Introducing the Second Life Brand Center
Monday, March 24th, 2008 at 11:35 AM by: catherinelindenToday we invite you to check out the new Second Life Brand Center. The Brand Center explains how Residents can promote their own brands, products and activities in the Second Life world and use appropriate logos to enhance their message.
With the Brand Center, we’re also launching the inSL Logo Program, which provides a new community logo for Second Life Residents. Display the inSL logo to show you and your brands are a part of the Second Life community. This logo may be used on your website, business card, promotional materials, product packaging, and in many other places where you may wish to promote your contributions to the Second Life world. When using the logo, be sure to follow the Guidelines for Using the inSL Logo.
(the all new inSL logo!)
The Brand Center also features our Guidelines for Using Linden Lab’s Trademarks, including our brand name “Second Life” and our logo with the eye-in-hand design. Proper use of our trademarks is important to help you and others outside the Second Life community know which products and services Linden Lab stands behind. The Trademark Guidelines explain the uses of our trademarks we allow, those uses which require our written permission, and the proper method to refer to our products and services in text.
If, after reading the Trademark Guidelines, you realize you’re using a Linden Lab trademark incorrectly, please use the next 90 days to change your use to comply with the Guidelines. For more information, see our FAQ. Signing up for the inSL Logo program is fast and simple.
Please visit the Brand Center today to learn more about how you can start using the inSL logos. Thanks, and happy brand building!
March 24th, 2008 at 11:58 AM
An amnesty program eh?
Well I guess this will stir up some agitated discussion but people should never have been violating these rules in the first place.
Luckily I don’t have anything that violates these rules. If I do toss me a C&D in email and i’ll go look.
I’m somewhat interested in the dollar thing. So we cannot say Lindens anymore? We cannot use the phrase “L$” to identify we are discussing the difference between Linden Dollars and US Dollars? I’m a bit confused on this one. Are we to never say any of these terms in any forums, blog comments, etc? if we utter the name Secondlife on the internet are you coming after us in a black sedan or something?
Fair Use rules still apply right? Or have you overridden US law?
Just seems odd for some reason.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:01 PM
Linden Lab, kudos for presenting a potential legal problem in a friendly, non-condemning manner. Very stand up. A good way to inform folks of your legal rights without making it seem like they’re gonna be in trouble. (pat on back).
March 24th, 2008 at 12:04 PM
Worried about your trademark when your business is stagnating!
Woooh! Your priorities are so mixed up.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:09 PM
Oh! OH! I found one! I had made a YouTube entry for a video promoting the positive aspects of Windlight! Well I don’t want to get sued by Linden Labs for praising their technology so I changed it to use the proper “the Second Life® virtual world” phrase instead of the word SecondLife.
Sadly a million items across the internet all ref “SL”, Secondlife”, “Second Life”, etc. Including all those keywords tags on flikr and youtube, etc. Is Linden Labs going to issue take down orders on all that content after having set a precedent for allowing free use all these years?
March 24th, 2008 at 12:10 PM
@3 - I think impending IPO just showed up on the list of priorities…first step, protect your brand.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:12 PM
So stuff like this is a problem right?
http://static.slexchange.com/images/banners/71ab0654a1965dae7dacbe7da06df5d5.gif
March 24th, 2008 at 12:25 PM
Wow, way too much reading. Some more flat-out examples would be nice. Like, a page full.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:30 PM
and just this morning i rode an Escalator brand moving staircase of the Otis Elevator Company to the second floor of the store to buy a box of Kleenex brand facial tissues
time to drink a coke and play second life
March 24th, 2008 at 12:33 PM
As these are new guidelines, what compensation do you plan to offer for those who have been using the previous guidelines for things such as business cards etc, that now have to waste money getting them reprinted?
Maybe it’s a good time to remind you that ‘Second Life’ the name may be yours, but the ‘brand’ - what actually makes SL what it is - is the content and services that us, the users, create for you. After all, without the residents, you wouldn’t have anything to promote…
March 24th, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Eh, that all seems pretty fair and just to me. I suppose I’d subconsciously avoided doing any of this anyway, but thanks for the clarification all the same, Miss Linden. I look forward to giving the Brand Centre a bit of a poke and a sniff.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:52 PM
The signup page returns r/l personal details over HTTP not HTTPS. This can’t be right?
March 24th, 2008 at 1:01 PM
Your World, Your Imagination, Our Laywers.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:01 PM
LOL!
Anyone else noting that they only use the ® symbol for the first mentioning of Second Life ® on the new page?
