Dewey is a registered trademark

[Paladin]

"Dewey" is a registered trademark of this organization:

https://www.oclc.org/en/dewey.html

"All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification system are owned by OCLC, Inc. Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC, Inc."

They HAVE sued to protect their trademark before:

https://news.slashdot.org/story/03/09/21/143231/hotel-being-sued-for-using-the-dewey-decimal-system


Maybe Steam is covered by this statement at the bottom of the page. I hope so, but I'm not an attorney and am not offering legal advice:

"All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries."

[Brian9824]

Paladin a écrit :

"Dewey" is a registered trademark of this organization:

https://www.oclc.org/en/dewey.html

"All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification system are owned by OCLC, Inc. Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC, Inc."

They HAVE sued to protect their trademark before:

https://news.slashdot.org/story/03/09/21/143231/hotel-being-sued-for-using-the-dewey-decimal-system


Maybe Steam is covered by this statement at the bottom of the page. I hope so, but I'm not an attorney and am not offering legal advice:

"All trademarks are property of their respective owners in the US and other countries."

Might want to brush up on how trademarks work....

They have trademarked the system, not the word dewey. There are hundreds of businesses that use the word dewey in it.

I mean otherwise I guess they would have sued Disney over Donald Duck's nephews then......

[J4MESOX4D]

Paladin a écrit :

''All copyright rights in the Dewey Decimal Classification system are owned by OCLC, Inc. Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC, Inc."

Read this again and this time, try and understand it.

[Insomnia]

Can't copyright a name in a certain sense. You can copyright character likeness and similar names though if it's done to trick people. For example if I make a yellow 10 year old cartoon character called hart timpson who says eat my boots then that's treading on trademark infringement. That's my knowledge of it anyway but I'm not a lawyer.

[Mad Scientist]

The robot has a name, the name can't be trademarked, names are names.

Now - if someone went to invent a way to categorize or do logistics involving books and named it the dewey sorting system; then they'd have issues.

Don't try to start something here, and stop trying to be an armchair lawyer every time you have an issue with a person or company.

[Paladin]

Yep, I'll read up on it.

http://tsdr.uspto.gov/#caseNumber=74389248&caseType=SERIAL_NO&searchType=statusSearch

Like I said, I'm not an attorney. Just seeing Dewey as a name of a computer librarian, talking about organizing your (game) library just caught my eye and reminded me of their lawsuit.

They certainly appear to claim the word:

"Dewey, Dewey Decimal Classification, OCLC and WebDewey are registered trademarks of OCLC, Inc."

Who knows if they still think the same now as below, it's been almost 20 years.

https://www.ipmall.info/content/oclc-dewey-decimal-classification-lawsuit-pleadings

A statement posted on OCLC's website explains that the law "imposes affirmative obligations on trademark owners to protect their trademarks, or risk losing all rights in those marks through legal abandonment. We felt that abandoning our rights in the Dewey trademarks was an unacceptable result for the OCLC membership."

[J4MESOX4D]

A name is a name. Unless it's a blatant violation i.e Valve called the mascot Mr Apple iPhone, then it's not a direct infringement.

If you believe a grave violation of copyright law has been committed; go be a busybody and grass Valve up.

[Mad Scientist]

Gross over-reach that would get you laughed out of court.

Steam Library updates and in general are non comparable to that system, this is for software on a GUI for video games.

You cannot trademark a name. Even a celebrity tried to trademark their babies name so no one could use it, was denied. That's really the end of any attempt at this.