Lawyers trying to stamp out "Wiimote"

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:47 pm

NCSX wrote: «©NCSX» Last week, we received a letter from a law firm representing a company which holds the "Weemote™" trademark. The letter stated that we were to stop using the term, "Wiimote" in our product descriptions and NCS Game Notes™ because our actions could possibly cause confusion in the marketplace. NCS respects trademarks and ©opyrights since we also own trademarks and copyrighted material so we're obliging even though we think it's a bit of a stretch... but whatever.

So now, NCSX will have references to "Wiimote" scrubbed from their site. I don't really see how Wiimote can be confused with Weemote, even if they're pronounced the same. The Weemote is a child's TV remote that parents can put a limited selection of channels on, to keep kids from watching R or PG-13 rated fare. Other retailers are getting notices from Fobis' legal team.

Fobis Technologies (maker of Weemote) is being petty. Nintendo doesn't officially call their remote a "Wiimote"- that's just gamer slang.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 7:51 pm

Free advertising. The best thing to do is just say that some group objected to the use of the term and not mention them by name, I think.

Post by **undamned** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 10:05 pm

How the crap can you tell somebody to stop using a mis-spelling of a registered name? If I have a company called TIGER-CO, I would be a moron to tell people to stop using the name "TYGER-CO." The idiocy.

NCSX should register the name "wiimote" and then tell the Weemote guys that the term "wiimote" will be removed from their site as soon as they buy rights for "wiimote" from NCSX (for some obscene amount of $).
-ud

iatneH · Post by **iatneH** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:03 pm

That's an awesome idea UD. Is "Wiimote" still unregistered?

Though I think for your example, it would be more like this: If you are the owner of TIGER-CO, it is stupid for the lawyers of Tyco to tell your customers to stop calling you Tico.

Ed Oscuro · Post by **Ed Oscuro** » Mon Jul 21, 2008 11:04 pm

undamned wrote:How the crap can you tell somebody to stop using a mis-spelling of a registered name?

Lurn 2 trademark law

iatneH wrote:That's an awesome idea UD. Is "Wiimote" still unregistered?

It doesn't matter. It's too similar to this other mark and if you tried to register it you'd get flattened hardcore (actually they would just object to the registration and it wouldn't go anywhere).

Also, it's dumb to try to register marks to cover somebody else's product.

shmups.system11.org

Lawyers trying to stamp out "Wiimote"

Lawyers trying to stamp out "Wiimote"

Re: Lawyers trying to stamp out "Wiimote"