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Trademark

by Mike Masnick

Mon, Dec 27th 2010 4:13am




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Filed Under:
figurines, publicity rights, steve jobs

Companies:
apple, ebay


Apple Has eBay Kill Off Auctions Of Steve Jobs Figure It Doesn't Like

from the is-this-really-worth-it? dept

Remember, a few weeks back, how Apple went after a Chinese company making Steve Jobs figurines and forced it to stop selling them? As you might expect, the attention from the legal threat only served to create much more interest in the figurines, and the few folks who got their hands on them before the offering was shut down, quickly moved to eBay, where they started selling for thousands of dollars... until Apple complained and eBay killed all of the auctions under its VeRO program. This actually strikes me as a bit odd. I could see Steve Jobs making the request, but should eBay listen to a company that requests a takedown of an individual's likeness, even if that individual is the company's CEO? After all, Apple does not own Steve Jobs' likeness...
Of course, we still think it's silly that Apple's so worked up about all this in the first place.

19 Comments | Leave a Comment

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  1.  
    identicon
    simon, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 4:57am

    Bodyguards wanted

    I look like Mr.Jobs, what's going to happen to me?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 5:05am

    A commenter on a different site noted it's because the base of the figurine is an Apple logo, which is a big no-no

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Debbie, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 5:13am

    Re: Bodyguards wanted

    Maybe you could start selling figurines of yourself. ;)

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  4.  
    icon
    shanoboy (profile), Dec 27th, 2010 @ 5:25am

    Meh

    I'd be flattered. That's a pretty cool figurine. Maybe Steve doesn't like it because it isn't Skeletor looking enough.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  5.  
    icon
    Miles (profile), Dec 27th, 2010 @ 5:47am

    Re:

    I noticed this as well which could easily be rectified with a small change in design.

    As for the company being told to stop, I'm very surprised they're not running to their government to ask for protection against anti-trust, monopoly, and legal threats from businesses.

    Perhaps this is the only way such issues can be corrected, given education fails in the US Congress... daily.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  6.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 6:44am

    And now its a collectors (or apple fanatic) premium item and it will be eternal, and the chinese will make clones of the chinese clones.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  7.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 6:59am

    Apple can easily make the request (there are plenty of apple related items on the figure). Jobs doesn't even have to start and Apple already has it resolved. Even if they remove all of the Apple related things, the California laws on use of likeness would come in and again shut it all down.

    For anyone to say "what's the harm" shows that their likeness has no value. It is a company trying to make money off of someone else's likeness and popularity without considering if they want to be part of it or not.

    How hard is that to understand?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  8.  
    identicon
    NullOp, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 7:01am

    Wonderful

    Apple, a billion dollar corporation. How did you spend your morning? Killing off a figure of our CEO "we didn't like."

    Apple...still run by two-year-olds!

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  9.  
    identicon
    abc gum, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 7:01am

    He has a big head.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  10.  
    icon
    mdmadph (profile), Dec 27th, 2010 @ 7:08am

    I don't get it -- that's actually a nice likeness. I'd almost consider getting one for an Apple fan. Is Apple jealous that they didn't "invent" it first?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  11.  
    icon
    Steve R. (profile), Dec 27th, 2010 @ 7:20am

    The Free Market at Work?

    An emerging trend, companies frustrating other companies from selling products? Recently Time-Warner and Netflix entered into an agreement to delay the release of DVD rentals. The free market is supposed to be about delivering product to the consumer through competition. Now we have Apple attempting to influence E-Bay auctions.

    PS: The "correct: solution? Apple buys all the figurines.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  12.  
    identicon
    Moth, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 8:14am

    Change you're twitter display picture?

    Would it be a good time to have a "change you're twitter display picture" campaign then? Let us all be jobsians... LOL

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  13.  
    identicon
    Pixelation, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 8:26am

    maybe they do

    "After all, Apple does not own Steve Jobs' likeness..."

    or maybe they do...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  14.  
    identicon
    Travis, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 12:29pm

    Re:

    My only question is, Why should a Chinese company give a damn about a California law?

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  15.  
    icon
    The eejit (profile), Dec 27th, 2010 @ 1:18pm

    Re: maybe they do

    There's a new clone of Jobs each year, based on the Apple II model. :D

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  16.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 1:20pm

    Steve Jobs is not just Apple's CEO; he also appears in a great many Apple advertisements aimed directly at the public, making him very much part of the Apple brand. Maybe his contract somehow explicitly transfers his publicity rights to Apple (is that possible?)...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  17.  
    identicon
    Rekrul, Dec 27th, 2010 @ 11:35pm

    Re: Meh

    Maybe Steve doesn't like it because it isn't Skeletor looking enough.

    No, the head isn't big enough. :)

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  18.  
    identicon
    David, Dec 28th, 2010 @ 3:58am

    Lot of fuss about nothing

    Jobs really ought to get a life and have his sense of humour chip re-implanted. Whatever this guy does, he always comes across (to me, at any rate) as being terse and totally lacking in social graces. If it was me, I would be laughing my head off and I would would certainly consider the life-like model a great compliment and very flattering.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  19.  
    identicon
    Anonymous Coward, Dec 28th, 2010 @ 6:04am

    Makes him look like the shark he is.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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