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doppelgreener
doppelgreener
12:34 AM
I learned recently that Grimlock doesn't use the word "transform", and in fact cannot -- Hasbro policy is that nobody can ever refer to what Transformers do as "transforming". This is because if they did, Transformers would become a descriptive trademark, and descriptive trademarks do not have legal protection and are essentially not considered trademarks at all.
 
murgatroid99
murgatroid99
From what I can find, it's not really that simple
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
No?
 
murgatroid99
murgatroid99
Basically, it matters that consumers would identify "Transformers toys" as referring to the specific Transformers toys that Hasbro makes
I'm reading about descriptive marks, not Hasbro policy
One example in an article I found is that "Windows" could be considered a descriptive term for a windowing system, but people identify the term as referring to Microsoft Windows
 
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
12:51 AM
right, also the threat of genericisation
List of generic and genericized trademarks
The following three lists of generic and genericized trademarks are: marks which were originally legally protected trademarks, but have been genericized and have lost their legal status due to becoming generic terms, marks which have been abandoned and are now generic terms marks which are still legally protected as trademarks, at least in some jurisdictions == List of former trademarks that have been genericized == The following partial list contains marks which were originally legally protected trademarks, but which have subsequently lost legal protection as trademarks by becoming the common...
(the threat google would face if googling wasn't synonymous with using the product google)
e.g. if we came to just refer to every toy that changed shape as a transformer, transformers would become genericised
 
murgatroid99
murgatroid99
Yeah, I can see genericization being a bigger threat there
@doppelgreener And that's why at work we're told not to say that, and to use product names, like "Google Search"
 
 
19 hours later…
Malco
Malco
7:49 PM
bit late, but WotC recently shared some new Jace themed cards they will be printing
Signature Spellbooks, Jace: https://magic.wizards.com/en/articles/archive/news/signature-spellbook-jace-packaging-and-contents-2018-03-20
very pretty
 
 
1 hour later…
doppelgreener
doppelgreener
8:54 PM
> Signature Spellbook: Jace is a collection of eight cards plus one random premium foil version of one of those eight cards for the serious blue mage. Each card has Jace-flavored art and special frames just for this set. Check out the packaging and the eight cards below!
 

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