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I haven't been reading it either - could someone please give a summary of what's happening? (or is it possible to get an archive of it?) Thanks, //Shell12:01, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
In order to minimize the likelihood of a trademark infringement suit, should we change the background color of the tiles to match that of Mahjong tiles, i.e. either white or the color in Image:MJf1.png (shown as a thumbnail here)? Has this already been discussed somewhere? Rodasmith22:02, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
Um, in order to reduce the likelihood of what trademark infringement suit? Whose trademark might we be infringing? BD2412T23:06, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
As noted on Wiktionary/logo, the proposed logo is specifically a blend between Scrabble tiles and Majhong tiles. Mailing list conversations like this one mentioned that there was the possibility of Hasbro/Parker Brothers trademark infringement for the similarity to Scrabble tiles. Fear of such infringement has been one of the obstacles to adoption of the new logo. Rodasmith23:31, 10 October 2007 (UTC)
Hmmm. Completely unrelated goods and services, and there are lots of games that use tiles of that shape and even shade. But Scrabble would quite possibly fall under the famous marks doctrine, and its trade dress may get additional protection therefore, so I agree that a little tint would help avoid any possibility of confusion. Cheers! BD2412T02:09, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
I thought that one of the issues during the selection process was that a number of the options used the WMF colors and would have needed to be changed to other colors so as not to be confused with WMF itself.. --Versageek04:24, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
Surely that's nonsense! Different font, different colour, no score number. I can't believe that Hasbro/PB hold any kind of copyright on tiles! I see no point in transferring to Mahjong tiles - that is just confusing. Why are Mahjong tiles relevant to Wiktionary, I ask you? --HappyDog14:45, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
If Mahjong tiles are irrelevant to Wiktionary, that makes an even stronger case for Hasbro/PB. I'm inclined to give more weight to BD2412's opinions on such matters, as he is an attorney for intellectual property cases. Concern about possible trademark infringement is a specific barrier to adoption. To eliminate that obstacle to adoption, we merely need to change the background color. Rodasmith16:38, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
As an attorney, I like to speak in the "abundance of caution" language. I frankly think it is unlikely that Hasbro would raise a claim, or that they would succeed if they did, but "unlikely" does not mean "impossible". A relatively minor adjustment to our color scheme (which costs us nothing to implement) would move it much farther towards the realm of impossibility. Cheers! BD2412T16:42, 11 October 2007 (UTC)
You know, we're looking at this from completely the wrong angle. I'd bet if we ask permission, Hasbro would be delighted to let us promote their game by using a picture of the pieces in our imagery. BD2412T19:33, 14 November 2007 (UTC)