Hey!?!?! Concistency here please? ® or not ®? It *SHOULD* be the same everywhere or else it doesn’t matter in the end, at least outside the US
Besides that… Your World. Your Imagination.™
Keep it that way then please, and not the LL world LL imagination.
And what do you know… “Outside the United States, do not use these trademark notice symbols.” In EU You *SHOULD* use the ® symol even in this case. Bad US lawyers again *grins* (OR isn’t Second Life registred trademark outside the US?, now that is interesting in that case!)
And the final kill of the game:
(Quoting the guidance rules)
This is NOT OK: a Second Life, my Second Life.
With that I don’t have a life. LL just killed me
March 24th, 2008 at 1:02 PM
Wow, making me rethink my island purchase every day, even if it IS just for rp purposes. The more starngleholds and roadblocks you put up to the enjoyment of this platform, the more those retention numbers are going to dwindle. You don’t see World of Warcraft requiring a TM every time someonne mentions WoW or their character name in a blog. If the competition is that close I say bring em on….this is getting a bit crazy when stuff like this takes precedence over inventory loss and getting booted every time I try to TP (oh, does that need a tm symbol too?) somewhere.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:15 PM
Okay, I think you guys went a LITTLE overboard.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:20 PM
This is completely ridiculous, unenforceable and bureaucratic.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:27 PM
When somebody steals a texture or build from another resident, LL tells us that it’s got nothing to do with them - but when we use THEIR graphics they suddenly start caring about copyright.
Just keep looking after number one, LL - it’s what you do best.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:28 PM
ISO 4217 covers currency abbreviations and symbols. Does someone need to apply for a new form of global currency designation?
Use of the $ symbol seems questionable so L$ might be unwise to use. and to use the word dollar by itself is somewhat questionable.
Perhaps Second Life® Dollar (SLD) would make it into ISO 4217. Of course the ISO would assign the symbol for the SLD. Then again, “the Second Life® virtual world” would have to be declared a country. This might anger a lot of existing countries since “the Second Life® virtual world” transcends all geographic boundaries.
Poor Phil.. didn’t know what he was really starting.
Or did he?
Sadly the US Dollar may soon be worth one L$ anyway.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:33 PM
Another triumphant contribution to the planet courtesy of the Legal department of a corporation.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:35 PM
Ann OToole hopefully a moderator will come to your rescue and take the s off the end of Linden Lab in your comment at #4, we don’t want trouble over this
This all seems a bit mad on the face of it, I mean not using logos or domain names that might be confused with your brand is one thing but telling people how to put the correct noun in the correct sentence is a little bit over the top.
This is also another wonderful overnight change in policy, you’ve already changed the fansite page where people have been abiding by the previous rules. A little bit of prior communication Catherine, a little bit of explanation instead of umpteen links, a Q&A session, is it really too much to ask for?
March 24th, 2008 at 1:38 PM
“Never use any Linden Lab trademark in a disparaging or tarnishing manner outside the bounds of fair criticism or fair use.”
Hmm.. did the chinese dictator take over LL? Want to put a plug on everything bad said about SL every time they mess up badly again?
Ooops, i used SL, ooops again… do i have to fear now getting banned (like demonstrators being thrown into prison in china)?
On the other side.. this could be good against property theft, if LL will step into legal fights against those who steal/copy stuff of “products and services Linden Lab stands behind”, just a thought…
March 24th, 2008 at 1:41 PM
Hey guys…seems to me you have alot more to be spending your time on right now. Have you not noticed that you are having some major issues that are costing the merchants here real dollars? Perhaps time would best be spent taking care of those problems and then if you have time left, which isn’t likely as things are always in need of fixing when you run a business such as this, maybe then you could worry about protecting your copyrights.
Just a thought…I do love Second Life but I just hate the problems many of us are experiencing lately.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:45 PM
Hey Ciaran, in answer to your specific question about timing, we are actually providing plenty of time — 90 days — to get your questions answered and let the community start using the inSL logo. We anticipate there will be lots of questions and we’ll do our best to answer.
Thanks for the comments everyone
March 24th, 2008 at 1:50 PM
For those of us who choke on legalese, how about short list of concrete examples what’s OK and what’s not? Right now, there are several lists like that throughout the materials. While I’m willing to spend a few minutes to inform myself and respect your trademarks, I have no intention to lose an hour to read through all the data or even pay a lawyer to translate all the legalese. How about simple table, what’s OK and what’s not, which covers all the possible combinations on one place? And no, what you currently have is not simple.
