[Kde-games-devel] RFC: Rename KBattleShip and KTron

[Parker Coates]

On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 15:09, Luciano Montanaro wrote:
> On sabato 23 gennaio 2010, Ryan Rix wrote:
>> On Sat 23 January 2010 4:10:25 am Mauricio Piacentini wrote:
>> > Should we preemptively rename Plasma as well?
>>
>> The problem is that Hasbro holds copyright to the name Battleship with
>>  regards to "computer game programs and accessories for use therewith"[1].
>>  Which I would think is a -lot- more close of a risk than simply sharing a
>>  name with another software in a different field.
>
> Can they really do that? I've played "Battaglia navale" since forever...
> Can a simple computer transposition of a paper and pencil game be granted a
> trademark, for a name so common?

I've done a bit of informal research, so I thought I'd share what I've
found in order to clear up a few things. Any or all of the following
may be incorrect: I am not a lawyer.

Trademarks are merely about identifying a brand. The have nothing to
do with the actual product whose name is being tradmarked. The actual
content (game rules, in this case) my be covered by a patent or by
copyright, but that's not what we're discussing here.

Trademarks apply only in particular contexts. For example Hasbro has
separate Battleship trademarks for the boardgames, for card games and
for the computer games. If you wanted to name your sandwich shop
"Battleship Sandwiches", you'd probably be in the clear as long as you
didn't use any of their imagery or slogans.

In this particular case, there would be no chance of someone
successfully claiming ownership of the general concept of a
boats-on-a-grid game, because as has been pointed out numerous times,
the general concept predates any particular commercial offering as a
simple pen and paper game.

Commercial versions of similar games have been available since 1890,
but Milton's Bradley's 1967 board game was the first to use the name
"Battleship". This particular version caught on (at least in North
America) and became the de facto boats-on-a-grid game. As a result,
the name spread to informal pen and paper variants which had existed
under other names for a very long time.

Trademarks generally don't translate automatically, so "Battaglia
navale" may very well be trademark free. This would have to be checked
on a language by language basis.

Parker