What punishment, penalty or restitution should be given to someone whose only mistake was the way her attorney presented the trademark application and how that was perceived? She didn't break any laws. She didn't harm any person or company. No one was hurt. Right away she corrected what was upsetting people and apologized for upsetting them.
Other than that, what do you feel is fair?
Wanting to hurt someone just because you're mad doesn't mean they deserve that.
"I made a silly decision that had a chance of ruining someone else" is absolutely incorrect. You are wrong. That was never going to happen. It couldn't. That's not how trademark works. People jumped to conclusions and this author is paying the price.
Forgiveness should always be the default before hate.
Dear “Anonymous Coward” your level of animosity makes me want to offer you a hug a pat on the back and a “bless your heart”.
Do you want people flogged? Their livelihoods taken away? What do you think is an appropriate punishment for a perceived misstep? Because this author NEVER threatened a soul. Or intended to.
If you make apologies meaningless, then why ask for them in the first place?
At some point, someone needs to offer some kindness and forgiveness. I see that’s not your thing, but how would the world change if that was our reaction by nature instead of hate?
True.
You can.
And sometimes you should. It's according, again, to context.
To secure your series for comics and graphic novels or movies it's expected that you'll trademark the series. This is standard which is why you have words like Twilight and Goosebumps trademarked.
Trademark has to do with branding and with consumer confusion. It isn't about "owning" a word.
The Dark Series has been around since the 1990's and is well established (34 novels). The problem wasn't the trademark, which still had a chance of being approved. The problem was the perception when the attorney only used the word "Dark" and not "The Dark Series".
People were trying to get Stephen King to chime in on this, but he didn't. Neither did Nora Robers or other notable authors with the word "Dark" in their titles or series. They didn't need to because the potential trademark wouldn't actually infringe on their works. Why should they pay legal fees for a fight that's not happening?
Being angry or fearful isn't the problem. To me, the problem is thinking your feelings validate your opinion or justify the level of cruelty I witnessed over this issue.
This isn't a trademark problem. It's a society problem.
I just wish people had more compassion. I get not having the time or energy to go out and research complicated trademark issues. But, making things up, perpetuating incorrect information, calling names, sending threats, and generally being mean isn't a reflection of what she deserves, it's a reflection of what's inside of the person doing it.
First of all, did anyone here research her claim or just jump on the bandwagon of hate?
You can trademark a single word. Twilight. Goosebumps. It's context that people seem to be missing here.
Her attorney has a great reputation. Perhaps he could've learned a bit more about current affairs in fiction writing (Cockygate) and addressed this in a way that layman might understand (add the categories for movie and graphic novel as well so it didn't look so suspicious to people who don't understand).
The author already withdrew the single word trademarks. It's done. They're dead. She wasn't trying to be greedy. She wasn't stupid. She took the advice of a well respected attorney who is a specialist in this field. Like most would.
Right or wrong, she took down the trademarks because she never meant to hurt anyone or frustrate them or make people worry. She has a 30 year reputation in the industry of helping other authors. She has NEVER had any blemish on her reputation. Quite the opposite.
Since this is a tech site let me give an example that might help.
How many of you realize there are people out there who buy up domain names? They buy up simple words, combination of words, they troll trademarks to buy up domain names that way. Then they sell those for lots of money.
You can't do that with a trademark BTW.
But, don't you think that if it were at all possible to trademark a word and hold it hostage from the English language and all fiction writing before this ever happened, we'd all be aware of people buying up words? IF it could be done and money made off it, every word in the English language would cost you money to use. But, it doesn't. Because, you can't.
There was never going to be a conflict with "The Dark Knight" or "The Dark Tower" it doesn't work that way.
This lady might be guilty of not foreseeing this after all the Cockygate stuff, but she wasn't guilty of trying to steal a word. That's ridiculous. And as soon as she realized how it appeared to people she took it down. Could she have fought it and been ugly? Yes. But, she apologized to anyone she upset and removed it. That's a lot more class than most people commenting about have.
This whole thing made the industry look bad. That's sad.
It showed that hate culture is alive and well. And that "flash mob" is Twitter's second name.
She should've been more careful. But at least she wasn't cruel, snide or mean.
And now I'll wait for you all to hate on me. Because that seems to be what we've all come to.