Can I write L$? LL? I wasn’t able to find such simple information. Is “dollar” really an appropriate generic term for L$? C’mon, you can do better than this.
March 24th, 2008 at 1:50 PM
I think this must be a response to all the new projects that are forming to create thier own development platforms. These new technologies will allow groups to run independent servers which can host thier own virtual worlds using the open source viewer software. They don’t want any of these projects to use thier trademarks to steal customers away from the Second Life® world.
(I THINK I got through that without violating the new trademark policy… whew!)
March 24th, 2008 at 1:52 PM
Alexis, they won’t need people to be using ‘their trademark’ to steal people away from SL … all this legalese crap will push people away.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:01 PM
As well as all the database problems, seems like it’s everyday now. As for branding and a possible IPO, you must be joking. You must be the people that also though banking in Second Life® was safe.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:05 PM
“Policing the brand” is standard practice when heading toward an IPO or a sale. A company which is heading toward IPO or sale wants to show that they have assets, tangible and intangible. Trademarks and brands are valuable assets to an organization. In the United States, an organization actually is REQUIRED to police their trademarks, or they forfeit protection of those trademarks.
The times at Linden Research(R), a virtual world company, they are a changin.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:15 PM
Pffffff…
March 24th, 2008 at 2:16 PM
I understand your goals here, and certainly support the effort. Maybe I’m just tired today, but at first glance it seems like the rules outlined are overly complex. In any case, I’ll come back and read them when I am less tired, hopefully then it won’t seem so neck deep in complexity.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:19 PM
You can no longer eat Broccoli or Curry without adding a little ® to your meal.
thank you
March 24th, 2008 at 2:19 PM
It’s all typical stuff. in fact, a lot of it might even me considered lenient. Take a look at the “logo regulations’ for some of the big boys. THAT stuff will throw you for a loop.
LOL!
March 24th, 2008 at 2:24 PM
@28 paulie, I totally agree. I really think they fear many of thier copyrights will become common usage. I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve used the term Band Aid™ several times when I really meant adhesive bandage. I’ve also seen the term Coke™ used as a generic term for soft drink. Lots of web pages seem to be using SL Grid™ in this fashion, and I’m sure Linden Lab® doesn’t want to see this trademark, and many others, taken away from them in court.
As silly as it may sound, these trademarks are very valuable intellectual property.
@30 and 32, I have to say I agree. One look at the sign up for the new logo sent me running. I guess it’s just more sign of the demise of the “casual entrepreneur” in this virtual world.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:26 PM
/me helps set the cute little ducks up in a row for the impending IPO
March 24th, 2008 at 2:27 PM
Catherine you’ve changed the guidelines, that’s not prior notice, you’re providing what is in effect an amnesty for rules that are far more detailed than the previous rules. So fair enough, you’re giving people ninety days but it’s still based upon changing guidelines and the previous guidelines are nowhere to be seen.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:29 PM
‘hope’ of any kind is hithermore trademarked as well. You are all wandering aimlessly through this new world without hope of redemption, unless you want to pay me a small licensing fee.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:32 PM
I ill use the logo when LL will provide a better copyright protection against texture Thief.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:33 PM
@23 Catherine,
Has LL ever considered making official emails notifications about such policy changes. It seems odd to me that you are not sending email notifications for important policy changes. Usual practice is to have the courtesy to notify customers by email with an eventual button to make you agree to such changes to continue using the service. Is a Blog titled “Introducing the Second Life Brand Center”, that may or may not be read, an acceptable and legally enforceable way to inform such policy changes? I wonder how your lawyers feel about that…
March 24th, 2008 at 2:35 PM
[...] Imagination”, and even the acronym “SL”. One thing that I noticed is that the blog post announcing the new “brand center” left out the copyright symbol… so much for [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 2:35 PM
well, well, 1st no gambling, then the VAT, then the “age verification”, now the logo thing-civilisation has come to SL-sigh-time to put away my guns, the griefers are gone, now we’re stuck with lawyers and politicians-inevitable ………
March 24th, 2008 at 2:37 PM
Escort - thanks for the heads up, our web team is taking a look at that, in the meantime, you should be able to access:
https://secure-web21.secondlife.com/corporate/brand/insl/signup.php
March 24th, 2008 at 2:40 PM
Ummm, i dont like the insl logo, in fact i think it looks very amature and not what i would expect from Second Life ( i dont have a tm button). Mmm powers that be, how much was spent on this when we are still crashing and lagging? Maybe us residents should start branding our creations and not allowing them to be used on the second life website?? What happens with flickr tags?? do i have to change them all to have the tm or c button???? omg the legalities.What about the guy who is trademarking SLart??? Im going to go hang my head now and cry LL has crossed over to the darkside of the corporate giants. Soon all my talking and typing will be dotted with tm and c as everyone trademarks slang and quotes. Im off now to change everything i have in case i get sued.
