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Subject: Re: Tetrox renamed to Rockblox, for trademark reasons

Re: Tetrox renamed to Rockblox, for trademark reasons

From: Michael Sevakis <jethead71_at_sbcglobal.net>
Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 22:57:34 -0400

About a couple weeks ago after Rockbox appeared in one the online mags
(pc-mag?) I suspected that this would start happening if rb "mattered too
much". Now it's for real!

Has this sort of thing occurred before?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Björn Stenberg" <bjorn_at_haxx.se>
To: <rockbox-dev_at_cool.haxx.se>
Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 5:23 PM
Subject: Tetrox renamed to Rockblox, for trademark reasons


> Hi all.
>
> We received a "Cease and Desist" letter from a law firm representing The
Tetris Company, which holds the trademark "TETRIS". They claim our "Tetrox"
plugin infringes on their trademark "Tetris" and demand we remove it.
>
> After consulting US and Swedish lawyers, I have decided to abide them by
renaming Tetrox to "Rockblox". Old members will remember this was the name
of the plugin that Tetrox replaced.
>
> The issue here is that trademark law is what I call a "soft" law. We do
not use the word that they have registered, and yet a judge may still find
us infringing. They reason is that a word/mark is deemed infringing if there
is "likelyhood of confusion". That likelyhood can only be decided by a
court, and going to court in the US costs a truckload of money even if you
win. In short: It's not worth it.
>
> In addition to the trademark claim, they also claim copyright on
"features" of the game. However, the lawyers agree with me that those claims
are nonsense so we can safely ignore them.
>
> --
> Björn
Received on 2006-09-20

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