11 ms·
Okay this is why we have registered trademarks. You're telling me that Adblock, Adblock Plus, and AdBlock are three separate things? What the hell? I just assum
by mfoy_ 11y ago
Okay this is why we have registered trademarks. You're telling me that Adblock, Adblock Plus, and AdBlock are three separate things? What the hell? I just assumed they were all the same thing until now.
- huntermeyer 11y agoI had not idea either until now. Always learning something new on HN.
- Mahn 11y agoI kind of figured that Adblock Pro was a fork, but this is ridiculous.
- MichaelApproved 11y agoI kept rereading OP's comment and looking for the difference between Adblock and AdBlock. It wasn't until your comment that I noticed the capital B in Block. Trademarks FTW. Great example of confusion in the marketplace.
- 0942v8653 11y agoI read through nearly the entire thread thinking that the Adblock mentioned had a capital B.
- mthoms 11y agoComing soon: uAdblock Origin Plus+.
- alex_doom 11y agoUpgrade to PRO Version for $29.99 a year.
- Intermernet 11y agoIs that the one without ads?
- saurik 11y agoYou do not need to have a trademark registered to have trademark rights: you only need to be able to show that people associate the name with your brand.
- cpeterso 11y agoDon't forget about Adblock Edge, AdBlock Lite, μ Adblock, and Ad Blockerr: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=adblock https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?q=adblock
- smacktoward 11y agoCripes, this is starting to sound like the old phone books. Coming soon: AAAAAAA+ AdBlock?
- njharman 11y agoTM are not automatic (unlike copyright at least in USA since 1978 Copyright Act) and they are fairly expensive and require vigilance (more $$$) to keep valid.
- caskance 11y agoAdblock would not be a trademarkable name anyway. It's a generic term that describes what the product is.
- runako 11y agoDon't tell Microsoft! (Windows, Word, Surface, etc.) Or Apple! (Pages, Numbers, etc.)
- caskance 11y agoYou might have a point if those products had been called "Operating System", "Text Editor" and "Portable Computer With Touchscreen and Keyboard".
- runako 11y agoOn a technicality (which is what trademark attorneys deal in), your point falls to the same fallacy. The product Adblock is an "Advertisement blocking engine" or the like. "Adblock" is a made-up word and therefore likely eligible for trademark. (Or it was before the namespace got polluted with all the variants.)
- Dylan16807 11y ago"made up word" is overly generous. It's the word "ad" followed by the word "block". "ad block" is a valid description of what it does, equivalent to "advertisement blocking". You only put the word "engine" in there to fake there being a difference. Microsoft wouldn't be able to get a trademark on "Operatingsystem".
- kazinator 11y ago"Microsoft Word" is the trademark, not "Word". Or is it? If Microsoft has trademarked just "Word", it is very strange that they don't enforce it against these folks: http://www.abiword.org/ http://www.abiword.org/ especially in the light of how, some years ago, their lawyers swooped down like hawks on a Canadian named Mike Rowe who put up a "Mike Rowe Soft" consulting business and web site.