March 24th, 2008 at 2:56 PM
I don’t plan on changing my way of referencing things related to SL on the web. There common words now, you have already lost any right to enforce this legally by not enforcing it in the first place.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:04 PM
For those expressing fears they cannot ever use Second Life or L$ or any related term in a blog comment or forum post anymore without slapping half a dozen trademark abbreviations over their text… of course you can.
I mean, have you ever seen a forum or blog where every mention of Coca Cola or Dell or whatever brand had a trademark sign, right down to the comments? Exactly.
As long as you are not using any of the Linden Lab trademarks in your own business and branding and advertising (including in-world), this should really not affect you in the slightest.
I’ve taken a look at the guidelines (yes, all of them) and while pretty verbose, I feel they’re just putting into words what should be considered standard practice for any brand. Fair use is still in there, too.
So as far as I can see, for the average SL user and even the average SL entrepreneur, no need to cry wolf.
Although it seriously wouldn’t hurt, considering the comments above, to have a Linden chime in and assuage those fears.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:12 PM
[...] Linden Blog Introducing the Second Life Brand Center[RESOLVED] Disruption in inworld services[RESOLVED] Loading Issues[RESOLVED] Short Region Outages [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 3:12 PM
….. I totally understand the need to not have the trademarks used in inappropriate context.. and whatnot.
I begin to squirm when I start reading the “how to refer to our trademarks in text” section. All this .. “use only the appropriate noun.. “stuff… that makes me unhappy. Just darkened my SL (oooops…. ) experience. It is like those museums I don’t visit anymore… because their guardians are always 2 steps behind me. But hey.. so I won’t talk about SL.. (ooops again) in public anymore. Is that the result intended? Is all that really necessary?..
oh ..forgot.. US company….. warning labels for people that don’t know where their own head is.. maybe it IS necessary?… Anyway. I won’t talk about it anymore. That’s it. Too risky.So when people ask me what I do in my freetime now.. I will just be quiet……
March 24th, 2008 at 3:14 PM
What about a brand name that exists in sl and real life that has a real world TM against it. ie i done it before your changes and spent ALOT.
or books on Second Life.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:15 PM
I’m with Dante - it’s all a bit like closing the door 4 or so years after the horse left the building. My feeling is that this should only effect those things that occur as of a particular date.
Everything before that date is accepted.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:18 PM
May I just state that “Broccoli Curry®” is NOT me. Thankyou.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:20 PM
@ Madddyyy - Please check out Brand Center FAQ, if you’ve still got questions, please drop an email to tm-questions@lindenlab.com - note that the trademark team can’t guarantee that they’ll be able to respond personally to all the emails they receive. If your question is urgent, you should contact a trademark attorney.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:22 PM
LL good luck with all that………..
March 24th, 2008 at 3:31 PM
I think the question of how to refer to Linden(TM) Dollars needs to be addressed, otherwise this seems to be purely pro forma boilerplate stuff.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:32 PM
Hey LL’s,
wouldnt your tagline (Your World. Your Imagination.) on this webpage also need a ™?
Ciao
d.spitz™*
*
d.spitz is a TradeMark of Dildo Spitz™
Guidelines for using this TradeMarks:
You free to use this trademaks to address me in a direct or indirect context.
I prefer that you use
d.spitz . . . . . . more in an official,
dilspi . . . . . . . in an referential ,
dil . . . . . . . . . in a private context. To address me dil you already shoud have an personal relationship with me.
Dildo Spitz . . . can surely also be used to address me, but some ppl have problems with this name, so i would suggest to use one of the other trademarks.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:41 PM
I guess StarWars Enterprises may show more interest in their branding being protected in SL now too?
March 24th, 2008 at 3:44 PM
Folks, Liz (#44) is right - this is all about preventing non-Linden Labs people from making money off their dearly bought trademarks.
If you’re not making money off it, nobody cares. End of story.
March 24th, 2008 at 3:46 PM
OMG, they® forgot to trademark “Lag” and “Thank you for your patience.”
