Honda Takes Down “Infringing” Jet From FlightGear

[silicon_toad2000]

http://torrentfreak.com/honda-takes-copyright-infringing-jet-flightgear-140603/

First released in 1997, FlightGear is one of the oldest flight simulators still available today.

The open source software is available on all popular operating systems and is used by millions of people, as well as professional organizations such as NASA.

Last week the FlightGear team was taken by surprise after receiving a takedown request from Honda, one of the aircraft manufacturers. In a letter the company asked FlightGear to remove the Honda Jet from the game, as it was infringing on their trademarks.

TorrentFreak spoke with FlightGear project manager Curtis Olson, who explained that in their long history the have never received a similar request.

“As far as I can recall, this is the first request of this type that FlightGear has had to address,” Olson says.

FlightGear has always been cautious to stay on the right side of the law and pays close attention to the licensing terms of source code and data. Until the letter came in, the team believed that the Honda Jet model could be used without problems.

“I am not a lawyer and not an expert in trademark law. FlightGear is simply trying to create an accurate simulation of the real world. If something exists in the real world, it seems fair game to create a simple representation of it in our simulator,” Olson says.

“FlightGear puts quite a bit of effort into always trying to do the right thing, so this situation did catch us off guard,” he adds.

In their letter Honda’s lawyers point out that FlightGear is infringing on the company’s trademarks. They note that the jet’s form and appearance is protected by trademark laws, and the same is true for the logos and names that are used.

[GhostShip]

This is an overreach in respect of the trademark, a trade mark can be a shape a range of colours in a specific pattern or any other such thing however they must actually be using the trademark and in any dispute a court will look at what honda is using and what the flightgear folks have crated and then secondly look at what potential damage may have been caused to honda in respect of competitive activity as in both cases the answer is going to be no damage I cant see this being a strong enough case to attempt to bring to court,

[GhostShip]

Is it me or does this guy look like he is practicing for gangnam style   

http://world.honda.com/profile/message/index.html


I checked on the hondajet site and there is not any visible trademark that looks like a plane so such a claim is likely to fall to even a junior lawyer as its impossible to claim damages for something that's not in use and thus cant possibly have caused any loss or damage to the company.

[silicon_toad2000]

I like honda on the whole, their legal department needs a kick in the groin though

its a dumbass move, free advertising and all that.