Nintendo Confused About How The Web Works

from the let's-try-this-again... dept

Following the story earlier today about Rolex threatening a site for receiving fake-Rolex spam it appears that Nintendo's lawyers are trying to surpass Rolex's in internet cluelessness. Their lawyers are threatening a site where someone's profile mentions their favorite video games -- which happen to be Nintendo video games. The problem is that the site, SuicideGirls, is a porn site. However, there's no actual trademark violation going on here. Trademark violation includes confusing people into believing that your product is someone else's product. This is just someone saying they like the game, and Nintendo freaking out that someone involved in porn might dare to mention the name. Trademark doesn't mean you own all uses of the name. It's designed to avoid customer confusion when companies try to appear as a different company. As the owner of the site says: "I enjoy an ice cold coca cola on a hot day. Do you think Coca Cola is going to sue me for posting that?" Update: Nintendo now admits they screwed up and have apologized (and offered a free Nintendo system and game to the site owner, and the person who posted the profile).

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