Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by vulpino 3747 days ago
That's a very slippery slope. Kik is an app and company that has been going on for years. It existed long before Azer's "kik" and, even if Azer does not know what it is, most people know "Kik" as the phone app and not the bootstrapping tool.

To extrapolate this incident to "companies will start snatching up three letter names, and nothing will ever be able to use a three letter name" is ridiculous.
3 comments
awesomerobot 3747 days ago
"Most" people don't know of either.

Kik is a messaging app, kik is a node module. Was someone going to call up the app store and install a node module? Was someone potentially going to install a messaging app into their node project?

I think there are a lot of slippery slopes here.

link
vlribeiro 3746 days ago
Well, if Kik - the company - really intends to release a node module that would be enough to confuse some people.
link
jhall1468 3746 days ago
That's the same absolutely absurd argument that npm made.

Who actually installs a module without actually seeing what it does first?

link
herbst 3747 days ago
I associate Kik with a textile discounter. Just because they are known by parts of the population and have copyrights in some countries, do they really have the right to claim their name pretty much everywhere?
link
baldajan 3744 days ago
It's not copyright, but trademark (it's a subtle, but important distinction). And for trademarks, the short answer is it depends. Some trademarks have no protection (generics or ones that become generic) and others have infinite protection (famous marks, like Apple and Disney). While most have protection in their field (think the word Mac, it's a computer, a burger and a cusmotic brand).

Field however is hard to define, for example Trademark offices have categories and theoretically, you cannot have 2 trademarks owned by 2 different entities. That said, it does happen, because the "fields" are actually defined by likelihood of confusion, which is shown in court. If this is all confusing, it is.

But long story short, if your mark is famous (and kik's would be considered famous), you're the only one allowed to use it, and you HAVE TO in force it, otherwise, you lose it.

link
scotty79 3747 days ago
So if Disney wants https://www.npmjs.com/package/jasmine than they should have it? Just like that? With a polite request with "P.S. lawyers!"
link