How the fuck can any judge in their right mind allow a case like this into their courtroom? This is probably one of the worst examples of copyright (edit: IP Laws) getting out of control I've seen in a long while.
Trademark.
they are talking about trademarks here, not copyrights. The two are so vastly different, for vastly different purposes, and vastly different constraints placed on them, that it is beyond foolishness to confuse the two. There's a bit of irony here as well, since preventing consumers from confusing two things is the whole point of trademarks.
> The two are so vastly different, for vastly different purposes, and vastly different constraints placed on them, that it is beyond foolishness to confuse the two.
It's actually not vastly different, however there is a clear difference indeed. I feel you're just out hunting for something to be pedantic about, lol.
In truth, no, because even if one were to correctly identify this case as being about Trademark law, and complained about how "out of hand" these laws are getting, that would still be ignorant of the fact that trademark law requires companies to vigorously protect their trademarks or risk losing them.
Furthermore, trademarking generic words and phrases (such as "Apple" or "Orange" or "THANKYOU") is totally legitimate, since the additional requirement for a trademark is that the category or industry is part of the trademark and the protection only extends to that category. No, the flimsiest part of this lawsuit is that AT&T cannot be reasonably said to be operating in the banking industry- but in this case they specifically used the "THANK" word in the context of its partnership with CITI GROUP, so in this specific case AT&T was operating in the banking industry, and using something confusingly similar to CITI GROUP's trademark. and so of course, CITI GROUP is not in this case evil or litigious, but actually legally required to challenge that usage. To not pursue this would be neglect of the law.
Of course, the most annoying part about this is how easy it is to exploit the public's ignorance of how trademark law works to generate clicks and outrage.
> Furthermore, trademarking generic words and phrases (such as "Apple" or "Orange" or "THANKYOU") is totally legitimate
Which really, shouldn't be. Because it couldn't reasonably be argued that a consumer could be "confused" at a simple word or phrase like "thankyou" and therefore being misled into using a different company. If you do try to make such an argument, it displays a level of contempt for the consumer, and is also taking the protection of intellectual properties beyond a reasonable level and moves into the abstract.
I completely understand that people will happily defend things like this because it is "legitimate". I generally question why people feel it's acceptable that it's a legitimate practice however.
I believe San Diego Magazine trademarked "San Diego" quite a few years ago. IIRC the trademark included the specific font used by the magazine on its cover. If they had tried to trademark the phrase without limiting it to a magazine with that specific font, I would hope they would have failed to get the registration. I haven't looked at the filing in this case (life is too short for this kind of bullshit), but I would hope it's limited to "THANKYOU", all caps, no space.
whether they are similar enough to cause confusion is for the court to decide. in any case it's close enough for citi group to potentially lose the trademark if they don't challenge
The next time I thank someone in all caps, I'll be sure to put two spaces between the word "thank" and "you"... Just in case. Maybe I should trademark it, to be safe and protect myself from being confused for a financial institution or something equally derogatory.
What's actually happening here is that Citigroup has been using the trademark "Citi ThankYou" for a customer rewards program, and is objecting to AT&T's new mark "AT&T thanks" for a customer rewards program.
The title implies that the complaint is over ordinary use of the expression "thank you" to thank people, but that is not the case at all.
Ars Technica, which years ago used to be a great source for technical news, continues its transformation into a professional shitposting outfit.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 50.5 ms ] threadIt's actually not vastly different, however there is a clear difference indeed. I feel you're just out hunting for something to be pedantic about, lol.
They are not anywhere close to the same sort of thing except if you look at them kind of sideways. To casually interchange them makes no sense.
Furthermore, trademarking generic words and phrases (such as "Apple" or "Orange" or "THANKYOU") is totally legitimate, since the additional requirement for a trademark is that the category or industry is part of the trademark and the protection only extends to that category. No, the flimsiest part of this lawsuit is that AT&T cannot be reasonably said to be operating in the banking industry- but in this case they specifically used the "THANK" word in the context of its partnership with CITI GROUP, so in this specific case AT&T was operating in the banking industry, and using something confusingly similar to CITI GROUP's trademark. and so of course, CITI GROUP is not in this case evil or litigious, but actually legally required to challenge that usage. To not pursue this would be neglect of the law.
Of course, the most annoying part about this is how easy it is to exploit the public's ignorance of how trademark law works to generate clicks and outrage.
> Furthermore, trademarking generic words and phrases (such as "Apple" or "Orange" or "THANKYOU") is totally legitimate
Which really, shouldn't be. Because it couldn't reasonably be argued that a consumer could be "confused" at a simple word or phrase like "thankyou" and therefore being misled into using a different company. If you do try to make such an argument, it displays a level of contempt for the consumer, and is also taking the protection of intellectual properties beyond a reasonable level and moves into the abstract.
I completely understand that people will happily defend things like this because it is "legitimate". I generally question why people feel it's acceptable that it's a legitimate practice however.
Apologies if that annoys you, of course.
The title implies that the complaint is over ordinary use of the expression "thank you" to thank people, but that is not the case at all.
Ars Technica, which years ago used to be a great source for technical news, continues its transformation into a professional shitposting outfit.
edit: also, what is with the Ars hate these days? I think they are still doing a pretty good job, unlike say engadget, theverge and anandtech.