Thought I'd open this up for a bit of discussion....
In realm 2, my name used to be IKEA. Obviously this company already exists in real life. I checked the rules and there is nothing about company names so I assumed it was ok (if maybe a little controversial!)
Anyway, I got asked to change it by a mod saying it was against the rules. I asked him for clarification of this rule and basically it's as follows:
Big companies aren't allowed = macdonalds, coca-cola etc, but smaller brands are allowed (weird huh!! What gross turnover does a company have to have before it becomes a 'big' company?????)
Peoples names, e.g Michael Jackson products is fine.
Band names, film titles etc are fine. (so the rule has nothing to do with copyright)
And then when I pointed out to the mod that some people have religious names and perhaps religious or political names would cause much more controversy than a company name he said:
No it won't. The reason for the rule is people sometimes design a website adversiting their kapiland company (I've NEVER seen this) and a big company (I'm assuming not a small company with gross turnover under 10 million a year!!) would have a problem with that.
I personally think this is one of the most fuzzy rules I've ever seen, but would be interested in other peoples opinions.
Company Name
Moderator: moderators
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It's a legal issue. Private names are potentially risky too, but are a less obvious problem.
By using someone else's name, you are purporting to represent them. They hold a copyright to the name and therefore dominance should someone happen to randomly come up with the same name without knowing it's taken. But especially when you know they exist, you are attempting to borrow on the image that they have created. (Whether you mean it seriously, or in fun, or as a joke doesn't matter.)
External company websites are a good example, but not a necessary one. If someone who didn't know the game came across a showcase or message board post saying "McDonalds - Selling q0 beef for 35" they would be justified in some way thinking you were actually representing the company. That's a problem.
So the number one problem is potential confusion. To the extent that anyone in any context could reasonably mistake your Kapi business for the real one, that has to be disallowed. This isn't as likely to be a problem with real world names, since nobody thinks Michael Jackson and thinks of manufacturing.
The second lesser-but-still-valid problem is that they "invented" the name. It doesn't seem like much of an invention compared to airplanes and vaccines, but they obviously were successful with it if you want to use it. And by inventing it, they have rights to controlling its use. This is true in a lot of games - superhero games like City of Heroes have explicitly banned any characters too similar in name or appearance to external superhero characters. (And NCSoft was sued by Marvel just to prove this point.)
So on that grounds, even a person's name would be shaky. I believe it was George Clooney who recently won a court battle to take GeorgeClooney.com away from squatter who had registered it. He argued, and won, that the name was famous because of him, they only wanted it because of him, and therefore were infringing on his rights because of it.
So there you go.
By using someone else's name, you are purporting to represent them. They hold a copyright to the name and therefore dominance should someone happen to randomly come up with the same name without knowing it's taken. But especially when you know they exist, you are attempting to borrow on the image that they have created. (Whether you mean it seriously, or in fun, or as a joke doesn't matter.)
External company websites are a good example, but not a necessary one. If someone who didn't know the game came across a showcase or message board post saying "McDonalds - Selling q0 beef for 35" they would be justified in some way thinking you were actually representing the company. That's a problem.
So the number one problem is potential confusion. To the extent that anyone in any context could reasonably mistake your Kapi business for the real one, that has to be disallowed. This isn't as likely to be a problem with real world names, since nobody thinks Michael Jackson and thinks of manufacturing.
The second lesser-but-still-valid problem is that they "invented" the name. It doesn't seem like much of an invention compared to airplanes and vaccines, but they obviously were successful with it if you want to use it. And by inventing it, they have rights to controlling its use. This is true in a lot of games - superhero games like City of Heroes have explicitly banned any characters too similar in name or appearance to external superhero characters. (And NCSoft was sued by Marvel just to prove this point.)
So on that grounds, even a person's name would be shaky. I believe it was George Clooney who recently won a court battle to take GeorgeClooney.com away from squatter who had registered it. He argued, and won, that the name was famous because of him, they only wanted it because of him, and therefore were infringing on his rights because of it.
So there you go.
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I see exactly what you are saying. And if that is a rule I 100% agree with it. But it's the fuzziness of the rule. A different moderator told me that smaller company names are fine!! What difines size of a company - and when do they get too big to be ripped off for kapilands?
What about the religious names? There is one like Praise_Allah or something, are these fine?
Also, it's interesting that coca-cola had to buy coca-cola.com off a squatter for 1 million dollars!!
What about the religious names? There is one like Praise_Allah or something, are these fine?
Also, it's interesting that coca-cola had to buy coca-cola.com off a squatter for 1 million dollars!!
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Re: Company Name
Yes, I see your confusion... but...
Please check this link.
But there is this rule:
And as "Abrakebabra" is the name of a real existing company, too, you must not use this name because you might get problems with the real company.
(Just a note: This company name really looks like "Abracadabra" if you read it fast... Maybe the other mod. mixed things up?
We all are only humans... mistakes can happen. )
I am not sure what rules you checked but a look in the forum should give you the answer, my dear.hebawom wrote:Obviously this company already exists in real life. I checked the rules and there is nothing about company names
Please check this link.
They are not copyrighted. Thus those names are not against the rule posted above.hebaworm wrote:And then when I pointed out to the mod that some people have religious names and perhaps religious or political names would cause much more controversy than a company name [...]
But there is this rule:
If a company name (or something else) becomes e. g. racist we will act as fast as we can.Pornographic, racist, harassing or law violating content is not allowed and can lead to the deletion of the account.
And as "Abrakebabra" is the name of a real existing company, too, you must not use this name because you might get problems with the real company.
(Just a note: This company name really looks like "Abracadabra" if you read it fast... Maybe the other mod. mixed things up?
We all are only humans... mistakes can happen. )-
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Which is why the "big company" distinction was made. Technically you should do a copyright & trademark search on any prospective name, and potentially find one that is legal for use in one country but taken in others.adi2412 wrote:this is seriously lame... in this wrld there is a company name with every possible name .. big or small or very small so its not possible man
That would be a little silly. So we use a judgement call. If it is reasonably well known to us, it will be well-known to others. If it's small enough then likely there are multiple businesses with that name differentiated by location (e.g. "Moe's Tavern") then creating a new one is no big deal. But if one business has established an international presence, then they have likely trademarked & copyrighted the heck out of the name, and you shouldn't use it.
If we miss, and some company we never heard of informs us that you are causing confusion, well we can fix that then. In the meantime go nuts. But we can't a company name that we've all heard of to be used. That would just be asking for trouble.
As for religious names, that's a similar subject, completely different rule. It's not going to cause confusion, but if it causes offense then it would have to be changed for that reason.
Clear?
Private company, sure. If it is a publicly traded company, then technicall Board of Directors approval would be needed. Yes that gets very silly. Hence the "have I heard of it?" rule.well the company name i use is my dad's own company so i cant use that name also??