Posts by Rich Lock
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Um, wouldn't false representation/passing off require that a reasonable person could be misled?
Probably. But I'm afraid that your free 1/2 hr consultation period has expired.
I will be happy to carry out further investigation into the relevant case law at my standard rate of $300 p/h.
Where shall I send the invoice?
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My particular academic interest is why political movements go from non-violent protest methods, to embracing violence and the (often delusional) reasonings for adopting violence. Particularly Students for a Democratic Society and the move to break away into the Weather Underground, but Baader-Meinhof is obviously of interest.
Dunno if anyone needs a spoiler alert for this, but if you do, consider yourself warned:
The first act of the film focuses quite heavily on Ulrike Meinhof, and she is portrayed in the film as moving from a radical, but non-violent position, towards violent 'urban terrorism', making a series of decisions that lead her from the first position to the other. She then seems to go through a crisis of faith and breakdown when she realises what she has become. I've no idea how true to life that transition is, though.
WRT the weather underground - I assume you've seen this, but link embedded just in case you haven't.
It could be argued that the RAF had more of a reason for frustration and a shift to violence than any group in the US did (although from your point of view that probably makes the US groups more interesting). One thing that the film does not really address in any detail is their existence within the broader context of the west german political scene at the time. As I say, it's not something I'm completely up to speed on, but when you have ex-nazi party and ex-SS officers at the highest level of government and industry, you're going to have some pretty good reasons for getting a little pissed off.
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In every case it's down to the courts. If he's registered, they need only prove that the use is infringing on their mark. That could actually be sticky in this case, since the misuse of the mark is not in relation to enrolment of electors or the conduct of an election, but the risk of confusion is present and the courts would likely find it an infringing use.
Without registration, the hurdle is to prove that the character is widely recognised as their mark and is not utilised by others for similar purposes. "Prove" in this situation is more than just "Yeah, everyone knows it, y'ronner. Even you recognise him, right?"
Is it easy to get it before the courts? Certainly. To get an injunction? In this case it could be tricky, because there's no money changing hands and there are freedom of speech issues. A judge would likely want a hearing before injuncting, and potentially the A-G (S-G?) would have to be involved because of the BORA implications.
Yes, that's what I was driving at. The first stage in the process (cease/desist) is more or less the same, and as easy, whether there is registration or not.
As you've pointed out, the next stages (court) are harder if there is no registration.
But in most cases (and as seems to be the case with 'should-a'), the ceast/desist threat is enough by itself.
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Please let us know if Baader-Meinhof is any good Rich. I'll make time to go see it if it's worth seeing (its my area of academic interest), but it involves skipping something that I've already paid for and can't get refunded for.
An awful lot of responsibility to put on my shoulders.....How much did you pay for the other thing?
It's pretty good. First half is a cracker, but it sags a fair bit in the second half (when the main bunch are in jail). The ending seemed a bit weird and abrupt.
Factual accuracy? Don't personally know enough detail about that particular part of European history to venture a definitive opinion. The main events seemed to be pretty faithfully covered, but I'm sure there was a lot of 'filling in the blanks' by the script writers. Whether that 'filling in' accurately captures the actuality or not is something I can't really comment on.
It's certainly worth a look if you can get to it. I suspect it will get a more general release post-festival, but I can't say for sure. It's big-budget and glossy enough for an arthouse run. Lots of beautiful young things running around with not very many clothes on, and lots of guns.
Suggested strapline for the general release:
"The Red Army Faction: bringing sexy terrorism back since ages ago."
its my area of academic interest
What is it you do? You've piqued my curiosity.
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I would have thought that, as with intellectual property in the private sector, an employee has no right to anything they create whilst working for their employer.
That said, is not the public the employer of government? and in so being, the owner of the property?Depends on the contract, and also what the duties of the job are.
If you clean floors in the beehive to make ends meet while you wait for your band to make their big breakthrough, the government won't be getting any royalties from your first album sales, for example.
But if you're a graphic artist specifically contracted or employed to come up with nifty logos for government departments, your contract will probably have a clause in it stating that you have an obligation to assign ownership of the copyright to your employer.
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Rich, yes you're right that there's some protection, but it's very hard to access. You have to go to court simply to determine that there is sufficient existing use. There's also no "defend it or lose it" requirement.
My understanding is that the intial levels of protection or legal recourse wouldn't actually be all that hard to access.
If 'election dude' is a registered TM, the first thing the owners probably would have done was send a 'cease and desist' letter to the 'would-a' site.
Crudely speaking, the other options available to the owners (if it isn't a registered mark) would be:
- Passing off (common law right).
- false representation under the fair trading act (S13 is probably the most applicable).
- Copyright infringement.
But the first step would be the same for any of, or any combination of, these steps - a 'cease and desist'-type letter.
If (purely hypothetically) 'should-a' had ignored these warning shots (in most cases the nasty letter is sufficient), 'orange dude's' owners would still have had to go to court and make their arguments, whether or not he was registered.
Yes, tehy would have had an eaiser job of it is he was registered, but i don't think it's actually that hard to access if he isn't.
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Why did you want to buy a house?
A question I have asked myself repeatedly in the last few weeks as the builders suck my wallet empty.
Welcome to DiY hell, Damian.
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Graeme - thanks for this. Very interesting.
Matthew:
However, is the orange man actually trademarked? I looked at the elections website and saw nothing that answered the question. If he's not, then the issue doesn't even arise.
Not quite correct. Even if he/she/it isn't formally registered, there is a certain amount of protection available just because the mark has been used enough within a certain context to become more or less instantly recognisable - people will immediately associate that mark with that application. The protection isn't as strong as formal registration, though.
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If it's all about the crazies for Danielle, it's all about the revolutionaries for me.
I was also at the "RiP: A remix manifesto" screening. Always good to know what the enemy is thinking*. Enough material in there to keep The Scottish Thread death-spiralling for months.
Baader-Meinhof this afternoon. 'Visual acoustics' and 'Flame and Citroen' on Saturday. And then 'Dead Snow' on monday as an antidote to all this high culture.
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Just like e. e. cummings.
e.e. cummings might not be the best choice of driver for our book racer team....
she being Brand
-new;and you
know consequently a
little stiff i was
careful of her and(havingthoroughly oiled the universal
joint tested my gas felt of
her radiator made sure her springs were O.K.)i went right to it flooded-the-carburetor cranked her
up,slipped the
clutch(and then somehow got into reverse she
kicked what
the hell)next
minute i was back in neutral tried andagain slo-wly;bare,ly nudg. ing(my
lev-er Right-
oh and her gears being in
A 1 shape passed
from low through
second-in-to-high like
greasedlightning)just as we turned the corner of Divinityavenue i touched the accelerator and give
her the juice,good
(it
was the first ride and believe i we was
happy to see how nice she acted right up to
the last minute coming back down by the Public
Gardens i slammed onthe
internalexpanding
&
externalcontracting
brakes Bothatonce andbrought allofher tremB
-ling
to a:dead.stand-
;Still)