On Wednesday, November 27, 2013 11:15:51 AM UTC-8, Nukeador wrote: > Hi all, > > > > I open this thread here because I want a wider discussion about this topic. > > > > Today, Wassap (one of the whatsapp clients we had on the Firefox > > Marketplace) was removed due take down notice from Whatsapp Inc. > > > > As far as I was able to discover, Whatsapp send Mozilla a take down > > notice claiming trademark and legal instructed to remove the app directly. > > > > I guess that the removal was done following the USA DMCA law, so I have > > some big concerns here: > > > > 1. A external company deciding that something violates their trademark > > without a court order (AFAIK in EU you need a court order). > > 2. Marketplace legally obligated to remove all petitions that follow a > > USA specific law. > > > > In this case the icon and name were different from whatsapp so I don't > > feel this is fair for the developer. Also, I don't feel comfortable > > telling developers their apps can be removed without any notice or court > > order just because their app is not comfortable for some external company. > > > > Can this lead to having different marketplaces for different > > jurisdictions? As a developer I would feel more comfortable publishing > > my apps in a marketplace that respects my local laws. > > > > Regards. > > > > -- > > Rubén Martín [Nukeador] > > Mozilla Reps Council Member > > http://www.mozilla-hispano.org > > http://twitter.com/mozilla_hispano > > http://facebook.com/mozillahispano
Hi all, Mozilla received a notice of infringement from Whatsapp asserting that the name and logo used by Wassap infringed Whatsapp's trademarks. We've been having technical problems posting it to Chilling Effects, but you can see it on the Mozilla wiki at https://wiki.mozilla.org/Legal:Infringement_Notices. US Courts have ruled that a trademark owner need only follow a DMCA-type procedure in order to effectuate content take down for trademark infringement. To receive safe harbor protection, service providers and website owners must implement the DMCA-type procedures even for trademark infringement. Therefore, if we receive a notice that complies with the requirements listed on our website, we remove the allegedly infringing material. We don't evaluate the merits of the claim - other than ensuring compliance with the procedural steps - which is what is anticipated under the law. We then let the developer know about the notice and provide detailed instructions on how to submit a counter notice. If a counter notice is submitted and the complaining party doesn't provide evidence that they've filed a lawsuit, then the material will be re-posted. In the case of Wassap, the developer received our email that explains that we received a notice and provided him the details of what he could take as next steps (e.g., providing a counter-notice). He has not submitted a counter notice. We feel comfortable that applying our standard policy in this case was reasonable and that we've given the developer the tools and information he needs to have his app re-posted if that's what he'd like to have happen. Liz and Denelle _______________________________________________ governance mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/governance
