Comments on: SparkFun gets a cease and Desist

By: B.K.Romine

B.K.Romine — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:37:47 +0000

WOW! Is SPARC going to take all our spark-plugs?
(Shudder) How am I going to drive? I do NOT own a diesel!

This is an obvious loser for SPARCINC… go for costs, when you win.

BKR

By: Jake

Jake — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:05:13 +0000

does anyone have any updates on this topic?

By: Harold Hankins

Harold Hankins — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:16:42 +0000

If they consider their trademark SPARC to be the same as SPARK then isn’t it an invalid trademark since they shouldn’t be able to trademark a common word like spark.

By: Zeke Shadfurman

Zeke Shadfurman — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:13:29 +0000

Stuckbucks sued a small single privately owned coffee shop called Starluck and put them out of business. Even though Starluck had been in business with the name Starluck since before Starbucks had ever existed and Starluck was the owners last name. As far as I understand you can have competing industries with the EXACT same name as long as its the owners ACTUAL name, the fact that it wasn’t even the same AND it was the owners actual name and they still won irks me to high heaven. I never thought Starbucks coffee was that good to begin with, but I’ve completely boycotted them and sold off all my stock when that happened. It’s one thing to me if its intellectual property rights a company is suing over, but a name? Especially when it’s not really even close?! I’m also pretty sure you can have the EXACT same name as long as they are sufficiently different industries. Look at Paramount oranges and Paramount Pictures, even their logo looks the same. Stupid stupid lawyers, I bet some higher ups in the company don’t even understand what their lawyers are doing. Like when Metallica started selling Napster shirts trying to make a point and Napster lawyers started to file a law suit and Shawn Fanning was like “WTF are you guys doing! They’re advertising for us!” There are SOOO many stupid lawyers out there. It’s like when some kid goes to school and doesn’t know what he/she wants to do they are like… “Well I could go into business or be a lawyer” and the stupid business people just get fired or run their department into the ground, but the stupid lawyers get promoted cause they’re suing the shizer out of everybody making their firm money. The worst part is, we NEED lawyers, but all the STUPID lawyers are giving the good, smart lawyers a bad name.
Stupid, stupid lawyers. Pisses me off!
You know what we need, we need a conglomerate of lawyers that counter sue companies and law firms that sue frivolously. They’re destroying out economy. GRRR! Ok, done with my rant.

By: Namelesswonder

Namelesswonder — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 16:55:12 +0000

sparc.org is rated very poor by WOT. :/

By: peter in cleveland

peter in cleveland — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:21:30 +0000

One more thing:

“Apple Computer Inc” and “Apple Corp Ltd” and their “Apple Records” are two different companies.

One (use to) offer only computers and software. The other only offers musics and video (created by The Beatles to manage their music rights).

Both company shared (after long negotiation) the “apple” name as long as neither company (at the time of the agreement) ventured into the other company’s business offerings.

“Sparc” with a “c” is far too different than “SparkFun” with a “kFun”.

This is my less-than-legal opinion.

By: peter in cleveland

peter in cleveland — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 07:12:20 +0000

At this point, I side with SparkFun because “Spark” is the accepted spelling of “spark”. “Sparc”, in my opinion, is an uncommon variant…I assumed for trademarking of a unique name.

Under that reasoning, Sparc abandoned the common spelling and if anyone came along afterward and used the common spelling for a company (offering different product or services), then Sparc’s claims are groundless.

By: Argon

Argon — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:59:36 +0000

Yeah…wow.

My Web Of Trust add-on declares WARNING! This site has a poor reputation!

Digging their own grave.:P

By: The Contrarian

The Contrarian — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 23:06:06 +0000

Look, everyone, Sparc International had to act, and have a very strong case in law.

Had to act: See SparkFun’s own posting. They decided to file for a trademark THIS YEAR in a category where a similar trademark had already been filed for a /decade/. Sparc could no longer turn a blind eye and US law forced them to respond. A C&D is the standard way of establishing contact & is best seen as a first step in negotiation.

Strong case: See http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1416293&cid=29853731

SparkFun are foolish to mount a public campaign, and deceitful to imply that Sun is in any way involved – both will make negotiating with Sparc that much harder. I started out on their side but now I’ve seen all the facts I have very little sympathy.

By: Jonas

Jonas — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:55:59 +0000

If this is some sort of guerilla marketing stunt they’ve clearly missed the point, you’re NOT supposed to piss of your target audience.

I’ve always thought of Sparc and Sun as something kinda cool but this being the first thing I’ve heard about them in years my opinion has definitely changed towards them being grumpy old hasbeens :)

By: Simon Phipps

Simon Phipps — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:37:58 +0000

On Sun’s behalf, I’d like to make clear that this action was taken by Sparc International (SI). SI is an independent trade association. Sun was involved in starting SI many years ago but today is one of several members and is not responsible for the actions SI takes. I’ve asked Sun’s representative to SI to investigate, but beyond that there’s not much else I can do.

S.
(Sun community ombudsman)

By: walt

walt — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:13:34 +0000

I WAS planning to order a few racks of sun sparc m9000 servers in a few weeks, or as soon as my funding went through. But, not now. No way! Eff you sun! no more monies for you!

By: John Doe

John Doe — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:07:07 +0000

I guess the makers of Spark Plugs will also be getting a letter? Since spark plugs use electricity to operate, it’s possible that a user of a spark plug could be confused with a SPARC processor. Let’s ban all spark plugs.

By: Snp

Snp — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:54:15 +0000

123 comments here over 200 at sparkfun slashdot…. no case, chances are it is a scam, i mean have a look at what has happened, sparc website has bucketloads of malicious crap on it, sparKfun gets a C&D letter, sparc gets everyone from here going there, and getting this virus/trojan…

either way sparkfun > sparc

By: PKM

PKM — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 10:20:42 +0000

My £0.02- I have a CS degree and have been a professional software engineer for about two years, and I know more about what Sparkfun do than what SPARC do. That’s still enough to know their target audiences don’t really overlap, and this C&D seems to be a simple waste of time.

SPARC are trying to fight growing irrelevance… it just feels like shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.