Using someone's trademark as concept for blog post/video

S

surprisesudden

New Member
Jurisdiction
Washington
I want to write an article (and make a video) that has someone else's trademark/brand name in the title and which centers around that trademark.

For the sake of example, let's pretend it's Nintendo 64 (it's not)

I want my article and video title to be:

"How to make your own Nintendo 64"

And then the article would show the steps how to make something very similar to that product, and would contain affiliate links for the needed materials.

What are the legal risks if any of doing this?

By the way I would not be using their logo or any graphics or images of theirs. Just the text name as a way to refer to the item in question.

Thanks
 
It seems to me you could accomplish the same task without using the game at all.
Why not "How To Make Your Own Video Game Entertainment System", or something like that?
 
surprisesudden said:
What are the legal risks if any of doing this?
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Well..."Nintendo" will serve a DMCA notice on the ISP that hosts the video, and your video will be taken down. You'll likely get a cease and desist letter. You might get sued for both trademark and patent infringement.
 
Wait...are you talking about building a system that plays ONLY Nintendo games, or a system that plays similar generic games that you create?
 
Thanks for the answers

By the way, I mentioned in my OP that the nintendo thing was an example but isn't the real thing I want to write about. But the concept is exactly the same.

The intent of using the trademarked name is to get the benefit of the fact that a ton of people are searching for the product in question, but it is in fact not for sale by the company. Therefore I want to attract some of the thousands if not millions of people who are interested in the product but cannot buy it. It's taking advantage of an opportunity.

It sounds like this is a bad idea though. I guess if I want to play it safe (I do) I will have to use search terms that are as close as possible to the trademark but are generically descriptive instead of the trademark. It will be a big detriment to the effectiveness of the tactic but it will still probably get decent results.

Thanks for the help.
 
You in essence want to profit off of their brand name....which they are going to want to protect as they have no control over you or your product that you are linking to them... see the issue?
 
surprisesudden said:
It sounds like this is a bad idea though.
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Maybe. Maybe not. As you apparently recognize, there's only so much that you can/should disclose in a public forum such as this. A proper legal analysis of your situation requires that you consult with an attorney and make that attorney aware of all relevant facts. You can't get that from an internet message board.
 
zddoodah said:
Maybe. Maybe not. As you apparently recognize, there's only so much that you can/should disclose in a public forum such as this. A proper legal analysis of your situation requires that you consult with an attorney and make that attorney aware of all relevant facts. You can't get that from an internet message board.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the advice. I totally agree, but it is still good to get some general input from the forum. If I had the money to consult an attorney I would. Unfortunately I don't.
 

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