I was in Berlin last week and surprised to see the storefront above. I still do not understand it, it is a complete and utter rip off. They even have a website. But, how could they possibly get away with this kind of thing? Because it is reversed? Because they are in a different business? Or is it a case of serendipity, two people coming together with the same names as the founders of a certain bank. I clearly have a lot to learn about Intellectual Property.
How about rebranding Shapeways ?
Something like… mmmh…
Otto (just hire a guy named Otto…) and he would be working on a desk job.
Otto-Desk.
Sounds more professional already no?
Bart, even in Dutch law you can have your business the same name as another one as long as you’re in another of the 45 sectors… If I wanted to call my business Shapeways I could so long as I’m not into manufactering for example. As long as there’s not a mixup between the shapeways fitness room and shapeways 3D printing I’d be allowed to.
Ze germanz probably have the same system.
Govert,
true you could do this to a certain extent. But, this is still one heck of a: copy or coincidence.
Oops, Joris, I meant Joris. Bart is on vacation.
I’m in shock. Those ruthless, greedy, machiavellian opticians should have at least the decency to change their names. Or pay one or two zillions to our beloved saviors of capitalism. Oh what a sad world where you can call ye olde shoppe as you want!
LOL, but this is rather obvious..we have to protect those poor industrious bankers.
Who? What? Where? I have no idea what this post is all about. Who is “Saches & Goldman” and what on earth does this have to do with Shapeways, technology, or 3D printing? The website says they sell eyewear.
Walter,
The joke is that these opticians called their store Sachs & Goldman which has rather a lot of overlap with Goldman & Sachs the bank.
It has nothing directly to do with 3D printing apart from the fact that we are very interested in and curious about Intellectual Property. Where are the limits, where can you do what? How do we protect our community etc.
Oh, that. LOL, you know there’s far more abusive examples of that then just a name.
Take for example Pirate Bay, who just lost their suit for simply referencing Bit Torrents. The Movie Industry says it’s ok to film a TV showing a movie with a camcorder for school projects, but not to rip a movie directly from a DVD. We’ve been recording music off the Radio for free for years, and yet MP3’s have been stalked like actual theft for the last 10 years. The TV Industry has been trying to institute a Recording Flag on DVR’s to stop them from recording shows, despite the existence of Pro-VCR court cases for decades now. And large companies like Apple continue to patent inventions that they have no plans to actually produce, just to stop others from completing against them in the future.
It seems like the only future for innovation and free creative expression is underground.
“It seems like the only future for innovation and free creative expression is underground. ”
WORD!
Shapeways depicts the Sachs & Goldman store in Berlin….