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by saddino 4954 days ago
No. A goods/services provider has "common" trademark protection in the US even if without a registered mark, so this usage is not "within their right."

http://tcattorney.typepad.com/ip/2008/06/what-are-common.htm...

2 comments

Relevant, from Arduino's FAQ: "Note that while we don't attempt to restrict uses of the "duino" suffix, its use causes the Italians on the team to cringe (apparently it sounds terrible); you might want to avoid it."

http://arduino.cc/en/Main/FAQ

Except that the main trademark is probably held in Italy (since that's where the project was started), the project owner is in China, and Kickstarter is in the US.

Are you suggesting there is a simple resolution to this set of law conflicts, and the answer is "it's not okay"?