April 9, 2008 by Ciaran Laval
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JISC is the Joint Information Systems Committee, based in the UK to help the use of ICT in education and research. They fund a series of mailing lists to benefit learning, teaching and research.
I'm on a few of these mailing lists as I work in the education sector, one of the mailing lists I'm on is the Second Life mailing list.
However today the issue that has been raised is regarding renaming the Second Life mailing list due to Linden Lab's trademark policy. The proposal now is to rename the mailing list to "Virtual Worlds" to avoid any problems with the trademark policy and also to open the mailing list up to the discussion of other virtual worlds. Some people are piping up that this is a good idea with OpenSim based grids popping up and others are saying that they're not sure what LL's game is with the trademark policy.
However it seems likely therefore that a mailing list dedicated to the promotion, discussion and use of Second Life for educational purposes, will now also promote, discuss and use alternatives. Whereas this was likely to happen anyway with other virtual worlds popping up, it has certainly been accelerated by Linden Lab's failure to be clear on the trademark policy.
So a move that was designed to protect their brand (which they have every right to do)looks likely to reduce one stream of promotion of their product.
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Indeed, the sword cuts both ways.
Unfortunately, it was the Law that they have to protect their rights which is eroding their branding. Kind of funny how that works. ;-)
Second Life Consultant
Interesting thoughts Ciaran.
Interesting thoughts Ciaran. I think you are onto something there. We are beginning a rebrand of SL-Realtor.com and the same issue came up. We decided to go with a name that is not SL affiliated as well due to the potential growth outside of SL. So, here's two entities that are in the same train of thought. Wonder how many more will follow. BTW (shameless plug), I'll be releasing a press release this week on our new name - MetaRealtors.com :)
What goes around...
This is the perfect example of the consequences of treating your customers as a problem, rather than as the foundation of your business.
And, I have to disagree with Nobody - the lawyers' consensus seems to be clear that the branding policy far overreached the necessity of trademark protection, into annoying nonsense.
I'd rather they'd get a clue, but "just desserts" is a strong second.
--
Sophrosyne Stenvaag
Director, Marketing and External Relations
Extropia in Second Life
http://extropiacore.net
Which lawyer consensus?
I wasn't aware that there was a consensus of lawyers. Feel free to disagree with me, but if there is a group of lawyers in consensus anywhere in the world, I'd be concerned.
The world. Aha. Tricky thing, that. Their trademark is global on the Internet, and that falls into a lot of territory that does cause gobbly-gook - oddly enough, partly because the US didn't really participate in the discussions that are related in the Internet and such things at a global level. Sending *only* Microsoft lackies to internet governance forums really shows a lack of interest in the topics, you see.
And that recursion is funny to consider.
So back to the consensus of lawyers... which lawyers? Where's the consensus? Disagree with me if you will, but please prove the consensus. ;-)
Second Life Consultant