SLUniverse Forums

Malachi

You're not the first to speculate on this, except I don't see an IPO so much as some stock restructuring; I've seen small firms do this when they have a significant equity debt to initial investors that they have dim prospects for repaying. Using some accounting legerdemain that is not unlike turning all Ginko shares into WSE shares, a firm can give some sort of augmented capital loss to to their investors. Having any increases to the valuation of the company helps this scheme in the same way it does an IPO, so you get your lawyers to write a letter claiming whatever intellectual property they can imagine and you boost the valuation some amount. The beauty of it is they don't actually have to enforce the IP claims because by the time the conversion is complete, it isn't Linden Lab any longer but Linden Lab, a subsidiary of Linden Development, Inc. That said, I really don't understand how that trick works, but I think it robs some Peter to pay some Paul.

No investment firm is going to back an IPO of a firm whose prospects are dim; it is embarrassing and costly to the firm. Unless LL is hiding some outrageously good numbers behind their backs, Phillip has stepped aside so they can install one of these stock magicians in his place.

But yes, the investors are antsy and get a little miffed when they have almost nothing to show for their investment 5+ years later.

Ingrid N.

I haven't seen it posted in this thread yet, but here's Linden Lab's (trademark of Linden Research, Inc.) list of how you're allowed to use SL (trademark of Linden Research, Inc.) from now on.

Second Life | The Second Life® Brand Center
It seems you are missing one (1) generic noun.

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Cristiano

Yeah I read it - it seems completely arbitrary, and impacts sites that have been in existence for years and fully in compliance of naming rules, which have now suddenly changed.

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Daisy Rimbaud

In which case, can one not argue that, as a trademark, "SL" is already too diluted to be enforceable like this?

WarKirby Magojiro

Maybe they'll make you rename this Virtual World Universe or something like that...

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Cristiano

I cannot get over how bad the inSL logo is - do they have their legal team also doing their graphic design? It is incredibly amatuerish. I don't think they need to worry about protecting it, I certainly wouldn't want that to appear on anything. At least the hand logo is unique.

Cristiano

If necessary, it will be renamed vluniverse.com - for virtual life, as an alternative. However, I am not doing anything except contacting an attorney and also LL for clarification, since this site has been in existence since 2003 and has always followed the naming guidelines. Changing them this far after the fact is ridiculous, and again, there is the glaring example of secondlifeherald.com to prove they have not enforced their brand. Sites like slexchange.com, slprofiles.com, slbuzz.com, are all established sites - they cannot just expect sites to suddenly change name on their whim when they gave the green light on the names already.

Lucifer Baphomet

As far as I'm aware..

their policy previous to now allowed for websites with names such as SLIniverse, SecondLifer, etc, etc, etc.
They'd have a hard job dealing with anyone who name a site before today, as they'd already set a precedent.
Possibly, they'd even have a problem, if someone did one tomorrow, on the basis that these other sites exist anyway.

I'm not a lawyer, by any means, but I'm sure I remember similar cases where people have tried to enforce use of brand names as copyrighted trade marks retroactively and fail gloriously.


In related news today, Apple sent several cease and desist letters to several greencrocers stores.

Cristiano

Actually secondlifer would not have been an acceptable name under their previous guidelines either, I don't think. You have never been allowed to use Second Life as part of a domain name. They never enforced it, however. secondlife.reuters.com also comes to mind. That is why I was careful never to use secondlife in choosing names.I was told on more than one occasion that they could not include the words second life.

Here are the old guidelines:

Aodhan McDunnough

Technically "secondlife" there would be a subdomain already. Now whether it's regarded as domain name or merely a subdomain, Linden Lab always has the right to allow its use in such manner. With Reuters it might be the case that they have permission.

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Cristiano

I know on the Reuters one it is - and I am sure they must have LL's permission. It is just something that came to mind.

Lucifer showed me this site:

http://www.secondlifeenglish.com

It would be a PR nightmare for them to go after that one.

Cindy Claveau

I don't understand LL at all (oooh can I say "LL" without getting in trouble?).

It sounds to me like "SLU" is ok but "SLUniverse" is not.

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Cristiano

Furthermore, not only does the Second Life Herald use the trademarked name in their domain name and site name, they also have the hand logo as part of the design of their own masthead logo.



Their "disclaimer" also contains no trademark notice for Second Life or Linden Lab - it just disassociates the SLH from LL and Electronic Arts.

Aodhan McDunnough

I'm thinking LL will not really be running after people, especially the more respectable.

They will reserve their teeth IMO for those that are besmirching the SL name.

Regardless, "Second Life Herald" is problematic no matter how I look at it.

Cindy Claveau

What investors? He left when Anshe didn't accept his penis offering.

Lucifer Baphomet

One of the deepest ironies in this, is The Lab's constant push for the community to do stuff....
As an example, when off opic, and general were closed, they encouraged the establishment of, and migration to third party sites.

Fucking insane.

Cindy Claveau

Perhaps that's the secret agenda, then. It'd be high theatre to watch the Lab file trademark infringement against Urizenus.

SLH did put this on their front page:

Hiro Queso

With new grids on the horizon, maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing to change to a more generic name anyway?

FlipperPA Peregrine

I didn't get to see it. That's what I get for going to sleep!

You know what is crazy? The correct URL formation for SL location URLs is:

secondlife://SimName/X/Y/Z

Also, see:

site:blog.secondlife.com "Second Lives" - Google Search

They should really make sure they're in compliance with their own policies.

Regards,

-Flip

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Cindy Claveau

That wooshing noise you heard was Ten's joke going right over Flip's head.

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