1.
Recently, Blizzard, which developed well-known games such as "World of Warcraft" and "Overwatch", has been caught up with a dog.
This dog is from the Fox animation HouseBroken, which tells the story of Honey, a medical dog, and her pet friend. The little brother of Huang Bu Laji who almost sat in the dock, his name is Diablo.
Maybe people who eat melons here are still thinking, why do game companies have to deal with dogs that they can't fight? But many Blizzard fans have realized that something is wrong. Coincidentally, this dog named Diablo happens to have the same name as Blizzard's game "Diablo".
"Diablo" is often called "big pineapple" by domestic players because of its homophony. When a treasure banned the sale of this game, players and stores even used "big pineapple" as a special connector code to conduct "underground transactions".
Diablo in "Diablo" is the king of fear that destroys the world, although I don't know how this word is full of fashion and medium, how is it arranged in this one that looks a bit sorry It's on the dog, but Fox thinks it's okay, and by the way, it also applied to the US Trademark Office for registration of this trademark. In addition to animation, the scope of use of the registered trademark also includes pet food and pet supplies.
As an animation that will only be broadcast in May 2021, it is indeed suspected of "Diablo", which was released by Pengci as early as 1996 and has tens of millions of fans around the world.
Blizzard's lawyers apparently think so too, so they tried to block Fox's application, arguing in the filing that Fox's use of the word "Diablo" "may be confusing, erroneous or deceptive" and should be prohibited by federal trademark law .
A battle over the names of dogs and devils has drawn the curtain.
2.
Although the unfolding of the incident is a bit of a mentally retarded joke, Blizzard's concerns are not unreasonable. Assuming that you can really buy a pack of big pineapple dog food at the supermarket, it will really damage the face of BOSS.
What's more, cross-border linkage is now the norm for major IPs. Before, there was a Yuanshen linkage with KFC in a restaurant to say a meeting in another world, causing the "secondary people" to die socially. When players see the big pineapple dog food, they may also think that this is a wave of Blizzard linkage.
Attorneys for Blizzard believe that if Fox started selling merchandise called "Diablo," it could cause brand confusion and dent the reputation of the Diablo gaming IP.
In all fairness, I don't think Blizzard has a chance of winning this lawsuit, "Diablo" comes from Spanish, which is synonymous with "devil" in Spanish culture. Although the Diablo series has carried forward the image of Diablo, the name itself is not original by Blizzard. Strictly speaking, whether it is a demon or a dog, as long as you want, it can be named Diablo.
In fact, there are quite a few characters also called Diablo, such as the final BOSS of Final Fantasy 14 version 3.5 version 24.
Or the horned dragon in "Monster Hunter", because of the huge double horns like demons, it was also named Diablos.
Aside from the game, there are not a few characters who inherit the name of the devil in literary and artistic works, such as the villain of the fifth part of "JoJo's Bizarre Adventure".
and characters from Marvel movies. Even if it is really going to be investigated, the lawsuit that Blizzard is going to fight may have to circle the earth three times.
What's more, from a legal point of view, the possibility of Blizzard winning the case is not high. One is in the field of pet supplies, and the other is in the field of game understanding.
3.
Blizzard is not the first company that intends to use legal means to protect the copyright of its characters. There have been many similar incidents in the past, among which there have been many similar incidents. The more interesting one is the "Glory of the King" The Liquor Case" and the "Donkey Kong Case".
Last year, a domestic food company registered the trademark of King Glory as a wine trademark. Even Tencent, the "Nanshan Pizza Hut", was defeated in this trademark defense battle. Even later, they also set up the King's Glory Wine Co., Ltd., and Tencent had nothing to do.
The reason given by the State Intellectual Property Office is that electronic publications and food are not in the same market, which does not constitute a touch of porcelain.
As a result, Blizzard has quite a sense of arrogance of "my name is Li Hua, and I won't let hundreds of thousands of people with the same name as you in the country not be called Li Hua".
Up to now, Fox has not made an official response, so the dispute of "one devil and one dog who deserves to be called Big Pineapple" may not be resolved for the time being. Some people may also say that there are differences between Chinese laws and the United States, but in the Donkey Kong case that also happened in the United States in the past, it can be said that the verdict announced the defeat of Blizzard in advance.
In 1982, Universal Pictures sued Nintendo's arcade game "Donkey Kong" for allegedly infringing upon their film "King Kong" in 1976, and demanded that the infringing Nintendo compensate for its losses.
In the eyes of Universal, this is an inevitable lawsuit. Universal's lawyer said that Nintendo's game character "Donkey Kong" is too similar to "King Kong" in Universal's film, which will make players mistakenly think that it is its own game and play it. Even the plot of the protagonist jump man (not yet called Mario) in the game to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend is similar to the "King Kong" he filmed.
But in the end, Nintendo won the case because it discovered a fatal loophole in Universal's proof: Universal, which claims to own the copyright of King Kong, actually only has the right to remake the movie. And it is even Universal who dug this hole. As early as a few years ago, in order to obtain the remake rights of the classic IP "King Kong" movie that has been around for more than 40 years, Universal applied through the court to make "King Kong" available to everyone. "Public resource".
