Speak Up for SAY: Mattel suing Special Needs Toy Company | Hacker News Reader

Speak Up for SAY: Mattel suing Special Needs Toy Company

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24 pointswallflower9 comments

Based on their own evidence it looks like Mattel is right. Why don't they just change the name?

Whoever wrote this has a clear anti-trademark agenda, so in their mind it is impossible for Mattel to be right.

There is perhaps a difference between being right and doing right. A graduated response to what may well be trademark infringement might be more socially acceptable than using your 3 million dollar lawyers to clobber a company founded to help special needs children.

In some states, you can legally shoot any animal that wanders onto your property. You should almost never do this.

Mattel should perhaps be encouraged to remit the fine, but they are not obligated. The suit itself is justified; I have repeatedly found myself applying the standard that goes something along the line of "You seriously expect me to believe that when you named your toy SORT AND SAY that the See'n'Say never once crossed your mind? You seriously expect me to believe you weren't trying to ride the coattails?"

Remember there's an element of deception in trademark infringements, too; this company is in some sense representing itself as Mattel, or Mattel-sponsored, or in some way connected to Mattel. It may not be a fully literal sense, but it's still a real one. When it gets down to it, that's the very meaning of a trademark infringement, which is a large part of the reason I'm much less sympathetic to trademark infringers than people who have problems with the other forms of IP. (When confusion can not occur, and suit is brought anyhow, that's trademark abuse.) Regardless of how sympathetic the company may come off as being, they are lying to their customers for their own gain. Whether or not it was deliberate isn't much of an issue to me; if it wasn't to start with, the proper response is to graciously concede the point immediately. A graduated response may be called for, but not on the basis that this company is somehow behaving entirely morally purely.

I think it was a graduated response. Here's the timeline as I understand it:

- Super Duper registered for a new trademark.

- Mattel tried to stop it through the Trademark Office, and then tried to cancel a few Super Duper's past trademarks that contained "Say" or "And Say".

- Super Duper sued Mattel.

- Mattel counter-sued, for $10m

- Mattel won, again and again

Sometime during this process, Mattel offered to settle by letting Super Duper remove the words "Say" and "And Say" from certain products.

> a company founded to help special needs children.

Are they not after profits like we assume Mattel to be?

If it was for a product that mattel makes now it might make sense, but this is for a toy made in the early sixties.

There is a whole line of See 'n Say products still produced. e.g. http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-See-Say-Learning-Letters/...

OK, I wrote a lengthy post only to delete my writings. It was a defense against trademarking generic words... but then I did some searching.

Mattel is right here. Their product is a didactic toy SEE'N'SAY registered in 1963-1965. Super Duper's trademark were SORT AND SAY, FISH AND SAY, FOLD AND SAY, and SEE IT! SAY IT!

They both fall into same category - didactic toys. Apart from SEE IT! SAY IT! I can see where dispute is not frivolous.

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