[thelist] copyright help

[Liam Delahunty]

Jake Robinson wrote:

<Chip quote>
Hello Jake,
My name is Chip Sbrogna, President and Co-Founder of BionicMonkey
Studios. Unfortunately, we copyrighted the name back in the year 2000 and
since we're a new but established Limited Licensing Company (LLC) we can't
have another site using our name. Now, I noticed from your site that you're
a student, so I decided to send a friendly email rather than pass the issue
off to our lawyers in the hopes that we can quickly resolve this without a
problem. I'm sorry to have to do this, but I have to ask you to rename your
site, and to do it quickly. Please reply within 48 hours to let me know
that this is indeed your first priority with all matters relating to the use
of the name "BionicMonkey". Otherwise, I'll be forced to forward this
matter to our attorneys.

Thanks for your cooperation, Jake.

Sincerely,
Ralph (chip) Sbrogna
President/Co-Founder
BionicMonkey Studios
http://www.BionicMonkey.com"

</chip>

<Jake quote>
Now, my question is, where do I stand on this matter? I am only 16 years
old, so law is over my head, espcially when it comes to the intricacies of
international law and copyrighting. I replied saying that I would stop use
of the name. Before I do this though, I would like to find out where exactly
I stand, and what information I should ask for, in-order for them to have
substancial evidence that I am unable to use the name. I currently own
bionicmonkey.co.uk, by the way. Any help which can be offered will be
greatly appreciated.
Thanks :)

</Jake>

Hi,

Okay, let "Chip" go to his attorneys. It will cost him a fortune and he'll
lose. Also legally him asking you to do stuff within 48 hours in an email is
frankly stupid. He would need to serve you with a writ to get a response
within a legal required timeframe. Obviously emails an go unread, can bounce
for strange reasons, you might be on holiday and it was the weekend when he
sent it!

The nominet whois info doesn't give me any location information so I'm going
to guess that you are based in the UK as you've bought a .co.uk (even though
you don't have to be). Even if you're not it doesn't really matter as he is
talking the biggest load of poo I've heard in a long time.

He talks about copyrighting a name, he obviously hasn't spoken to a lawyer -
as I understand it you can trademark a name to gain certain privileges, but
not copyright one...

I am not a lawyer either, but have dealt with this sort of matter before, I
designed the shopping cart[*] for a game called Corx http://www.corx.co.uk,
somebody in the US tried his luck on with us because he had a very different
game called Corx over there many years ago... in fact I've just looked at
his site and seen that he's put the name up for sale!

[* I'll be releasing the shopping cart under some sort of open source
licence in the future, if you are interested in knowing more please contact
me directly by email off-list.]

His own site says copyright 2000 Bionic Monkey Inc, The Bionic Monkey logo
is a Registered Trademark of Bionic Monkey, Inc. They really should work out
what the company is called... is it B.M studios or B.M inc...? Anyway, the
logo is registered trademark. Says nothing about the name, and even if it is
a registered trademark in the US, I doubt very much if it's registered
elsewhere. Even then, in the unlikely event that they do have the company
name registered it still doesn't mean anything, you have as much right to
use the phrase Bionic Monkey as they do.

He has a LLC company in America called a _similar_ name to your site. (Which
means limited Liability not Limited Licensing so the guys a prat as well as
a prick). But the company name is "bionic monkey studios" or "bionic monkey
inc.". Your site isn't, and in fact their site isn't either, and a quick
check tells me the following are available so they aren't that bothered
about protecting their name:
bionicmonkeystudios.com
bionicmonkeystudios.net
bionicmonkeystudios.org
bionicmonkeystudios.co.uk
bionicmonkeystudios.org.uk

An LLC really isn't that big a deal and is sort of equivalent to a UK
limited company. You can pretty much buy a company of the shelf and be
trading legally for a few hundred pounds. Having a name in itself doesn't
mean you have exclusive rights to it. My company is called Mega Products
Limited (my accountant has a sense of the absurd), while I have the .co.uk.,
the .com belongs to someone else. I don't care, they don't care and it
doesn't matter... I expect that there are many other companies around the
world are called mega products too.

Frankly, He is just trying it on, he hoped that you would just get scared by
the word lawyers and give him something he doesn't deserve or is legally
entitled too. I would reply saying that you own the name fair and square,
and that you'll link to them if they link to you. Put back your own pages as
soon as possible. If you are in the UK please ensure that in all
correspondence with them you include the phrase "without prejudice". Really
don't worry about this, he's just trying his luck. If you aren't bothered
about the name offer to sell it to them for a couple of thousand quid!

Kind regards,
Liam

...Just home from the last ever home game at Craven Cottage 27/04/2002...


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