Another attempt at "intellectual property abuse"

Miscellaneous Forums/General Discussion/Another attempt at "intellectual property abuse"

People who even think this is fair deserve to have their rights violated in more ways than one IMO.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7580941.stm

Aside from the fact its its name is in another language and the story is nothing to do with a wizard. I cant believe this even gets to court, if they do win then i will be convinced its warner's $$$ buying 'justice'.
Grr. I am all for intellectual property rights to protect actual content and exact/blatant knockoff trademarkings but this is just getting crazy.

My next game title with be called : VGLK_87565_X3261_D

Pete Carter

what difference could it make to warner its not going to reflect on there movie, if he was a wisard in the film you could agree but the story is completely different.

D4NM4N: It's an unfortunate state of affairs that if Warner Bros. didn't file against the makers of Hari Putter, they could risk the loss of the trademark.

Trademark law is very clear: If you do not take every reasonable measure to protect your mark, you lose it. Wise then, for Warner Bros. to play safe. The loss of the Harry Potter trademark would be corporate suicide.

Neji

"In my opinion, I don't think our title has any similarity or links with Harry Potter "

LOL that's a shame, they only changed 2 ~~letters~~ characters
! pronouciation is almost identical
They could have given any other title to their movie why choosing one so close to the blockbuster ?

TomToad

In another article I read, they admitted that Hari Putter started out as a joke when the first Harry Potter movie came out, so the name was definitely taken from them.

And the odd thing about trademark laws, if you don't fight one violation, you run the risk of losing the right to fight any violation. So WB really has no choice but to fight it.

Funny thing is, if they did make him into a wizard at a wizarding school, they might get away with it by claiming it is parody.

Naughty Alien

they didnt changed a letters...its Tamil language, and they did explain that..

GaryV

Hilarious when you consider J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" is a ripoff of the original Harry Potter.

D4NM4N

If you do not take every reasonable measure to protect your mark, you lose it.

So what youre saying is only the mega rich corporations can now have a trademark right?
As no one else could afford to go to court every time something even remotely resembles the name of (and has absolutely nothing to do with) your product.
-that sucks-

There are only a finite number of letter combinations after all, let alone phoenetically aesthetic ones.

FlameDuck

If you do not take every reasonable measure to protect your mark, you lose it.

Harry Potter isn't a trademark of Warner Bros. This is not a trademark case.

LOL that's a shame, they only changed 2 letters ! pronouciation is almost identical

And you would know this because you speak Punjabi? Hopefully it'll compensate you for your poor math.

They could have given any other title to their movie why choosing one so close to the blockbuster ?

Oh yes. The son of Harry is very close to "Harry Potter". You realize of course that Harry Potter is a character in the eponymous series of books, right? Not so much a movie.

In another article I read, they admitted that Hari Putter started out as a joke when the first Harry Potter movie came out, so the name was definitely taken from them.

A joke huh? So protected free speech, by means of parody?

And the odd thing about trademark laws, if you don't fight one violation, you run the risk of losing the right to fight any violation. So WB really has no choice but to fight it.

Again, this is not a trademark case, and WB doesn't own the Harry Potter trademark. Simply the movie rights. Since the movie is clearly about some bloke who is the son of some other bloke named Hari, I don't see any correlation at all.

I'm fairly sure there's a Harry Potter-esque porn movie out there, which is a much more obvious rip-off. Harry Pots Her & The Philosophers Boner? It must exist somewhere. Why haven't they been sued?

Hilarious when you consider J.K. Rowling's "Harry Potter" is a ripoff of the original Harry Potter.

Unfortunately the irony is lost on the judicial system. However maybe it could help the case against Hari Puttar, claiming previous art? Whoops forgot. It's not a patent case either.

Yan

#10

I'm surprised no one's posted one of these yet...

Neji

#11

And you would know this because you speak Punjabi? Hopefully it'll compensate you for your poor math.

Right i missed one character but in India english is very widely spoken so they might be aware of the similar pronunciation i guess.

Oh yes. The son of Harry is very close to "Harry Potter". You realize of course that Harry Potter is a character in the eponymous series of books, right? Not so much a movie.

I wasn't referring to the meaning of the title but rather to its phonetics.
You realize of course that we are talking about the Harry Potter movies not the novels?

Gabriel

#12

Seems like a pretty solid trademark case to me, but as FlameDuck already pointed out, WB don't own the trademark. This his hardly new though, as WB have been criticized many times for trying to shut down every website which mentions Harry Potter, also using copyright where only trademark law should apply.

It's kind of scary to think that the judicial system can't distinguish between copyright and trademark. If they can't, what chance have the rest of us got?

