Mojang AB recently received a "cease-and-desist" letter for copyright infringement - using the trademarked name "Putt Putt"! Unfortunately, the claim assumes that Mojang is - by way of Minecraft - authorizing the use of their name and likeness, when this is simply not the case.
Often, the legal department of a company will automatically send cease-and-desist letters to anything their searches turn up that might match their criteria, without reviewing the material in detail. This can seem like a senseless action to anyone who's not been a part of a major corporation's legal team; however, they often have oceans of these kinds of claims to sort through, and it's often simpler to send out blanket requests, with the expectation that legitimate claims will be responded to. For the rest of us, it can result in hilarious misfires, like this one.
Pictured: Not Mojang
Mojang is, of course, not making any use of the amusement center franchise's trademarks.
What sort of golf mods or maps have you come across that are awesome? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!
The titles mention map or mini game.
Two words: cash grab.
Companies do this because they want their targets to pay them money to avoid expensive litigation. It can be cheaper to pay off the company doing it, even if you're 100% in the right, than to fight it in court and prove you're right. If it costs you $100,000 to prove that you're right, then you're out $100,000; if they would have settled for anything less than that, you lose. In the US, at least, publicly-held companies (basically, any that issue stock) are legally required to do whatever will increase their stock price, and spending money on defense in a court case they could just buy their way out of counts. So, they have no choice but to pay off the company threatening them, even if they're totally and completely blameless.
Nope. That would be work. Y'know, like patent trolls actually having to make products instead of threatening to sue companies that they claim are making products that the patents they've bought could in some way be used to attack. Corporate extortion is much easier and more convenient for the company doing it. Instead of building a better mousetrap, extort money from everyone who sells cats.
But a fair number of them will pay up anyway, because it's cheaper to pay the danegeld than to fight the Dane. They just haven't read enough Rudyard Kipling.
"For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
And the nation that plays it is lost."
Try to sue me now!
1. The fourm may be sued over and over now.
2. Does Putt-Putt think this was a good idea now?
That's what's so funny.
That's the only true way to resolve lawsuits.