discuss: Linux Documentation Author Werner Heuser threatened with 6 months imprisonment or 250.000.- EURO penalty for supposed tradmark infringment
Subject:
Re: Linux Documentation Author Werner Heuser threatened with 6 months imprisonment or 250.000.- EURO penalty for supposed tradmark infringment
From:
Matt Wright ####@####.####
Date:
9 Jan 2002 18:10:52 -0000
Message-Id: <20020110181043.38fff312.matt@consultmatt.co.uk>
I must say I am disgusted. A major company such as those who own A&O trademarks are splitting hairs, arn't they? I don't think that proceeding with legal action is right nor proper in this case, it is quite clear if you read the site (even before there was a page about it) what topic it discusses, I have read the A&O comics and I am a great fan of them but I cannot (and could not) see any relation between Mobilix and Obelix, no logos, no one-liners, nothing.
Just my .02.
Matt
On Wed, 09 Jan 2002 15:25:30 +0100
Kurt Pfeifle ####@####.#### wrote:
> Off topic -- cross posting is deliberate...
>
> ############################################################################################
> ## 6 months imprisonment or 250.000.- EURO penalty to Linux Documentation Author --
> ## for infringing comic character "Obelix" through free Laptop support Website "MobiliX"??
> ############################################################################################
>
> After having gotten a request (in June 2001) from German legal
> representatives of "Les Editions Albert Rene" (Paris), holder of the
> trademarks "Asterix" and "Obelix", to unregister the name MobiliX,
> they now took legal action against Werner Heuser
> ####@####.#### well-known amongst Linux-laptop users for
> authoring the "Linux-Mobile-Guide" (formerly called the Laptop-HOWTO),
> published by the Linux Documentation Project.
>
> MobiliX (http://mobilix.org/), his own website, is dedicated to
> "Mobile UniX systems" on laptops, PDAs, cell phones and more. It
> carries lots of useful hands-on information about installing and
> running Linux and BSD on laptops, PDAs and other mobile computer
> devices -- and of course it is free to use via the internet. It exists
> since five years and besides the famous site "Linux on Laptops"
> (http://www.linux-laptop.net) by Kenneth E. Harker it seems to be
> biggest resource on this topic.
>
> MobiliX is an acronym of the words "mobile" and "UniX". To avoid legal
> trouble, Werner had registered this name at the German trademark
> register in 1999. It is a common practice to build new names for Unix
> related topics from a word naming the topic and adding the letters
> "iX" at the end. Some examples are: AIX, Eurix (Comfood), Sinix
> (Siemens-Nixdorf), SkroBelix, Skyrix, Ultrix, Xenix. The German
> computer magazine iX is even just named by these letters. The name
> Unix itself is a registered trademark of AT&T, X/Open. The very
> name Mobilix is already registered for a German manufacturer of
> children furniture -- but don't seem infringed, because of the
> different industry they are in. Before the legal action, Werner didn't
> reference in any way towords comic characters Asterix or Obelix on his
> web pages.
>
> The name of his website MobiliX.org is supposed to be mistaken for
> Obelix, according to the charges.
>
> The trademark Obelix was registered by German lawyer Guenter Freiherr
> v. Gravenreuth. The legal charge is up to 250.000 USD or six months
> prison. The costs of the first instance are app. 15.000 USD. Werner
> Heuser has decided not to withdraw the name "MobiliX". He is supported
> by the German lawyers Jaschinski, Biere und Brexl - JBB
> (http://www.jbb-berlin.de).
>
> This case is another one in the recent series of trademark troubles
> for Free Software projects (SAMBA, Kylix, Kilustrator, SELFHTML, SuSE,
> ..). Therefore this case is very important not only because many of
> these projects have names ending on "iX".
>
> Current news about the case are at http://mobilix.org/mobilix_asterix.html
>
> Please support Werner to fight this attack.
>
> [submitted by Kurt Pfeifle ####@####.####
>
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