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Re: Re:
What punishment, penalty or restitution should be given to someone whose only mistake was the way her attorney presented the trademark application and how that was perceived? She didn't break any laws. She didn't harm any person or company. No one was hurt. Right away she corrected what was upsetting people and apologized for upsetting them.
Other than that, what do you feel is fair?
Wanting to hurt someone just because you're mad doesn't mean they deserve that.
"I made a silly decision that had a chance of ruining someone else" is absolutely incorrect. You are wrong. That was never going to happen. It couldn't. That's not how trademark works. People jumped to conclusions and this author is paying the price.
Forgiveness should always be the default before hate.
Re: Re:
I know the "Anonymous Coward" is the default. It's also telling, which is why I specifically said it. But, thank you.
Dear “Anonymous Coward” your level of animosity makes me want to offer you a hug a pat on the back and a “bless your heart”.
Do you want people flogged? Their livelihoods taken away? What do you think is an appropriate punishment for a perceived misstep? Because this author NEVER threatened a soul. Or intended to.
If you make apologies meaningless, then why ask for them in the first place?
At some point, someone needs to offer some kindness and forgiveness. I see that’s not your thing, but how would the world change if that was our reaction by nature instead of hate?
Re: Re: Ridiculous
True.
You can.
And sometimes you should. It's according, again, to context.
To secure your series for comics and graphic novels or movies it's expected that you'll trademark the series. This is standard which is why you have words like Twilight and Goosebumps trademarked.
Trademark has to do with branding and with consumer confusion. It isn't about "owning" a word.
The Dark Series has been around since the 1990's and is well established (34 novels). The problem wasn't the trademark, which still had a chance of being approved. The problem was the perception when the attorney only used the word "Dark" and not "The Dark Series".
People were trying to get Stephen King to chime in on this, but he didn't. Neither did Nora Robers or other notable authors with the word "Dark" in their titles or series. They didn't need to because the potential trademark wouldn't actually infringe on their works. Why should they pay legal fees for a fight that's not happening?
Being angry or fearful isn't the problem. To me, the problem is thinking your feelings validate your opinion or justify the level of cruelty I witnessed over this issue.
This isn't a trademark problem. It's a society problem.
I just wish people had more compassion. I get not having the time or energy to go out and research complicated trademark issues. But, making things up, perpetuating incorrect information, calling names, sending threats, and generally being mean isn't a reflection of what she deserves, it's a reflection of what's inside of the person doing it.
Ridiculous
First of all, did anyone here research her claim or just jump on the bandwagon of hate?
You can trademark a single word. Twilight. Goosebumps. It's context that people seem to be missing here.
Her attorney has a great reputation. Perhaps he could've learned a bit more about current affairs in fiction writing (Cockygate) and addressed this in a way that layman might understand (add the categories for movie and graphic novel as well so it didn't look so suspicious to people who don't understand).
The author already withdrew the single word trademarks. It's done. They're dead. She wasn't trying to be greedy. She wasn't stupid. She took the advice of a well respected attorney who is a specialist in this field. Like most would.
Right or wrong, she took down the trademarks because she never meant to hurt anyone or frustrate them or make people worry. She has a 30 year reputation in the industry of helping other authors. She has NEVER had any blemish on her reputation. Quite the opposite.
Since this is a tech site let me give an example that might help.
How many of you realize there are people out there who buy up domain names? They buy up simple words, combination of words, they troll trademarks to buy up domain names that way. Then they sell those for lots of money.
You can't do that with a trademark BTW.
But, don't you think that if it were at all possible to trademark a word and hold it hostage from the English language and all fiction writing before this ever happened, we'd all be aware of people buying up words? IF it could be done and money made off it, every word in the English language would cost you money to use. But, it doesn't. Because, you can't.
There was never going to be a conflict with "The Dark Knight" or "The Dark Tower" it doesn't work that way.
This lady might be guilty of not foreseeing this after all the Cockygate stuff, but she wasn't guilty of trying to steal a word. That's ridiculous. And as soon as she realized how it appeared to people she took it down. Could she have fought it and been ugly? Yes. But, she apologized to anyone she upset and removed it. That's a lot more class than most people commenting about have.
This whole thing made the industry look bad. That's sad.
It showed that hate culture is alive and well. And that "flash mob" is Twitter's second name.
She should've been more careful. But at least she wasn't cruel, snide or mean.
And now I'll wait for you all to hate on me. Because that seems to be what we've all come to.