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Comment by belgianguy | Hacker News Reader

While this "smARtDUINO" (lame!) copycat behaviour is indeed appalling, the alternative can be a real hassle, too. Trademarks and copyrights deserve protection, but as YouTube has shown, DCMA abuse can halt projects just as well.

Perhaps they could implement a 'Flag' system, that allows IP owners to signal illegal use/infringement, after which a review (in which both the complainer and the starter should be involved) can decide whether or not the project can proceed. This could easily sail into DCMA hell or lawyer heaven if a big corporation feels threatened, which could file complaint after complaint just to stall the competition.

But where do you draw the line?

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Why is it lame/appalling? I've read the comments on the blog post and apparently the "duino" name isn't trademarked, and therefore they are quite within their right to use a variation of it (however lame it may appear).

Further commentary reveals that the people who have backed this guy are happy that he is the real deal, and that the problem has mostly stemmed from English being his second language, leading to a mis-communication over quite what part they had in manufacturing arduinos in Italy.

No. A goods/services provider has "common" trademark protection in the US even if without a registered mark, so this usage is not "within their right."

http://tcattorney.typepad.com/ip/2008/06/what-are-common.htm...

Relevant, from Arduino's FAQ: "Note that while we don't attempt to restrict uses of the "duino" suffix, its use causes the Italians on the team to cringe (apparently it sounds terrible); you might want to avoid it."

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/FAQ

Except that the main trademark is probably held in Italy (since that's where the project was started), the project owner is in China, and Kickstarter is in the US.

Are you suggesting there is a simple resolution to this set of law conflicts, and the answer is "it's not okay"?

What if smARtDUINO was rendered with the lowercase letters in a much smaller font? It looks like they are intentionally trying to use the ARDUINO name to sell their products. They are causing confusion and that is a violation of trademark law.

Under what countries's laws do you evaluate the claims?

Note besides the issue that there may be many countries involved, the company may also own different trademark rights in different countries.

Trademark law is only mildly harmonious and different countries definitely have very different fair use.

Who decides?

What are the rules for this decision?

etc

The problem is you are basically suggesting they set up an alternative judicial system. Outside of doing it with alternative dispute resolution methods (IE arbitration, mediation, etc), this is a really bad idea. ;)

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