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LucasFilm Skips The Jedi Mind Trick And Just Straight Up Sues 'Jedi Mind'
from the the-force-is-strong-with-this-one dept
Fresh off its legal lightsaber battle with Wicked Lasers, LucasFilm's legal department has moved on to pulling a Jedi Mind trick... literally. David Canton points us to the news that LucasFilm has filed a lawsuit against a Nevada company called Jedi Mind. Not surprisingly, they're not particularly happy with the name, and are charging the company with trademark infringement, false designation of origin, trademark dilution, breach of contract and unfair competition (under California's law). Apparently, a Jedi Mind is no match for a good legal department... Of course, this case seems a lot stronger than the lightsaber one, and my guess is that Jedi Mind is going to have to backdown quickly, or it's going to lose pretty badly. Even auctioning off the lawsuit papers probably won't help...
THREsq has a lot more details on the lawsuit, noting that after receiving a cease & desist from LucasFilm's lawyers last year, Jedi Mind had agreed to phase out the use of the name. The lawsuit (and the breach of contract claim) comes from its failure to do so. The other interesting point: Lucas doesn't actually hold a trademark on "Jedi" or "Jedi Mind." It does hold trademarks on Jedi Knight, Jedi Power Battles and Jedi Training Academy but that's not quite the same thing... Still, the company claims that's enough to wield the force over Jedi Mind.
THREsq has a lot more details on the lawsuit, noting that after receiving a cease & desist from LucasFilm's lawyers last year, Jedi Mind had agreed to phase out the use of the name. The lawsuit (and the breach of contract claim) comes from its failure to do so. The other interesting point: Lucas doesn't actually hold a trademark on "Jedi" or "Jedi Mind." It does hold trademarks on Jedi Knight, Jedi Power Battles and Jedi Training Academy but that's not quite the same thing... Still, the company claims that's enough to wield the force over Jedi Mind.
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wait, what?
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Re: wait, what?
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Re: wait, what?
If it's true that LucasFilm doesn't own a copyright on "Jedi" or "Jedi mind trick," then how do they have any legal legs to stand on?
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Re: Re: wait, what?
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Re: Re: Re: wait, what?
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Jedi Religion
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Re: Jedi Religion
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If they win this outright, it's because the judge was biased and was thinking that Jedi must go to Lucas by default -- but that's not the law, is it?
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Re:
Just as I probably couldn't open a fast food burger joint called Mickey D's or BK, or a chicken joint called KFC (though "Kennedy Fried Chicken" is apparently OK) or a brand of shoes called cons or chucks.
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Jedi is the shorthand for Jedi Knight, yet there are several levels, Jedi Knight, Jedi Master, etc etc. Jedi being the key term, the other being a definition of, well I guess Skill level.
Jedi indeed falls to Lucas, how can it not? Say Jedi, what are you thinking. Read the word Jedi, what do you see? If I come into a store and see some thought controlled Jedi named toyed, I'd immediately associate that with the 1 and only instance of the term Jedi in the worlds collective memory, Star Wars.
It's not direct infringement but it's about as close as you can get. Might as well start selling Vader looking costumes named "Barth Dader" you'll still get sued.
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Different Jedi's
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Oh, references..
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http://jedisfamilyrestaurant.homestead.com/
Who have been around for a while, but I only saw them appear in my hometown after the original movies came out.
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How do you know this? I think you mean Lucas does not have trademark registrations for JEDI or JEDI MIND? It is basic trademark law in the US that registration is not necessary to establish trademark rights. Thus, one can own trademarks in the US without registering them.
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You're correct. I should have said *registered* trademark. It is entirely possible that they have a strong claim on a common law trademark, which can be quite effective.
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Ah, religious zeal!
Just maybe, Lucas now thinks he is God an will punish all unbelievers?
Next thing will be the use of the word 'force' in teaching physics or maybe the Itallians will retrospectively sue for the use of 'Empire' on behalf or the Romans?
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If Jedi was a word that Lucas had appropriated for his space samurai, then other uses would be pretty fair game. However a quick Wikipedia check seem to say that he cooked up the word himself (or at least dragged it up for very deep obscurity, possibly form another language) so I think that it's fair to say that there is some genuine cause to believe that there could be confusion.
Certainly I'd assume that a videogames company called Jedi Mind was a spinoff of Lucas Arts or something...
Fraid not... :(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jedi_census_phenomenon
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"The word "Jedi" is derived from the Japanese words "Jidai Geki" which translate as "period adventure drama." A period adventure drama is a Japanese TV soap opera program set in the samurai days. George Lucas mentioned in an interview that he saw a "Jidai Geki" program on TV while in Japan a year or so before the movie was made and liked the word."
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Jedi outside US
http://www.jedi.nl/
http://maps.google.nl/maps?hl=nl&ie=UTF8&q=jedi+zeewolde& ;fb=1&gl=nl&hq=jedi&hnear=Zeewolde&cid=0,0,963899240443440&ei=Tit2TOWTPJGl4AaX7O z9BQ&ved=0CBwQnwIwAQ&layer=c&cbll=52.336822,5.53066&panoid=iT2bg8bwmr7FL1qqdr2GCA&am p;cbp=12,188.98,,2,1.49&ll=52.336781,5.530844&spn=0.007749,0.022724&z=16
The Force in their business has been strong since 1964. So anyone fearing Lucasfilm's lawsuits could consider moving to The Netherlands ;-)
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Lucas Owns Nothing it Has Claimed
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