March 24th, 2008 at 3:54 PM
LL, you guys have a lot of cheek to tell me what to write on my own blog. I don’t give you a list of guidelines as to how to talk about me, do I? Do I tell you that it’s only acceptable to mention my name if you’re saying nice things about me? That’s right, I don’t.
PS If I had a choice between having to write ™ every single time after I mention Second Life, and not writing it at all… I know which option I will take
March 24th, 2008 at 4:07 PM
What is interesting is that some of these trademarks e.g. SL were only licensed last June!
There are also a number of other companies using SL in other contexts (see http://www.sl.com, http://www.slrecords.net, etc) - it would be interesting to see how LL would react if such a company opened shop in SecondLife.
March 24th, 2008 at 4:27 PM
I’m in your Second Life® land management tools abandoning my sims :p
Seriously though, thank you for letting us know about the policy changes. My only concern is with this shift comes a another stream of real life expenditures after planning with the old guidelines for years. Looking over many of the top 50 business’s in Second Life® though it seems many will have to endure a little unplanned expenditure to be able to adhere to the new guidelines. I am also concerned that with this more strict set of guidelines will this make a few of the real life contract law attourneys inspect the Second Life® Terms of Service more closely?
March 24th, 2008 at 4:29 PM
[...] martie 25, 2008 at 1:29 am | In Management, lumi virtuale, second life | Linden Lab au lansat azi The Brand Center - mai precis au pus la punct regulile de folosire a logo-ului propriu in conjunctie cu brandurile [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 4:39 PM
@ Escort - The web team has fixed the link and it should point to:
https://secure-web21.secondlife.com/corporate/brand/insl/signup.php
Thanks for your patience!
March 24th, 2008 at 4:41 PM
As Signpostmarv Martin posts in his blog, the website does not really give explicit examples of a suitable use of an inSL logo o.O http://blog.signpostmarv.name/2008/03/24/insl-document-oddness/
March 24th, 2008 at 4:51 PM
[...] I am starting to use my blog as whore for someone else’s PR.) Dear Solution [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 4:59 PM
WTF?! ‘Stick our eye-in-hand® on your blog header in small, we encourage you!’ A few months later: ‘Don’t you dare use our eye-in-hand® on your blog! You bad! bad! Resident. Use the inSL™ instead.’
Great. Let’s redo all. *sighs*
March 24th, 2008 at 5:09 PM
[...] A quick lesson, which we all seem to have to learn: [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 5:35 PM
“# No Logo or Tagline Use. Do not use any Linden Lab logo, icon, slogan, or tagline. This includes, but isn’t limited to, our Eye-in-Hand logo and our tagline “Your World. Your Imagination.”"
some guys here are gonna get SUED
March 24th, 2008 at 5:40 PM
OMG I think I just became Very UN-Addicted (TM). I’ve not even gotten to the rules. I seem to blocked by the Linden responses on this blog post. Oh yeah. Competition cannot arrive fast enough. (Copyright 200
March 24th, 2008 at 5:43 PM
holy crap, i need a lawyer to be in second life
March 24th, 2008 at 5:44 PM
[...] is in town, it’s a confusing brand but in yet another change policy now, explain it later move the powers that be have moved the goalposts on their trademark usage and introduced the Second Life [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 5:45 PM
Item 1: Blue dialog boxes use a hand with a question mark in it. There are also blue pop-up windows that contain a hand with an exclamation mark in it. Are these particular hands included as forbidden marks? If so, the hand with question mark needs to be removed from being generated when somebody is using llDialog in their scripting.
Item 2: I don’t have a circled R button on my keyboard, and other similar special keys. Kindly give a procedure for how to insert these symbals.
Item 3: Relates to Item 2 in part: We need to be able to put these circled R and tm symbals etc. easily into notecards. It needs to be able to not break scripts that read notecards using llReadNotcardLine. Note for non-scripters: llReadNotecardLine breaks if the notecard contains a landmark, another notecard, a picture, a texture, or other emb4edded content. Special symbals may cause the same problem.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:46 PM
oh wait is it ok for me to say “holy crap” oh god someone is going to sue me !!!!!!
March 24th, 2008 at 5:57 PM
I’m not reading more spam from LL (TM) (R) whatever
so if i do it wrong i look forward to the letter.
How to hit the people that pay you ??
Look closer to your own sites.
but on a possitive note good to see that you are looking at fixing the game and not looking for more money
March 24th, 2008 at 5:59 PM
One of these competitors needs to take advantage of this fiasco and fast if possible. Linden Lad is showing their true colors, its going the way of the corporations and those of us that helped make it what it is today arent even going to the get the complimentary reach-around from the sound of things. Just some of the official replies on people asking about books and oither written material to ’see a lawyer’ tells you how much they are going to care what it costs the average Joe to make these changes. Its a bit late if you ask me, the damage is already done….and I for one may just wait on that island to see if something less restrictive comes along.
