right or wrong?

[Alwin Alcott]

at a event that starts today i seen this:

i was wondering,  the stripes are a trade mark and are protected. For me the total design looks like a copy of the brand.

I'm pretty sure it can hurt the seller, but would the Event organiser also be at risk?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stripes

[Cindy Evanier]

22 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

at a event that starts today i seen this:

i was wondering,  the stripes are a trade mark and are protected. For me the total design looks like a copy of the brand.

I'm pretty sure it can hurt the seller, but would the Event organiser also be at risk?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stripes

I have seen this a lot and the one with a tick.  I am not sure the event owner would be at risk other than reputation.  Most events I am part of say in their terms that anything against the TOS (which looking at that picture.. well it is instantly recognisible by the stripes) is not allowed.  It would be interesting to know though what responsibility  LL places on event organisers when they allow it.

Side note: There is a rl pair of those currently on my hall floor in a stand off with a child who hasn't put them away properly!

[Alwin Alcott]

32 minutes ago, Cindy Evanier said:

There is a rl pair of those currently on my hall floor in a stand off with a child who hasn't put them away properly!

long time ago my mum took our shoes in hostage if we didn't put them away, we could earn them back with our weekly allowance or washing dishes ... we were cured very soon.

( she didn't keep the allowance but putted it directly in the piggy bank.. so wrong, we couldn't spend it!)

[Cindy Evanier]

7 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

long time ago my mum took our shoes in hostage if we didn't put them away, we could earn them back with our weekly allowance or washing dishes ... we were cured very soon

I do that with the xbox controller  

[Alwin Alcott]

1 minute ago, Cindy Evanier said:

I do that with the xbox controller  

we didn't care a lot about our xbox... more box than x i'm affraid

[JJ Hoobinoo]

On 7/23/2018 at 6:34 AM, Cindy Evanier said:

I have seen this a lot and the one with a tick.  I am not sure the event owner would be at risk other than reputation.  Most events I am part of say in their terms that anything against the TOS (which looking at that picture.. well it is instantly recognisible by the stripes) is not allowed.  <snip?

What an event organizer "says" in TOS and what they actually enforce tends to be different things. I usually see an ostrich head in the sand like approach where they will pretend to ignore infractions as long as no one brings it to their attention and  it brings people to an event/makes them more money from rentals.

Cynical experience.

[Alyona Su]

I'm an attorney, but based on what I know bout Copyright law (in the U.S., anyway) is protection against a work. Since that show is a 3D model with a texture on it the likelihood of anyone buying it thinking it comes from the original copyright holder is unlikely. In short: it does not break copyright. If I were accused of copyright infringement on this I'd fight it in court (were it financially feasible to do so).

It also doesn't break the patent law because it is not a functional design that can be patented.

Thus, the real question is about Trademark, not copyright.

[Charlotte Bartlett]

On 8/8/2018 at 3:40 PM, Alyona Su said:

I'm an attorney, but based on what I know bout Copyright law (in the U.S., anyway) is protection against a work. Since that show is a 3D model with a texture on it the likelihood of anyone buying it thinking it comes from the original copyright holder is unlikely. In short: it does not break copyright. If I were accused of copyright infringement on this I'd fight it in court (were it financially feasible to do so).

It also doesn't break the patent law because it is not a functional design that can be patented.

Thus, the real question is about Trademark, not copyright.

Re "Confusion"  Historically it has been possible and Adidas HAVE had a presence in Second Life officially many years back.

I think any solo creator who thought they could fight a large corporation like Adidas in US court, would be misguided in this example and it's regarding Trade Dress.  Financially feasible to fight?  I hope you have very deep pockets and the time this will take.



The stripes are protected under trade dress.   In principle, you do not have the right to copy the design in any way shape or form and that includes making a 3d model. 


In the history of sands of SL, another furniture brand did protect their Trade Dress specifically and make a well known SL creator remove their equivalent items under a legal agreement.  It did not however reach court as the creator adhered to the cease and desist.  


To state a trade dress infringement claim under Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act a plaintiff must meet three basic elements: (1) distinctiveness, (2) nonfunctionality, and (3) likelihood of confusion.


Honestly at the end of the day back to the OP - their post states already it looks like a copy of the brand, historically we can show Adidas has had official products within Second Life.... so has confusion been caused, have they, in their mind, linked that shoe to the brand? Also the quality of the 3d model.  If, well poor, could it lead a court to infer that the fact that 3d model exists and linked a consumer's thought to Adidas, it is therefore likely to harm Adidas' reputation?   Confusion does not necessarily mean you think it comes "from" the brand directly.  Perhaps this is a marketing gimmick etc authorised by the brand.

Adidas have already got precedent in US courts (and recently) showing those stripes have become a design that is recognisable (point in case, the OP recognised them) and they are not functional, so they have protectable trade dress on them.  Applying those stripes to stickers, websites, 3d models, whatever derivative medium you want to chose,  would therefore I suspect (highly) to be a infringement on that basis.

US law in this area is highly complex, so any creators reading this please never EVER think it's the right move to go to court on a quick sand defense for trade dress infringement.  Get an IP lawyer (better still stop copying trade dress items and bringing harm to SL's reputation and other creators here - make your own stripes up it's NOT hard).

 

 

 

 

Edited August 30, 2018 by Charlotte Bartlett

[Chic Aeon]

Just wanted to add that the name brand tennis shoes that I have seen in SL BY the real life company were way before we had mesh.  Back when real life car companies were giving away models.  

There were few VERY impressive builds by RL companies back then. One with tennis shoes let you choose all the colors on the shoe. I asked a RL friend who NEVER deletes any inventory and he had both Nike (very swift looking for the time so likely that was one of the RL companies) and Adidas (just a tee shirt and  was REALLY a long time ago LOL (read that as OMG ugly)).  Both were from 2007. 

Just thought I would add that to the thread for historical interest.   That RL company in SL season didn't last all that long. 

[Charlotte Bartlett]

Those were the days hah!   One brand that was more liberal from memory was Coca Cola they let their logo be used or am I imagining that.

[iamyourneighbour]

On 8/9/2018 at 5:40 AM, Alyona Su said:

I'm an attorney, but based on what I know bout Copyright law (in the U.S., anyway) is protection against a work. Since that show is a 3D model with a texture on it the likelihood of anyone buying it thinking it comes from the original copyright holder is unlikely. In short: it does not break copyright. If I were accused of copyright infringement on this I'd fight it in court (were it financially feasible to do so).

It also doesn't break the patent law because it is not a functional design that can be patented.

Thus, the real question is about Trademark, not copyright.

Very informative