Closed Bug 29173 Opened 25 years ago Closed 24 years ago

Stop abuse of mozilla de

Categories

(mozilla.org :: Miscellaneous, task, P3)

Product:
mozilla.org
Component:
Miscellaneous
Type:
task

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
VERIFIED WONTFIX

People

(Reporter: BenB, Assigned: mitchell)

References

Details

mozilla.de is connected and sells (sold?) shit.

From Homepage:
<quote>
Mike Hebel 
- Mozilla Online - 
Alter Mainzer Weg 3 
65428 Rüsselsheim
E-Mail: mozilla@mozilla.de
</quote>

DeNIC whois <http://www.nic.de/servlet/Whois> entry:
<quote>
Domainname:   mozilla.de
Domaininhaber:
              Hebel Mike
              Alter Mainzer Weg 3
              D-65428 Ruesselsheim
              Germany
Administrativer Ansprechpartner:
              MH1582-RIPE
<http://www.nic.de/servlet/Whois?personkey=MH1582-RIPE>
Technischer Ansprechpartner:
              OL260-RIPE <http://www.nic.de/servlet/Whois?personkey=OL260-RIPE>
Zonenverwalter:
              OL260-RIPE <http://www.nic.de/servlet/Whois?personkey=OL260-RIPE>
Nameserver:
              ns1.domserver.de
Nameserver:
              ns2.domserver.de
Status:
              konnektiert 
Letzte Aktualisierung [last record change]:
              Dienstag, 5. Oktober 1999 
Stand Datenbank [Last database update]:
              Freitag, 25. Februar 2000
</quote>
Depends on: 17281
am investigating what can be done; need to confer with those with legal knowledge
Status: NEW → ASSIGNED
I'm told that to do much, we'll need more information about what they're doing 
with the name mozilla and the lizard logo -- apparently the website doesn't offer 
much information.  I have to agree with this, it's clear they are using the 
mozilla name and logo on the site, but hard to tell that they are selling 
merchandise.  Is there any other info about the garbage they are selling?  In the 
meantime, I'm trying to figure out if/what can be done with the image/name of the 
page itself.

Mitchell, the "merchandize" page has been disconnected and now it now says
basically "The Mozilla Web is being updated. [...] Will be available again from
Feb 1, 2000 on.". So, currently, they're doing nothing at all other than
displaying an address.
Ah, OK, I'll see if we can do anything with this.

thanks

BTW: the owner of the domain lives just around the corner (50 miles or so
away). I can call him/her up <tel:+49-6142-71950>, if you want and I know, what
to say :-).
well, it's tempting, but maybe not just yet!

OK.

Not to be misunderstood: I meant "*if* I know, what to say" - I have no idea
other than "please hand it over, or we'll flog you" :-).

<http://www.mozilla.co.uk> is connected, too.

In general, what's the way to go for international trademarks? Register all
important local domains in advance?

Anyway, don't assign too many time cycles to it. IMO, bug 17281 or a non-profit
mozilla.org is the way to go.
Summary: Stop abuse of mozilla.de → Stop abuse of mozilla de
You'd never be able to grab all the domains (besides, it'd be more trouble than 
it's worth). mozilla.de is now online (and with their new Guarantee service!). 
They appear to be a small electronics retailer (read: pawn shop). The Mozilla 
name is indeed a trademark, therefore somebody at nsLegal might be interested 
(since the company itself is using the name Mozilla - at least I think - and not 
just for their website).

The use of the Mozilla dragon is, for lack of a better word, appalling. That is 
the most blatant case of copyright infringement I have ever seen. I'm assuming 
the green dragon is copyrighted (since the Open Directory site content is 
copyrighted 1999/2000 by Netscape). If this is the case, somebody needs to inform 
nsLegal that they need to have a chat with this retailer and demand that at least 
the image be removed. Unless there's some unknown factor here, it should be as 
simple as that.

Using any content trademarked/copyrighted by Netscape Communications Corporation 
is expressly forbidden without their prior written authorization. Unless these 
people received such permission, they need to be informed and dealt with.

And go ahead and bust a few knee caps while you're at it.

General Netscape legal information can be found here:

http://www.netscape.com/legal_notices/index.html

> (since the company itself is using the name Mozilla - at least I think - and

> not just for their website).



No, it states (sentence tanslated):

<quote src="ttp://www.mozilla.de/garantie.html" lang=en origlang=de>

The address is for the "non-virtual shop":



Radio-Elektro Hebel

Mainzer Str. 12

65462 Ginsheim

</quote>



"Mozilla" has to be a trademark in Germany (or internationally).



Re the green dragon: Dave's website <http://www.davetitus.com/frame_moz.html>

states "© Copyright 1995-1999 Dave Titus. All Rights Reserved. Mozilla imagery ©

Copyright 1995 Netscape Communications Corp. All Rights Reserved.".


I believe Netscape owns the rights to the green dragon (Mozilla) imagery. If not, 
then it's a question of whether Radio-Elektro Hebel has licensed the imagery from 
Mr. Titus or Netscape (whoever actually obtains the copyright to the concept/
design).

The question of Mozilla being internationally trademarked is still up in the air. 
Unless someone can get an official Netscape response or find more info, it would 
be hard to tell.

Last we checked, there was very little on this site, and the legal folks needed 
more info to do anything.so I'm marking this bug closed.  

Bug 17281 is the general question of trademark protection for mozilla, and it's 
still open.  It shouldn't take so long, but a lot of info about this is 
historical, from early netscape days and i don't yet have a good clear answer to 
this.

Checking again, and neither www.mozilla.de nor www.mozilla.co.uk has much on it.

I'd like to close this bug, and move to Bug 17281, a general trademark question.
Status: ASSIGNED → RESOLVED
Closed: 24 years ago
Resolution: --- → WONTFIX
v
Status: RESOLVED → VERIFIED
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