March 24th, 2008 at 5:59 PM
“note that the trademark team can’t guarantee that they’ll be able to respond personally to all the emails they receive.”
LOL
“If your question is urgent, you should contact a trademark attorney.”
Is this where someone should interject an OMG? O.o
I’m sure legally they lost all rights to these long ago not enforcing any of this (this has been going on inside their own world and they did absolutely nothing to police it) and actually encoraged the use of some of these logos. AFAIK if you ignore misuse of your branding this long, it’s gone.
I’ll let someone else hire a lawyer to sort this out. Just wondering tho, can I use “their own” produced vote box with their logo on it on my land or are their own produced objects illegal now?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:04 PM
Why don’t you change the name Second Life® to Lawyers’ World®? A place where you can have fun reading TOS, US laws, European laws, in a virtual word every day more controlled than the real world?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:09 PM
woot does this mean that if i register my brand (that dosent exist in real life, only in secondlife) then no one can copy my store design logos and other things and sell stuff using my brand?
also does this put an end to all those pepole who steal brands from real life?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:10 PM
Jeska,
Since you have access to the webteam, are you aware we have to click out a message about non secure items displayed over a secure line on each page we click in the account section that runs over https.
Might be a suggestion to fix that.
Besides that its a good thing to regulate your trademarks and copyrights. If i look at certain sites lately popping up, advertising alternative grids, I wouldnt wanna be associated with those either. They lean heavily on LL’s work and give the impression theyre part of the same universe, where its more then questionable what lays behind it.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:13 PM
[...] to enforce brand name In case you haven’t seen it yet Introducing the Second Life Brand Center Official Second Life Blog LL is enforcing their trademark/brand name. You have 90 days to remove variations of Second Life [...]
March 24th, 2008 at 6:15 PM
UPDATE: Links fixed, sorry for any confusion.
@1, 44, & 52 - It is OK to refer to Linden dollars and Linden Lab’s other product and service names when you’re discussing them in blog posts and other forums. So, for example, it’s OK to say: “My store in the Second Life world accepts payment in Linden dollars.” For more on this kind of informational use, see here
However, it’s not OK to use our trademarks in your brand names, for example, in a store name like “Linden Fashions” or “Second Life Styles.” For more on this, see here.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:17 PM
If you look back through the archives of messages posted here, you’ll see I’m the last person who is critical of Linden Labs. I’m consistently tolerant of the inevitable difficulties associated with an evolving experiment like this and care little for the incessant whining of the rabble.
But this … it’s got the grubby fingerprints of lawyers all over it. And marketing has blessed it with lipstick-saturated kisses. That inSL logo is atrocious and all the text associated just blurs together into a boring smear of suit mentality imperatives that just scream “dress code”.
My advice? Fire two lawyers and one marketer and replace them with two good programmers.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:20 PM
It would be nice to see LL put as much energy and effort to help the business residents secure THEIR own branding, brands, trademarks, intellectual property and so on.
After all without residents, business owners and consumers alike, there would be no SL.
Maybe this newfound interest will trickle down eventually to the content creators. One can only hope.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:20 PM
Since LL seems to be in the mood to discuss copyright issues, I’m wondering if any of the Lindens posting above would care to consider discussing this:
http://conclusionsbytarasia.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/press-release-content-creators-bare-all-to-raise-awareness-for-intellectual-property-rights/#comments
Content creators would welcome your thoughts (and actions) on improving/introducing tools that would help them defend their intellectual property rights more easily. We eagerly await your response.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:21 PM
HEY YOU LOT …. you sure you are allowed to use “LL” ??? It might be copyright.
Meanwhile.. my AV will TP and go WTF as SL (courtesy of LL) goes FUBAR.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:31 PM
IPO… lol
with the way the US economy is going down the drain offering an IPO now would be crazy. The shares would be worth next to nothing and it would be easy for one of the MMORPG big players to step in and buy out LL.
I agree that protecting your brand name and logo is important, but in todays global economy, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to enforce. Example:.. anyone ever had an offer to buy a fake Rolex?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:32 PM
It’s Pathetic !! Imagine someone else on your web site…and see a “InSL” Icon…So What ????