FlameDuck

#13

Right i missed one character but in India english is very widely spoken so they might be aware of the similar pronunciation i guess.

I wasn't aware that intellectual property rights extended to pronunciation. If so I suppose every male child in India, whose parents still are alive owes WB royalties. Which could be rather significant considering there are more than a billion (as in thousand millions) people in India. Supposing half of them are males, and half of them again still have living parents I can understand why WB would pursue this particular lawsuit. I mean even if they can only get a buck out of each of them, that's 250 million right there.

I wasn't referring to the meaning of the title but rather to its phonetics.

Well if that's the case, I'm fairly certain that the urbanized Indians (those that would speak English) would speak British English, rather than American English, and may not be aware that American English is so phonetically similar to Punjabi.

You realize of course that we are talking about the Harry Potter movies not the novels?

To be honest, I don't know what you're talking about. Apart from a funny coincidence that the surname of the protagonist in the Harry Potter movie (and books) allegedly sounds vaguely similar to the Punjabi word for "Son", the two movies have absolutely nothing in common.

It seems more to me like J.K. Rowling is running out of obscure stories and mythology to rip-off, and looking desperately for another source of income.

Neji

#14

Nonsense, you don't want to sell and make money with children as a product right ?

They don't speak british english they speak their own form of english, it's called a dialect. In india you have :
# Hinglish
# Punjabi/Delhi English
# U.P/Bihari English
# Bengali/Assamese English
# Gujarati English
# Maharashtrian English
# Kannadiga English
# Telugu English
# Tamil English
# Malayalee English
Chances are they are aware of the similar pronunciation.

To be honest, I don't know what you're talking about.

so why do you even bother quoting me and replying me ?
:)

Foppy

#15

Look it's written Hari Puttar on this poster:

http://www.chakpak.com/movie/hari-puttar---a-comedy-of-terrors-/19240

They probably picked this name to get more attention, and it works. Who here would have known about this movie had it not been called Hari Puttar... for instance if it had been called "Babawasaski Pojipopi".. haha I made that up. Anyway, instead it's all over the internet and you get fanclubs etc.

Doiron

#16

I think the only relevant issue here is if, despite the meaning of the words in their language, Bollywood intentionally created a name which sounded like the well known franchise in order to boost sales. In my opinion it sounds like it does, since it is out of discussion that Bollywood executives didn't know about Harry Potter. Don't forget that Bollywood is all about money as well as Hollywood, as it is sure as hell that they don't are there for the quality of their movies. Sadly for them they can't even rely on satiric exceptions, since the story doesn't make fun or links to the original movie at all.

Neji

#17

yeah and why not calling the movie "Harsha Puttar" or "Hiranya Puttar" or "Hiresh Putter" ? All are common indian first names.
No they choosed "Hary Putter". Why ? I think i know the answer.

D4NM4N

#18

Hare Potter anyone?

do you think that sign is so he can remember the words? :D

GfK

#19

I should sue. I came up with Hari Pitta; The Indian Boy-Wizard years ago during a drunken night on #blitzbasic IRC.

Yahfree

#20

And Benny lava is the main theme song of this film I heard.

Ginger Tea

#21

if it was a parody like barry trotter was (which i never read but know of) then id let it pass with minimal legal trademark retention malarky

but as the name is son of potter or son of hari or whatever then they intentionally chose a name that sounds sooo much like an existing book/movie/lego franchise and is just too similar phonetically as koka kola is to coca cola

in some twisted equity clause you cant be named after another actor
david jason's real name was already in use when he took up acting so chose his dead brothers name as his stage name

bands have to check to see if their name is in use or not somewhere else in the country or the world
mika was used almost a decade ago by some woman (in holland?) and although she doesnt perform anymore she decided to take it to court (never bothered to find out the outcome)

i googled my blodrone my onhold 'band' name (and 2nd net name) and most links pointed to blitz related threads one said "bla bla remixed by blodrone" and i sure as f didnt remix it never heard of the album before ... but i bagsied the myspace last year :)

TomToad

#22

Harry Potter isn't a trademark of Warner Bros. This is not a trademark case.

Harry Potter is a trademark of Warner brothers and it is a trademark case.
A simple trademark search will show you this.

