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Trademarks and their limitsTrademarks and their limitsPosted Feb 6, 2013 1:57 UTC (Wed) by waucka (subscriber, #63097)Parent article: Trademarks and their limits
Hm...if somebody is redistributing your software along with adware, spyware, or other malware, couldn't that be construed as libel or slander? After all, they are unfairly tarnishing your reputation. I suppose when organizations are involved instead of individuals, though, all you have to go on is trademarks.
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Trademarks and their limits Posted Feb 6, 2013 16:24 UTC (Wed) by ThinkRob (subscriber, #64513) [Link]
Hm, that might make for an interesting avenue of attack for a particularly daring attorney, but as you said it might be tricky when it's an organization's product being tarnished. Perhaps you could get one of the more prominent authors to claim that it was besmirching his good name by giving people the impression that he was in some small part responsible for the adware?
Of course that would also depend on the litigation happening in a place where libel suits aren't incredibly difficult to win in and of themselves (and from what I understand, the US is not such a place.)
Trademarks and their limits Posted Feb 8, 2013 16:18 UTC (Fri) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link] The fact that it's an organization being defamed instead of an individual is not a problem. While the protection against statements that hurt your personal relationships wouldn't apply (the classic example is accusing a woman of being promiscuous), the usual case (the only one possible in many jurisdictions) is a statement that hurts your business relationship. That would apply to something like OpenOffice.But I'm pretty sure slander and libel laws have never been used for things other than direct statements about the subject. Preventing someone from tarnishing your reputation by selling inferior products is exactly what trademark law is for.
Trademarks and their limits Posted Feb 14, 2013 11:32 UTC (Thu) by endecotp (guest, #36428) [Link]
> couldn't that be construed as libel or slander?
It could perhaps be construed as a violation of your "moral rights" under the Berne Convention:
http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/trtdocs_wo001.ht...
"the author shall have the right to claim authorship of the work and to object to any distortion, mutilation or other modification of, or other derogatory action in relation to the said work, which would be prejudicial to the author's honor or reputation."
(Suggestion: don't waive your moral rights in your free software license if you don't want this to happen!)
Trademarks and their limits Posted Feb 14, 2013 11:37 UTC (Thu) by mpr22 (subscriber, #60784) [Link] Jurisdictions that pay more than lip service to the moral-rights clauses tend to treat such waivers as inherently invalid.
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