Lindens Send Trademark Infringement Notice To SL Educators... 18 Months After Announcing Trademark Policy (Updated: Lindens, SL Wiki Owner Responds)

A wiki used by Second Life-based educators recently received a trademark infringement notice from the Lindens, Massively reports, news that's sent some ripples of controversy through the community. Which seems a bit perplexing, because the Lindens announced their current trademark policies... eighteen months ago, in March 2008, at which point, third party sites were given 90 days amnesty to conform to the company's new branding guidelines. This is why the virtual e-commerce site XStreetSL, for example, has such an unwieldy name -- before the trademark rules went into effect, it was known as SL Exchange, but the Linden trademark rules necessitated the name change. (Then ironically, it was purchased by the Lindens, making the change unnecessary.) So this infringement notice on the education wiki comes many many months after the amnesty expired.

Back in the spring of 2008, the Lindens' trademark policy provoked quite a firestorm of controversy and perplexity, and understandably so, because it was a significant and often costly change to policies that already existed then. Over a year later, however, long after it's become a fait accompli, I'm not quite sure why an infringement notice has generated so much agita. I'll talk with the parties involved if I can.

Update, 11:55AM: On his blog, Mo Hax, an SL developer affiliated with a major RL company in Second Life, discusses the question, "Why the Fuss NoW?", and why SL educators haven't addressed an 18 month old policy change: "[T]he education community has a distinctly different network of participants, information sources, and perspectives. I’d go so far to say that there is something of a gap, even wall between the educational community and corporate community..."

Update 2, 2:20PM: I contacted jokay Wollongong, the Australian educator who runs the SLeducation Wiki which received the Linden trademark notice, asking her why she didn't respond to the policy change announced last year. She points out that the Lindens still promote her wiki on an official site for educators: "Another excellent wiki that is focused on cool examples of education projects in SL is jokay Wollongong's SLEducation Wiki," it currently reads. The rest of Ms. Wollonggong's reply after the break:

jokay Wollongon, via SL Instant Message: "Yes we were aware of the policy change, but question whether or not our use could be considered fair use and along with many other SL Residents, decided not to change things without further discussion."

"We also noted in the community and the time that many groups (education and corporate) chose the same pathway and were continuing to use the sites they had established back before the trademark policy flip. Remember back when the Lab encouraged you to use the branding everywhere, and could download the logo and various other promo content from the Second Life website.... the SLeducation wiki was created during that time.

"Additionally, more than two years after the policy change, our wiki is still being promoted by the Lab as a useful resource (see the SLED mailing list signup page) without a name change. So whilst one hand at the lab endorses us, the other sends us takedown requests.

"At any rate, as you can see, we'll play nice and change the site name.. and we'll be working to move on from this issue in a positive manner. However, I am happy to see the issue being raised for discussion, as I think this is something that many residents are likely to face in the coming weeks and months. I also wonder about the consistency of the Lab's enforcement of this policy - Should [educator projects like] SLaction, SLoodle or any of the other resources that still use SL in their site titles or urls expect the same treatment, or does this only happen to those of without armies of lawyers and institutional walls to protect us? Is the policy likely to change to include other words or terminology?"

Update 3, 10/2: The Lindens sent along extensive replies to questions posed by The Metaverse Journal to company education representative Pathfinder Linden:

1. What was the impetus for LL tackling Jokay's Wiki specifically?

Jokay’s Wiki is a wonderful educational resource for the Second Life community, and Jokay organizes incredibly thoughtful and informative conferences about education in Second Life.

Some Lindens were recently invited to participate in a conference that Jokay was organizing, and we wanted very much to accept and show our support for Jokay and all the amazing work she’s done for the community. We were concerned, though, that the name of her blog is “Second Life in Education” and that her uses of our trademarks do not comply with our policies and create confusion about her blog’s relationship with Linden Lab.

We realize now that we poorly expressed our concerns by sending her an email from our trademark team, and that we should have reached out more personally to such an important contributor to the educational community. I (Pathfinder Linden) did speak to Jokay inworld after we sent her the email to explain to her why it’s so important for Residents to respect our trademark policies. However, in hindsight, this should have been the first step in our process.

2. Does LL see it's in its interest to issue takedown notices to educators showcasing one of SL's strengths (i.e. it's power as en educational platform)?

We have great respect for the work of Jokay and other educators in Second Life. We’re also committed to increasing awareness of intellectual property, as we said in our recent Content Management Roadmap, through improved policies and outreach to the community. When we get in touch with Residents about improper uses of intellectual property – whether it be the intellectual property of other Residents, companies outside of Second Life, or Linden Lab itself – it’s nothing personal. It’s simply what we must do to help protect intellectual property.

3. How much confidence should educators have that further trademarks won't be registered, leading to a further change of landscape that can't be forseen?