Word Mark HARRY POTTER
Goods and Services IC 041. US 100 101 107. G & S: [ Entertainment services in the nature of live-action, comedy, drama, and animated television programs; Production of live-action, comedy, drama and animated television programs; ] Live-action, comedy, drama and animated motion picture theatrical films; Production of live-action, comedy, drama, and animated motion picture theatrical films; [ Theatrical performances both animated and live-action; ] Computer services, namely providing information in the field of entertainment relating specifically to music, movies, and television via an electronic global computer network; Computer services, namely providing databases featuring general interest news, entertainment and educational information via an electronic global computer network; Providing information about and actual entertainment via an electronic global computer communications network in the nature of live-action, comedy, drama, and animated programs; production of live-action, comedy, drama, and animated programs for distribution via an electronic global computer network. FIRST USE: 20001222. FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 20001222
Mark Drawing Code (5) WORDS, LETTERS, AND/OR NUMBERS IN STYLIZED FORM
Serial Number 76065154
Filing Date June 6, 2000
Current Filing Basis 1A
Original Filing Basis 1B
Published for Opposition May 22, 2001
Registration Number 2574410
Registration Date May 28, 2002
Owner (REGISTRANT) Time Warner Entertainment Company, L.P. Composed of Nils Victor Montan, Assistant Secrctary of Warner Communications Inc., a general partner of Time Warner Entertainment Company. L.P. LIMITED PARTNERSHIP DELAWARE 75 Rockefeller Plaza New York NEW YORK 10019

(LAST LISTED OWNER) WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. CORPORATION DELAWARE 4000 WARNER BOULEVARD BURBANK CALIFORNIA 91522
Assignment Recorded ASSIGNMENT RECORDED
Attorney of Record Janet A. Kobrin
Type of Mark SERVICE MARK
Register PRINCIPAL
Affidavit Text SECT 15. SECT 8 (6-YR).
Other Data The name "HARRY POTTER" is a fanciful name and does not identify a particular living individual.
Live/Dead Indicator LIVE

As you can see, Time warner, the parent company of Warner brothers owns the Harry Potter trademark for use in any film, movie, television show, and animation.

In another article I read, they admitted that Hari Putter started out as a joke when the first Harry Potter movie came out, so the name was definitely taken from them.
A joke huh? So protected free speech, by means of parody?

You can joke about a name as much as you wish, but then to use that name in your own movie when it was so obviously intended as a sound-alike of another name in another movie, then you are getting on shaky legal grounds.

I'm fairly sure there's a Harry Potter-esque porn movie out there, which is a much more obvious rip-off. Harry Pots Her & The Philosophers Boner? It must exist somewhere. Why haven't they been sued?

Because it would obviously be parody, which exempts you from copyright and trademark laws due to "fair use." But Mirchi movies isn't creating a parody. They are creating a movie in which the main character's name is taken and modified from another popular movie.

If you do not take every reasonable measure to protect your mark, you lose it.
So what youre saying is only the mega rich corporations can now have a trademark right?
As no one else could afford to go to court every time something even remotely resembles the name of (and has absolutely nothing to do with) your product.
-that sucks-

Not true at all. First of all, you don't need to go after everything that resembles your name, unless that name is unique to you. For instance, there is an antique shop here called Apple Antiques. They do not have to worry about Apple Computers suing over trademark violation, since the word apple is not unique to Apple computers, and antiques are not the same as computers. However, if that shop decides to expand and become Apple Antique and Computer Shoppe, then they might end up with some legal problems as a result.
On the other hand, if they decided to rename their shop to Coca Cola Antiques, then they would definitely have legal problems on their hands as Coca Cola is unique to one company and one product.
But even if you have a unique name, you still would not have to go after everything that remotely resembles it. If the name is obviously coincidental and doesn't cause confusion with your product, then you can usually safely ignore it. There is still a small risk of losing your trademark in such cases, but it is very minimal. This would be different from when the CEO of a company admits to getting the idea for his name from you and then creating the same product as you, and you ignoring it then.

In case you're interested, here is the article where they mentioned joking about the Harry Potter/Hari Putter similarities.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080825/film_nm/hari_dc

(tu) ENAY

#23

What about this part:-

"Warner Bros said the decision had been taken in order to guarantee the studio a major summer blockbuster in 2009. "

Delay a film by '8 months' JUST to make it a blockbuster in the next summer?
Can you imagine if that was a game, yes we will sit on our fat arses for all this time JUST so we can enjoy it in the summer.

wmd

#24

>in some twisted equity clause you cant be named after another actor
>david jason's real name was already in use when he took up acting
>so chose his dead brothers name as his stage name

Michael Keaton's real name is Michael Douglas. When getting his SAG union card, he chose Michael Keaton. He read an article on Diane Keaton and chose the name because the actor's name "Michael Douglas" was already used.

Side note on Michael Keaton: He turned down a $35 million (US) offer to do the third Batman, and refused because the script and the director weren't up to his expectations (too campy.) And the world got Val Kilmer instead.

Ginger Tea

#25

i think i earnt more money this week than elton john ... but reg dwight earns more in a week than i do in a fair few years ;) (unless he finally changed his name by deed poll that is)