The rules now is not use the hand with eye without auhtorization-Must use this UGLY simbol that’s does not mean anything instead !!! Come on !!! Wake up, lindens ! For LL teh hand with eye can be a Logo, however today this is a graphic representation of Second Life and you wanna change the culture of the entire world !!! I’m really disappointed !!!
March 24th, 2008 at 6:36 PM
#76: very good point!
I am wondering how those who have invested heavily in SL brands are supposed to protect their brands if Linden Lab is denying RL legal protection to those who agree to the branding guidelines? By denying the ability to register independent trademarks, isn’t Linden Lab explicitly asking those who use the SL brand to reliniquish all real-life legal recourse in defending their investment?
While the rhetoric of “simply choose another brand” might be legitimate in some cases, it is a different story when brands have already been built over a period of years with significant investment and LL is asking people to discard that investment and give up any right to legal protection.
If SL businesses who use the “SL” brand are denied registration of their product with USPTO, then will Linden Lab invest the resources necessary to become the legal arbiter of brands? How do you escalate protection of your SL brands to resolve issues of intellectual property theft and abuse if you cannot use real-life legal resources and have no access to legal protections provided by their own government?
In exchange for relinquishing both ownership and legal representation of your “SL” brands is Linden Labs making an offer of enforcement and assistance to those who have made such compromises?
It isn’t even clear to me that any private company who is a trademark holder has any right (except perhaps under contract) to define and deny registration of any other trademark based upon their own definitions. Doesn’t the USPTO, not Linden Labs , decide who may register what trademarks and how and whether they are legitimate?
If the new guidelines are an implicit or explicit contract denying RL legal representation of such brands, shouldn’t this be clearer to the many naive businesses who may not realize what they are agreeing to?
Please fill me in. I may be rusty on all of this.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:45 PM
I lurve how the TOS can change overnight.
If RaceSL.com is in violation have your lawyers call my lawyers and we’ll do lunch.
Good luck with your cashout. I’m sure you’ll get your propper place in history.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:47 PM
Hmmm - I’m wondering what impact this heavy-handedness will have on signups.
Bet it won’t be highlighted to noobs on signing in - in which case they may never know when they’re breaking the SL law.
If I’d had something like this pointed out to me upfront when I first signed, I’d have never hit the Enter key. Would definately be offputting to me.
And how the hell is this going to be conveyed to those who don’t access the blogs (the majority of in-worlders)?
And what will be the consequences of SLifers not complying to the nth degree?
March 24th, 2008 at 6:52 PM
Wonderful lol
March 24th, 2008 at 6:53 PM
GO GETTUM WIZ - right there behind you mate - whoohoot!
March 24th, 2008 at 6:57 PM
It doesn’t seem to be possible to change the name of a facebook fan page. I guess the Second Life fan page should get deleted, along with the Second Life Resident group.
March 24th, 2008 at 6:58 PM
wow have things changed? “A company which is heading toward IPO or sale wants to show that they have assets, tangible and intangible”? wait wasnt it said awhile back that assets are not real?now they trying t look like a real company thats wants to go public? Maybe but i sure hope they start detailing their assets instead of saying they don`t exist in rl so how can we NOT replace what doesnt exist to start with……in some ways they need to change how they handle its user base before making any changes like this. But really i hope this happens because we need something to make this world as rl as possible.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:01 PM
Tonight I go to login and find a whole lot of new legal babble I have to agree to in order to use the *prepaid* account time I already had.
What would have happened if I said no to the “Do you agree?” - I highly doubt I would have had 90 days to answer yes.
Also noticeably absent: the phase “fair use”.
Now, here’s a funny fact about a “trade mark”: it on;y protects a “mark” from competition within a “trade”. So, everyone building your own 3D client-server software stack, pay attention.
All the rest of us could, should, and hopefully will, learn the legal definitions of trade marks and the acceptable or “fair” uses of marks, trade or otherwise, including the authors of the “brand center”.
My suggestion: remind the lawyers that fair use exists, and their list of “don’ts” was missing the all important “do’s”. Draft the list of acceptable, fair uses of those very same marks and add a fair uses section to the brand center to advise people on the kinds of things they are LEGALLY entitled to do anyway.
Otherwise, someone will get overzealous in “enforcement”, and cause a reputational, legal, and financial backlash $VIRTUALWORLD really doesn’t need.
It’s really irritating to make dire warnings and threats without also offering to help AVOID getting those dire warnings and threats. Where is the offer for a “community license” to reward the supporters? Where is the offer to have someone at $VIRTUALWORLDCOMPANY review requests to use $SUDDENLYENFORCEDTERM and say “as long as its like this, we’re not calling our lawyers”? Where is the community review process?