When choosing a brand name or name for your website or domain name, it’s good practice to check that you are not using another person’s trademark or brand name. Trademarks do not need to be registered – so it’s best to search the web as well as trademark office records, and to consult a trademark attorney if you’re uncertain. This good practice is called “trademark clearance,” and it protects against your having to make a name change down the road.

In this case, both Second Life and SL have been Linden Lab trademarks since we first started using them for our virtual world many years ago. To help promote awareness about proper use of our trademarks, especially for Residents unfamiliar with trademark clearance, we updated our trademark policies in early 2008, providing additional information and examples. We have also been reaching out to Residents about our trademark policies.

4. How would you respond to claims that actions like this provide further motivation for people to move to other grids or platforms outside of SL?

Intellectual property rights are part of what makes Second Life unique and compelling, and we’re committed to supporting a community that respects each other’s intellectual property. Although making changes in response to intellectual property complaints can be frustrating, it ultimately makes our community stronger, more aware and respectful of each other’s intellectual property, and a more desirable place for content creators and content consumers alike.

Comments

[Metacam Oh]

Linden Lab is really doing us all a favor here, all your SL domain names and business names will be worthless when the next "Metaverse" arrives.

Who wants to corner themselves into bed with them anyway?

It's really to Linden's detriment this policy and always has been.

[Mo Hax]

I think the education and corporate communities are on different wavelengths and paths to adoption and usage are sometimes noticeably disconnected from one another, which I discuss more in this blog post of my own.

[Dale Innis]

Yeah, the amusing thing here is that the Cease and Desist Letter so often leads people to think, "That's true, why am I just covering Second Life anyway? Okay, we'll rebrand ourselves as Virtual Worlds Whatever instead, and cover their competitors also". Brilliant marketing. :)

[Ciaran Laval]

I'm on an education mailing list, within days of LL's trademark policy being announced (as I recall), it certainly wasn't very long, the name of the mailing list had been changed from Second Life, to Virtual Worlds. This was also seen as a chance to discuss and promote other virtual worlds within education. So in reality Linden Lab's policy helped to promote other virtual worlds too.

The change was likely to have happened anyway and the list is still dominated by Second Life talk.

[Tristin Mikazuki]

Can I just bust a gut laughing here? ROFLAMO!!
The Lab has lost its way pretty badly.

[Adric Antfarm]

I can't think of stupider thing to do.

Except appoint me CEO.

[skribe]

The Lab have blundered from one PR disaster after another for the last 2 years. This is just a continuance of the pattern. They're just making it easier and easier for their competitors to make in-roads into the marketplace. Mindboggling!

[Alb]

LL issued their 'all your SLs are belong to us' IP policy in the middle of Bragg v Linden. A close reading of the Bragg filings suggests that case was the motivation for the original policy. Now we have another court case that turns, at least in part, on IP rights and another policy. Seems an interesting coincidence.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

I'm not a lawyer, but I would think that the legal principle of estoppel would shelter entities using the SL trademark previous to the policy change. Of course, actually fighting that battle might fall under the non-legal principle of "biting the hand that feeds".

[Ari Blackthorne™]

/me wonders if he needs to change http://sl-ass-hat.blogspot.com/

Figures to wait for the letter first.

[Ari Blackthorne]

Just occurred to me me a bit ago...

Linden Lab defends their own Intellectual Property…
Defender = BAD GUYS.

Second Life Residents defend their own Intellectual Property
(a.k.a. “copybot”, etc.) Defender = GOOD GUYS

What is wrong with this picture.

Hey, Linden Lab: SUCKS TO BE YOU. ;)

[ColeMarie Soleil]

Hey Ari!
I just posted the same thing in the new blog :D
ahahahaha
I was just saying

they jump to protect their own rights

But us creators who get fucked over?

We scream HELP!
They just twiddle their thumbs

I agree with you

Linden Labs needs to realize where their real problems are.

Oh have I mentioned I've met lindens who don't even know how to SIT in chairs?

Man *shakes head*
Just...
man...

[Jeremy Kemp]

Hey there, My heart goes out to Jokay who has spent THOUSANDS of hours creating documentation to help teachers. But just to clarify: the project is spelled SLOODLE (Simulation-Linked Object-Oriented Distance Learning Environment) and is open source. We have development projects ongoing in Metaplace and Blackboard as well as Second Life and Moodle.

[Breen]

Virtual educators are moving to other metaverses(Opensimulator etc). In doing this they are not placing themselves into the container Linden Lab forces them to be in. Linden Lab has lost their way.

[Avery]

Please also read this article:
BlackBoard investigate Second Life integration
http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/rowin/2008/08/07/blackboard-investigate-second-life-integration/comment-page-1/#comment-48765