6 ms·

"As you are aware, Zeta is a letter of the Greek Alphabet. The Greek alphabet is currently protected legally by the Affinity Client Services. Due to this owners

"As you are aware, Zeta is a letter of the Greek Alphabet. The Greek alphabet is currently protected legally by the Affinity Client Services. Due to this ownership and the takedowns we have received, we must police our platform for content using 'Zeta.'" This is quite honestly the most ridiculous statement I've read this month.

mewse-hn 5y ago
The greek alphabet has existed since 800 BC, which is when Affinity Client Services invented it. Clearly their trademark has not expired yet
- FredPret 5y ago
  For all we know, the answer to the Homeric question is “Affinity Client Services, LLC”
matt123456789 5y ago
Yeah. Honestly, the email from the legal team reads as if it was written by a human who couldn’t believe it either.
lhorie 5y ago
In next week's episode of Legal Zoo: lawyer creates a bunch of greek t-shirts and then hits t-shirt company with a discrimination lawsuit.
tehwebguy 5y ago
Dealt with the greek licensing nonsense back my in merch days. It’s basically a patent troll, but for trademarks. They provide very little value and own the trademarks that essentially make the entire frat / sorority industry a thing. Beyond the trademark rent seeking they have three quarter million undergrads every year handing over thousands of their parents’ dollars to belong to the club, not including alumni who keep paying after they graduate. It’s probably one of the worst entities for anyone to ever bother fighting in court so my guess is no one ever does.
- throwthere 5y ago
  Frats and sororities seek out Affinity to license their trademarks, it's not like Affinity really owns the Greek alphabet or something nefarious like that. In this case, Spring just misinterpreted the whole thing with their automated system. In your case, were you actually selling merch with other organizations trademarks on them? That kind of seems silly to me that you expected to do that without giving the org any value/money back.
  - NathanKP 5y ago
    Yeah this is what I was thinking as well. Frats and sororities typically have three greek letters to make up their names. So Affinity might be able to trademark a specific combination of three greek letters, but there is no way that a single greek letter on it's own stands as a trademark violation.
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      > Frats and sororities typically have three greek letters to make up their names. (1) Two is also typical. (2) The name of the organization is two or three letters in much the same way that the name of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is just four letters.
      - Scoundreller 5y ago
        > Two is also typical. Things are going to get spicy if we end up with more than 24 covid variants of concern. Unless we start numbering them, which is what we should have done all along.
        thaumasiotes 5y ago
        Greek letters double as numerals up to iota.
        argomo 5y ago
        We already number them... with vectors. Delta is really B.1.617.2. The Greek names are a convenience for talking to a broader lay audience.
mongol 5y ago
"protected"
eloff 5y ago
I've been seeing a lot of statements from anti-vaxxers lately. Sadly this is not even in the top 5 most ridiculous statements I've heard recently. That honor goes to the woman who claimed Covid cannot infect her because she doesn't have the right energy frequency for it. https://youtu.be/4Abq2h5LttU https://youtu.be/4Abq2h5LttU
slibhb 5y ago
Reminds me of the movie Z. The movie is based on the Greek military coup and dictatorship of 1967-1974. In the movie (and maybe in real life) the junta banned the letter "Z" because it was used to signify "he lives" in reference to Grigoris Lambrakis, a leftist politician who was assassinated prior to the coup.
rtkwe 5y ago
I wonder if ACS has sent them notices over single greek letters or if Spring got a lot for multi-letter strings (probably actually referencing fraternities/sororities) and decided to blanket block greek letter stuff to avoid the hassle.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
rdiddly 5y ago
Yeah "Zeta is a letter of the Greek alphabet" actually happens to be the main argument for its NOT being somebody's property.

mewse-hn 5y ago

The greek alphabet has existed since 800 BC, which is when Affinity Client Services invented it. Clearly their trademark has not expired yet

FredPret 5y ago
For all we know, the answer to the Homeric question is “Affinity Client Services, LLC”

matt123456789 5y ago

Yeah. Honestly, the email from the legal team reads as if it was written by a human who couldn’t believe it either.

lhorie 5y ago

In next week's episode of Legal Zoo: lawyer creates a bunch of greek t-shirts and then hits t-shirt company with a discrimination lawsuit.

tehwebguy 5y ago

Dealt with the greek licensing nonsense back my in merch days. It’s basically a patent troll, but for trademarks. They provide very little value and own the trademarks that essentially make the entire frat / sorority industry a thing. Beyond the trademark rent seeking they have three quarter million undergrads every year handing over thousands of their parents’ dollars to belong to the club, not including alumni who keep paying after they graduate. It’s probably one of the worst entities for anyone to ever bother fighting in court so my guess is no one ever does.

throwthere 5y ago
Frats and sororities seek out Affinity to license their trademarks, it's not like Affinity really owns the Greek alphabet or something nefarious like that. In this case, Spring just misinterpreted the whole thing with their automated system. In your case, were you actually selling merch with other organizations trademarks on them? That kind of seems silly to me that you expected to do that without giving the org any value/money back.
- NathanKP 5y ago
  Yeah this is what I was thinking as well. Frats and sororities typically have three greek letters to make up their names. So Affinity might be able to trademark a specific combination of three greek letters, but there is no way that a single greek letter on it's own stands as a trademark violation.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    > Frats and sororities typically have three greek letters to make up their names. (1) Two is also typical. (2) The name of the organization is two or three letters in much the same way that the name of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is just four letters.
    - Scoundreller 5y ago
      > Two is also typical. Things are going to get spicy if we end up with more than 24 covid variants of concern. Unless we start numbering them, which is what we should have done all along.
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        Greek letters double as numerals up to iota.
      - argomo 5y ago
        We already number them... with vectors. Delta is really B.1.617.2. The Greek names are a convenience for talking to a broader lay audience.

mongol 5y ago

"protected"

eloff 5y ago

I've been seeing a lot of statements from anti-vaxxers lately. Sadly this is not even in the top 5 most ridiculous statements I've heard recently. That honor goes to the woman who claimed Covid cannot infect her because she doesn't have the right energy frequency for it. https://youtu.be/4Abq2h5LttU https://youtu.be/4Abq2h5LttU

slibhb 5y ago

Reminds me of the movie Z. The movie is based on the Greek military coup and dictatorship of 1967-1974. In the movie (and maybe in real life) the junta banned the letter "Z" because it was used to signify "he lives" in reference to Grigoris Lambrakis, a leftist politician who was assassinated prior to the coup.

rtkwe 5y ago

I wonder if ACS has sent them notices over single greek letters or if Spring got a lot for multi-letter strings (probably actually referencing fraternities/sororities) and decided to blanket block greek letter stuff to avoid the hassle.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

rdiddly 5y ago

Yeah "Zeta is a letter of the Greek alphabet" actually happens to be the main argument for its NOT being somebody's property.