Microsoft Mocks Sony With "Destiny Fragrance"

[binary solo]

Aura7541 said:

binary solo said:

What I think is the ad was brought to the attention of MS lawyers, who calmly pointed out to the marketing department that the ad actually did encroach on the Destiny trademark, which MS has no right to use ("Desinty is an Epic new FPS game" = using Bungie's trademark, you can't trademark a word for all uses, but you can trademark a word when used in a partiuclar context, and Bungie will own a trademark over "Destiny" (esp with a capital D denoting it as a name) when used in reference to an FPS video game, no doubt.

So the good lawyerly advice would be, take that ad down, and before you try again come to us to clear the ad so that you can be sure there are not copyright or trademark infringements.

I'd be surprised if Sony or Acti-Bungie took any formal action. If anything there might have been an e-mail between the legal departments saying "Not cool guys". Sometimes things can be resolved in a cordial manner without going to court, esp when the "wrong doing" is clear and unambiguous.

No harm no foul.

Ah, I see.I don't think Sony will sweat too much about this and the worst case scenario will only be a small slap to the wrist. After all, the fact that MS was trying to advertise eau de toilette Destiny was pretty funny, even for Sony

Semantically, this is a factually incorrect statement. There is no such product as an Xbox branded Destiny eau de toilette, so MS as not trying to advertise any such thing. MS was trying to advertise Destiny, using imagery and phrasing that did not breech copyright and trademark rules. And in terms of imagery (the bottle of Destiny perfume) they were fine. But in terms of their phrasing (Destiny is an epic new FPS) they crossed the line. Not really in a serious way, but the line was crossed and it's appropriate to stop using an ad that crosses the trademark or copyright line. Not so much because of any harm that the ad might do (which is no harm at all really in this case), but because if MS one day wants to have a go at someone for violating their copyright or trademarks the defendant could raise the Destiny ad, at least for PR purposes, to say, "well you've done it so pot meet kettle. You can give it out but you can't take it aye?" That sort of argument wouldn't fly in court, because one unprosecuted "crime" does not excuse another. But in the court of public opinion "you did it first" will always get traction and will cause some repuational damage.

And of course just because Sony or Acti/Bungie won't take action, doesn't mean some bitter fanboy won't lay a complaint to some advertising standards body to try to embarrass MS by having the authority rule that yes, MS done wrong here.