Lucas Suing "Jedi Mind" Wireless Headset Maker

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I’m not sure why anyone would think it would be a good idea to use “Jedi” in the name of their product without getting permission first but this is what happens when you do just that.

Note to all potential clone armies: LucasFilm holds trademarks on Jedi Knight, Jedi Power Battles and Jedi Training Academy, but not directly on Jedi Mind and other affiliated marks. Nevertheless, it claims dominion over "all characteristics associated with the Jedi knights not memorialized in a registered trademark ... (including) Jedi robes, the lightsaber weapon, the power to levitate objects, a telepathic oneness with other Jedi and the universe, and the ability to shoot energy beams called 'Force Lightning' from the fingertips."
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I think they should have stuck with maybe Telepathic Minds or something less nerdy to cater to all customers, not just Cheetos eating, Mt Dew drinking Star Wars nerds.

Disclaimer: not that there's anything wrong with being a Cheetos eating, Mt Dew drinking Star Wars nerd.
 
If Lucas is claiming that he has dominion over anyone using some form of psychic power to levitate objects or to have a glowing energy sword, then he's delusional. There's way older prior art for both of those (i.e., 1920s-1930s pulp science fiction) at the very least. Indeed, Lucas took his inspiration from exactly those types of sources; as such, the argument could be made that this would taint the entire "Jedi" repertoire; all that Lucas would have would be the specific word "Jedi".

Even Force Lightning isn't original; Gandalf the Grey, for example, could shoot such lightening, and did against the Balrog in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
 
Normally I roll my eyes when Lucas tries suing somebody like this but in this case he's right.

This isn't over something that resembles the Death Star, this is using a word invented and made world famous by Star Wars.

It would be different if the word had already existed. Kinda like how Monster Cable tried suing Disney over the movie title Monsters Inc. That was ridiculous.

You couldn't come out with a "Skywalker" or "Darth Vader" line of products without permission.
 
Yeah I agree, Lucas has the right to sue over "jedi", "Force Lightning", "The FORCE", and probably "Light Saber" but levitate with the mind.... get real.
 
Well I have to side with Lucas on this one... 'Jedi™' is his creation, and anything using that term his under his trademark.

Just like he owns 'Droid™', and if you look closely to any Droid phone product's fine print, there is a statement to the fact that 'Droid™' is a Lucasfilm™ trademark and licensed from Lucasfilm™. So Lucas actually is getting a piece of the pie from 'Droid™' phone sales from Motorola™.

If Jedi Mind Inc. had licensed the term 'Jedi™' from Lucas, they probably would have saved a lot of money vs. going to court, and risking their business being BLASTED like Alderaan™ by the Death Star™ . And to think they could really get away with that is some serious stupidity or ignorance.

It's no different than when Jello™ went after the band Green Jello, who ended up having to change their name to Green Jelly™.
 
He own's "droid™" like that? That one is a bit far. That would be something like taking a railgun and using "railer" as a specific railgun model in my movie. Could I trademark "railer"?
 
I don't dispute that Lucas has the right and legal foreground on this one.

But I'd like to make the point that George Lucas is well beyond rich enough.

Doesn't it seem elitist to sue some small-time person for trying to make a little money off of a single name used in a Lucas Film? What would Lucas lose?

To me it seems like the rich crushing the poor.
 
Jacez44 said:
I don't dispute that Lucas has the right and legal foreground on this one.

But I'd like to make the point that George Lucas is well beyond rich enough.

Doesn't it seem elitist to sue some small-time person for trying to make a little money off of a single name used in a Lucas Film? What would Lucas lose?

To me it seems like the rich crushing the poor.
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He has to protect his copyrights otherwise it will set a precedent that could lose him ownership over them.
 
I bet I could safely guess Lucas has no idea about this legal action. His studio undoubtedly has a team of lawyers keeping their eyes and ears open protecting Lucas's copyrights and trademarks. It's their job.
 
I don't know why half of the people on here have been beating down on Lucas the past couple of weeks. If any of you created a movie, game, book, or product and someone used anything that closely resembled what you created, you would be filing a suit to.
 
Sedriss said:
I don't know why half of the people on here have been beating down on Lucas the past couple of weeks. If any of you created a movie, game, book, or product and someone used anything that closely resembled what you created, you would be filing a suit to.
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The beating he's been getting the past week was concerning his remastering with very shitty additions and refusal to release a remastered original version.
 
George Mucus is so good at suing, he should work for Apple. That said, this doesn’t seem as frivolous as his other C&D letters.
 
Parmenides said:
He own's "droid™" like that? That one is a bit far. That would be something like taking a railgun and using "railer" as a specific railgun model in my movie. Could I trademark "railer"?
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If you don't believe it....

http://www.motorola.com/Consumers/US-EN/Consumer-Product-and-Services/Mobile-Phones/Motorola-DROID-US-EN

Check the bottom of the page...

Google, Google Search, Google Maps, Gmail, Google Latitude, Google Talk, YouTube, Google Quick Search Box, Android, and Android Market are trademarks of Google, Inc.
DROID is a trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its related companies. Used under license.

And then...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_%28robot%29

Lucas Has trademarked Droid™
Meanwhile Google has trademarked Android™ but only where it relates to software.
 
Jedi robes? Seriously? Somewhere in Europe there's a monastery of monks about to get sued. Though that would be a fun battle in courts, it'd be a race... who has more money? Lucas and his empire or the Catholic Church. Though it'd also be amusing to have Lucas look to sue Jesus over copyright infringement for his ever standard Jedi robe look.. or have that lawsuit go the other way and have someone say the robed look predates the films by oh.. 3000 years or so so screw off!

Levitation is also a joke. Seriously, that's some old school Jesus stuff there dude.. walking on water and all that. Wait.. same trend as above.

Telepathic oneness with the universe? Wow.. same as above but add every major religious leader since the dawn of time. Confucious, Dalai Lama, Muhammad (all of which, generally dress like you'd expect Jedi to look), line up to collect your court summons.
 
Majikka said:
you can trademark fake stuff? :confused:
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Depends what you mean by "fake stuff." As far as names go, you can ONLY trademark "fake stuff:" in order to have a trademark over a name, it can't have an everyday, generic usage for that product. You couldn't have a trademark over "Phone" or "Computer." Lucas couldn't get a trademark over "psychic" but he could get one over "Jedi." You could, however, get a trademark over "Phone" so long as it wasn't a phone. You could have "Phone brand bread" or something like that. Once the name goes generic, you are at risk of losing your trademark, which is why you see companies fight over ridiculous stuff (all the Monster cable trademark fights, Tivo, etc.).
 
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