Since King Kong is available to everyone, and so is the big pineapple, Blizzard should really be deflated this time - unless they can hire Disney's legal department to do foreign assistance.
Regarding copyright madness Disney, the most classic stalk is: if you drift on an uninhabited island and feel helpless, just use a branch to draw a Mickey Mouse on the beach, and the Disney Legal Department will send a plane to pick you up immediately (by the way, you infringement). Looking at the illustrious achievements of Disney, no one should have the courage to touch Disney.
4.
Speaking of the same name and surname, an anecdote happened in the United States some time ago around the name. Josh Swain, an American netizen who was idle at home because of the epidemic, has a name like Li Hua in China. One day, his brain opened up and he pulled all the people with the same name as him that he could find on Facebook. Join a large group: Call on all people named Josh in the United States to start World War I at a designated location on April 24 to determine the ownership of the name Josh. Although
is a whimsical idea, the rules are still very similar. Josh Swain hoped there would be "no real physical violence" at the event, urging everyone to be polite and have police on hand to keep order.
As a result, a group of Josh really gathered together. They met together and used plastic foam sticks to "get together and fight". I can see why the epidemic in the United States cannot be controlled.
And this large-scale performance art ended with a five-year-old Josh standing out, symbolizing him becoming the owner of the name.
Or, Blizzard, you can let all the characters named Diablo also try it out?
5.
I am not an expert in the legal field. Even if you search for relevant information on your own, you may only be able to draw a half-understood conclusion about those intricate copyright disputes. But at the end, I want to tell another story about names.
Yuri Geller is an Israeli magician. In the 1980s, he disclosed many times on Japanese variety shows that he used "psychic power" to twist the magic of spoons, and he became a household name in Japan. Much like Blizzard sued a dog, in 2000, he sued a "Pokémon".
Yuri Geller stated that Nintendo borrowed its own image and name to design the Pokémon of Yongjira without his consent, and used it on the Pokémon cards. Violated his rights and demanded 10.1 billion yen in compensation. Yongjira in Pokémon is a super-power monster. The image of Yongjila holding a spoon is very similar to the magic that he is good at. Even Yongjila's Japanese name, Yungera, is only one name from Yuri Geller's Japanese name. difference of words.
Indeed, in the first few Pokémon games, due to the incomplete world view, it was common to refer to real images when creating Pokémon. If it's just a similar image, Yuri may not be held accountable. Judging from the image shown in the animation and card games, Yongjira is an out-and-out evil Pokémon, and he denounced Nintendo for "stealing his own identity and cast it as an evil image."
It has been eight years since the first trial, and in 2008, the case was still unresolved. Nintendo admitted that Yuri's image was referenced at the beginning of the design, but it was only borrowed and not stolen. It also said that Yongjira's character name was only used in Japan, and questioned that overseas courts in the United States had no right to hear cases in Japan. case. Of course, they were already half a step back, and this Pokémon never appeared in future animations and cards.
Until 2020, there is still no agreement in the case. Yongjira is still available in the latest game, Pokémon Sword and Shield. In this unsolved case, it is rumored that Nintendo did not lose the case because of this: In the face of Yuri Geller, who claimed that Yongjila copied his superpower, Nintendo said that Yongjila will use superpowers in the game, and you The profession of magician is not a superpower, and it is not plagiarism. If you insist on copyright infringement, please show your super powers live. Eventually Yuri Geller was left speechless.
Yet such an unresolved case spanning 20 years comes to an end after a tweet from Yuri wishing for a reconciliation with Yongjira: Sorry to all Pokémon fans. Decided to withdraw the lawsuit against Nintendo for infringing his reputation, hoping that Nintendo will let Yongjira return to the world of Pokémon.
Yuri Geller said that he has received a lot of letters from children over the years and this is a card that is very important to them., Maybe he also realized that the long-term torn with Nintendo is just a lose-lose situation in the end. Isn't his original intention of wanting to work as a magician to bring happiness to people with his performance? What I am doing now has deprived many children of their happiness, and it seems that it also runs counter to my original intention.
So after 20 years, suddenly and not suddenly Yuri and Yongjira reconciled.
In our student days, we have all heard these homophonic stalks more or less, such as the registered trademark of laxatives "Xie Stop Seal", and the registration of adult products "slippery". When we use homophony as a low-level joke, we also ignore that these ways of abusing celebrity names do violate other people's rights.
If the copyright is abused, maliciously touching porcelain becomes the norm, which not only steals the fruits of other people's efforts, but also slanders the reputation of others.
But the big pineapple and the big pineapple may not be the same.
I don't know what the final result of the Big Pineapple case will be, but whether it's the neurotic dog Diablo in the animation or the devastating Diablo in the game, they are all bringing happiness to people in their own way. I prefer to believe it's just some wonderful coincidence.
I hope that one day the two big pineapples can reconcile with each other.
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