In short, where is the recognition that everyone who ever built anything in $VIRTUALWORLD owns a part of that brand, and that it would be WORTHLESS without all of us?
Look! Iceberg dead ahead! Summon the band and start moving deck chairs!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:06 PM
Hopefully the anal-retentive, oppressive details that the new branding rules go into won’t be enforced as heavily as they have the potential to be (given the innumerable quantity of ‘brand’ references out there in the Web), and this will only really a legal necessity of SL becoming more prominent in the world (of both corporate and media).
March 24th, 2008 at 7:11 PM
I definitely see what #93 and others are saying in terms of resident ownership of the brand. So much of the world is created and owned by the residents that they do have some stake in the brand. This is something that should always be remembered and cherished as what makes SL such a unique world.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:13 PM
Nice to see everyone forced to crash-on-TP just so that everyone can quickly agree to the new TOS.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:28 PM
hey what about “ll .bean” oh no i see a law suit coming up!!!!
March 24th, 2008 at 7:29 PM
So, we can say: our alternative being is now our bubble and our phantasy. While I am unable to find all these (R) (TM) (C) symbols on my keyboard.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:30 PM
LL International Shoe Company
March 24th, 2008 at 7:31 PM
The only way to protest this idiocy that ‘they who may not be mentioned’ will listen to is to vote with your feet, or US$ as it were. I’m putting off buying the island I was about to order, will sell all but the minimum of Ls I need for a while and then sit back and see how the dust settles on this one. Users built this world, everything was hunky dory about us having blogs and websites to advertise THEIR product until all the sudden they decide it needs to be restricted. Ive seen the value of L on slex fall about 4 since this first came out..or rise, depending on how you look at it….so Im not the only one cashing out to see what the eventual fallout is. Now if they would just tell us straight up if, when and how much they plan to raise tier I could start looking elsewhere for entertainment with my friends.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:42 PM
#79 Jeska Linden: both your links go to 404 pages.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:42 PM
@79 - Jeska - that link is not found. Can you please have the web team verfify their links before going live with this.
March 24th, 2008 at 7:45 PM
Amazing how Linden Labs is so staunch about Protecting thier, Brand, Logo and Name yet could not Care about any of thier Residents Brands, Logos, Or Names…………
March 24th, 2008 at 7:49 PM
Your examples do not cover in world businesses and groups such as mine, SLPlantz, SLNurbz, etc…….or for that matter, associated websites such as SLExchange. Any insight into this?
March 24th, 2008 at 8:05 PM
Wow, I’m not even sure where to begin on this. Right after you impress me with battling ad farms and restructering the faulty island transfer process you drop this on us. After considering several vulgarities all I came up with was this little analogy : LL as a company just went from the Greatful Dead to the Metallica of the virtual world in one post. No consideration at all for people that have been working on brands and company names for a long time. Thanks for the big, greedy, corporate kick in the n**tz!!!
March 24th, 2008 at 8:10 PM
Hehehehe… I know of a Technology Company Who Can Not Be Named® that cannot even write a web address and get it right. No wonder that each update is full of mis-spelled words and new bugs®.
Henceforth the following word must be shown with a registered trademark as this: ruthed®
How can they say this is “my world”, I’m not even sure it’s “my inventory.”
March 24th, 2008 at 8:16 PM
Unrelated to THIS topic, BUT…..
When you change your TOS, please summarize the changes in a paragraph “0″..I have no idea what you changed, because I had to log in (and thus clicked”Agree” without knowing what I agreed to because I had a customer waiting.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:17 PM
#79 Jeska Linden the links in #79 dont work
March 24th, 2008 at 8:39 PM
Well Shoot me and call me susan…. on second thought(r) don’t .
so let me get this right in Essence…
If you run a RL buisiness or a business within SL…
(ok with you so far)
Don’t Give the Impressioin that Linden Lab(tm) is part of it, or specificly endorses or shows favor to it.
(Well… duh… ok)
this is what happens when you don’t let lawyers write blog entries, it acctually makes sence.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:39 PM
Remove the dots from the end of Jeska’s links and you’ll be able to reach them.
March 24th, 2008 at 8:41 PM
Just to do a quick c/p sucks to be these guys.
# Second Life Herald
# Second Life Insider
# Second Life Snippets
For that matter how old is “Second Life Herald” anyways and has time already run out for LL to enforce that one?