on the rights to "G1".

I know GOG isn't making cellphones, but with competent and plentiful lawyers, a loose definition of "consumer electronics", and a bevy of patents and trademarks, you can do just about anything... Methinks the guys at GOG should know that

If you's a drinkins, feel free to do it tomorrow morning

Mmmm. I've had a few beers. This I cannot deny.

Let me know when it starts to effect my typing.

[tribalman]

LG's cellphone is called enV
GOG calls it eNVy. kinda gray area, but if i was judging it it's different enough that i would side with GOG

Google calls theirs "g1"
GOG did insert a dash into the name. this one i think is way to close and more intentional of trying to go off google's smartphone name.

and onto kyocera's XTC:
now that's just blatant.

[vf-xx]

I've had a little bit of trademark training at work (not much)

But I was generally under the impression that you can use a trademarked name if there is no reasonable way to confuse the two products.

Which does make me wonder how LucasArts was really able to hit up MacDev on the Droid bit. Honestly I find it hard to confuse a paintball marker with a robot.

[leloup]

I've had a little bit of trademark training at work (not much)

But I was generally under the impression that you can use a trademarked name if there is no reasonable way to confuse the two products.

Which does make me wonder how LucasArts was really able to hit up MacDev on the Droid bit. Honestly I find it hard to confuse a paintball marker with a robot.

It's because Luscasfilm and all of George's companies are big into merchandising and licensing. They just don't deal in one area, they span different fields, from computer games, films, sound (skywalker sound), audio(thx), character licensing(star wars, indiana jones, etc), books, and mechandising of everything under the sun. They kind of invented film merchandising.

Other companies have a hold on names like this, such as Games Workshop. You can't just go and use their trademarked names on any thing. We could't name a marker a Tau or lasgun or eversor, etc.

[Spazmok]

I'm pretty sure redz did a softgoods line a few years back called eNVy also.

[Frizzle Fry]

Other companies have a hold on names like this, such as Games Workshop. You can't just go and use their trademarked names on any thing. We could't name a marker a Tau or lasgun or eversor, etc.

That's what makes me think LG and Virgin... Both companies (conglomerates, really) have their fingers in a wide variety of pies and probably have legal protection for their branding in each and every one of those many and varied markets. Google is huge, but it isn't quite as diverse yet. These guys cover their butts when it comes to variations, so they can expand the product line and for protection purposes. Look at all the "iStuff" that was pulled from shelves!

I'm pretty sure redz did a softgoods line a few years back called eNVy also.

Last year - but it wasn't stylized and it wasn't set on the backdrop of two other products named after smartphones.

[Drix]

eXTCy

Maybe in a sport of kids they shouldn't name their marker after a popular street drug- Some poor parent might get confused.

Edit:
I missed the part where it comes with the gr33se lube- Guess kids are still stupid.

[SecondRate]

I can't believe that any of you guys are surprised here!

The Gardners have already shown that they wouldn't know an original idea if one stepped up and introduced itself to them! . . . .and that they have no problem using someone else's! ! ! !

[Newt]

The copyright rule is 20% difference, I believe. That's not hard to do with four letter words GoG/SP is naming their products (like *33*, ***y, V*b*, etc) or especially with two letter words.