James Bond in Battle To Keep Hold of 007 Super Spy's Name (theguardian.com) 34
The owners of the multibillion-pound James Bond franchise are embroiled in a fight to keep control of the super spy's name, after a Dubai-based property developer filed claims in the UK and Europe that they are not using the trademark across a range of goods and services. From a report: The Austrian businessman Josef Kleindienst, who is building a $5 billion luxury resort complex called the Heart of Europe on six human-made islands just off the coast of Dubai, has filed a slew of what are known officially as "cancellation actions based on non-use" targeting the James Bond name.
Under UK and EU law, if a name is trademarked against certain goods and services but the owner does not commercially exploit it in these areas for a period of at least five years then a challenge to revoke ownership of the name can be made. "He is challenging a number of UK and European Union trademark registrations for James Bond," said Mark Caddle, a partner and patent attorney at European intellectual property firm Withers & Rogers. "The basis of the European Union filings is that James Bond has not been used for the goods and services it protects, and that is likely to be the same basis of the filings in the UK."
Under UK and EU law, if a name is trademarked against certain goods and services but the owner does not commercially exploit it in these areas for a period of at least five years then a challenge to revoke ownership of the name can be made. "He is challenging a number of UK and European Union trademark registrations for James Bond," said Mark Caddle, a partner and patent attorney at European intellectual property firm Withers & Rogers. "The basis of the European Union filings is that James Bond has not been used for the goods and services it protects, and that is likely to be the same basis of the filings in the UK."
Welcome to the future (Score:2)
...where nobody cares about creating anything new, but instead fights for the rights to use a 72 year old name
Just need a new derivative character (Score:2)
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Maybe they'll take baby steps and just make Bond black and gay. Honestly, James Bond died in the last movie, so the character James Bond should be fucking dead. Go ahead and make a Jasmine Bond for all I care. I might watch it. If it's as decent as Tomb Raider was, it's worth it for the action and laughs.
But don't be saying that's James Bond. 007 itself was just a number. It can be of course reassigned since he's dead.
As far as this whole copyright issue, the earliest works SHOULD be public domain at this p
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Future? That's been Hollywood for as long as I can remember.
Last Bond movie was in 2021 (Score:1)
The post says the law says "at least 5 years" and the last Bond movie was in 2021. Seems like no case there...
Re:Last Bond movie was in 2021 (Score:5, Informative)
The thing is you register trademarks in market groups, essentially. You don't just register "007" and you own all use of those three numbers in that sequence. You register it for movies, for games, for clothes, for food(?), for toys, etc.
When was the last James Bond game released? When was the last line of suits in James' style released? When was the last James Bond action figure released? These are all unique questions that have no bearing on the trademarks in the other categories.
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The thing is you register trademarks in market groups, essentially. You don't just register "007" and you own all use of those three numbers in that sequence. You register it for movies, for games, for clothes, for food(?), for toys, etc.
Sounds like the actual thing is..a trademark office got obscenely greedy and demanded license registration for any damn thing they could imagine charging for. And this tends to highlight the problem with that. What happens when “James Bond” becomes more popular in porn and is forced to compete with the Hollywood action star? Would “James Bond” the tequila brand drink the on-screen character brand into an early grave via cultural appropriation hysterics? Fragmenting a brand like t
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> You don't just register "007" and you own all use of those three numbers in that sequence
Except if you're Peugeot. Them claiming vehicle model numbers of the form [1-9]0(0)[1-9] could only be used for their ones is why the Porsche 911 wasn't the Porsche 901.
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> You don't just register "007" and you own all use of those three numbers in that sequence
Except if you're Peugeot. Them claiming vehicle model numbers of the form [1-9]0(0)[1-9] could only be used for their ones is why the Porsche 911 wasn't the Porsche 901.
However, Peugeot's trademarks is in a specific category, which is how trademarks are supposed to work.
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> You don't just register "007" and you own all use of those three numbers in that sequence
Except if you're Peugeot. Them claiming vehicle model numbers of the form [1-9]0(0)[1-9] could only be used for their ones is why the Porsche 911 wasn't the Porsche 901.
You're talking about the vehicle model category and how it applies to a vehicle model of a different company. There is nothing "except Peugeot" here, in fact Peugeot is doing exactly what the GP said.
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LEGO had a James Bond toy that was still active as recently as 2023.
There is a James Bond video game in development right now.
So in those categories at least, the trademark would be considered active,
disney will want at least 100+ years of lock in on (Score:2)
disney will want at least 100+ years of lock in on IP
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WHAT?
Disney pushed for the longest term they could get, which was an unbelievable 95 fucking years.
Pirate on, until copyright terms are fair.
Owning names (Score:3)
If you're actually a James Bond and want to open a shop under your own name, in an industry where naming your business after yourself is normal, it should already be OK to do that (opinion, not legal fact).
Otherwise, common sense says the only reason to use that name is to piggyback on the brand built by the franchise. Fuck off and build your own brand. (Also opinion and not necessarily how it really works).
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If you're actually a James Bond and want to open a shop under your own name, in an industry where naming your business after yourself is normal, it should already be OK to do that (opinion, not legal fact).
I think it depends...
Suppose I'm an accountant named James Bond. Yes, I should be able to call my service "James Bond Accounting."
However, suppose I advertise my business by wearing a tuxedo, holding a martini glass, driving an Aston Martin, etc? Then there could be some issues.,,
Rut-rho: Stop Thie Crazy Thing! (Score:2)
At least by the 1980s there was a hair stylist in a town next to Boston, MA, called Judy Jetson Hair Salon. The owner's name was actually Judy Jetson.
They're still around today, but seem to have moved from Watertown to Cambridge, and oh yeah, the Internet got invented so now they have a website
https://www.judyjetson.com/ [judyjetson.com] too.
(At the time someone told me that the owner was unaware of the TV cartoon show. I didn't believe that because she was the right age to have been teased in school. However, the Jetson
I haven't been to a James Bond movie in years, but (Score:2)
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Gaudy? Massively over the top? Jumping the shark all the way into a trans lunar orbit?
James Bond already went there 45 years ago.
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Architects love that shit and regularly give each other prizes for the most outrageous, unfitting building any one of them can throw up, unfortunately for the rest of us.
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I want the gaudy and massively over the top. Do lairs have to be under the ocean or in volcano craters? Hell no, but it's cooler if they are.
won't get to court (Score:2)
Reminds me of Javascript (Score:2)
If he loses the case, the developer could name his thing "ECMA Bond".
"Script, JavaScript"
"Script, ECMAScript"
"Bond, ECMA Bond"
Maybe someone can explain this... (Score:1)