Naim copyright

I'm sure Wernham Hogg's legal department will beat them to it.

Given that the word Naim has appeared on coffee mugs, bags and numerous other things I would think that it would be difficult to claim copyright, or loss of reputation, it might be much more productive to enjoy the added publicity especially if the shirt is used in a wet tee shirt competition.

Companies who are seen to harass smaller companies tend to get a raw deal in the press - cf KFC versus the pub in Yorkshire over the Family Feast. KFC was rubbished in the press and they withdrew their objection to the the pub using the term.

Apart from that I believe there is an author with that name as well as a town both of which could claim that the shirt was a marketing aid for them.

Interesting (possibly).

A while ago I had words with someone who felt, because he had made the enormous effort of scanning our manuals, he was now entitled to claim copyright over them.

I shall pass this on for consideration. It is probably less copyright - more some design aspect - in the specific use of a typeface to represent the word.

Yes, it can be pointless when a BIG (Naim?) company is seen to come down on a small one but copyright and other rights often have to be defended – against the possibility of a later BIG infringement.

If is an unauthorised copy of a registered logo they might have a case.

If you look at the website/shop of the tee shirt vendor - there are lots of other trademarks being used. If the vendor is new it may be just as effective to let one of the other names fire the warning shot if it is deemed necessary. If the other names have not bothered that also might be a hidden message

Be aware I have no IP knowledge - only giving my thoughts - which as you did not pay for them - you now know their value.

And of course vendors can be quite awkward when pushed into a corner. At that point, one has to decide whether it is worth pursueing or not (almost certainly not). But a stiff letter costs little.

There is a vendor who sells various "high-end" products "with Naim mains cable" in the title. I have had a running battle with him because I believe he only puts "with Naim mains cable" in order to get into the searches done for Naim equipment. And that would be a violation of Ebay listing policy, apparantly. He agreed to go into more detail about the naimness of the supplied mains cables in future adverts, but has failed to do so. Can I be arsed to complain to Ebay? Not at the moment, too busy :-(

Free advertising and name awareness. I thought Naim would be quietly pleased.
Think about it - Naim advertise in the mags and submit equipment for reviews and probably encourage people to talk about the brand. There is no restriction on talking about Naim either vocally or in print, in fact it is good for the company. Why is this just not an extention of that? If Naim were making money from selling their own branded shirts, then fair enough, but that isn't the case is it - not significantly.
Naim will probably be seen to tut-tut, but quietly be flattered.
Anyway...who the hell is going to buy one anyway? It's very nerdy, isn't it!

quote:

Anyway...who the hell is going to buy one anyway?

Think of another way to convey your "NAIMINESS" at shows and such like?

Odd, it advertises Linn as well but its the only one not to be shown

All IMHO

The T Shirt definately uses a copy of the original naim logo artwork - this may have been taken from the large version (reversed from white letters on black) that was on earlier product manuals. This unique version was originally based on the font Avant Garde and was created specifically for Naim (ie hand drawn on a computer) and therefore has some font differences to create the logo, so it is not just 'a word in a typeface'.

The fact is that is not Naim produced therefore someone else is trying to make money out of it/them with no real legal right to - whether they want to persue it is up to them !

Regards
Geoff

There are a few different angles. Firstly trade marks. The naim registration appears here:

http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tm/t-find/t-find-number?detailsre...C&trademark=E4638722

This indicates the classes of goods that are registered. Now I don't know which class would cover clothing, but maybe class 24 or 25 (textiles and sportswear). Anyhow, whatever it is, Naim don't appear to have a registration in this. So, I don't believe that the trade mark registration will help directly.

It is possible though that you can get rights 'by extension' which is basically saying punters know the name, and so would expect, if seeing it on a t-shirt that it was made by the Naim company. In effect, someone is trading off your reputation (would anyone buy a t-shirt with naim written on the front if you didn't exist), and also your reputation could be damaged by the activity (would someone buy a naim amp if their t-shirt fell apart because it was badly made/flammable etc).

The other angle already suggested is to consider whether naim is a registered design, and consider this a copyright work which is being reproduced without permission. I don't know if this is, or whether Naim would have the rights even if it was (quite often companies get outside agents to produce designs for them and then forget to get the rights assigned, and actually don't end up owning their own logo!).

Personally i'm in the 'all advertising is good advertising' school of thought, so I wouldn't expect this to be worth persuing. It would be worth mentioning it to your IP lawyers though since they may have a different opinion.

BTW, i'm not an IP lawyer, but my wife is. The above it second hand knowledge from stuff she talks about so should be taken with a healthy pinch of salt.

Cesare

P.S. It's good to see that you have many good listed on your community mark. I'm waiting for the Naim Television!

I would rather spend the same amount of money on ebay buying CDs or vinyl. Then listen to them on my Naim system, rather than walking around in a tacky rip off T shirt, promoting something that would be meaningless to most people,other than to those with an interest in hi fi.

My other car is a 552911

Your T-shirt says a lot about you: