A few years ago a jeans company sent our company, Maverick, a letter to stop using the name because Maverick was their brand. No way in hell, we said, we own the name in our category, which is services, and have nothing to do with apparel. Besides, we asked them, wouldn’t it be folly for them, who does not market that brand of jeans in Indonesia anyway, to be up against a public relations company?
They may take us to a court of law but for sure we’ll drag them through a bruising battle in the court of public opinion.
The company saw the light and backed off.
Today there’s another incident involving Sony Corporation and a blogger called Sony AK. It’s already beginning to look like another march of folly as Indonesian onliners rally up against the Japanese corporation. Time will tell how this pans out but Unspun’s feeling is that even if Sony Corp wins the legal war, they would have lost the war over public opinion. So what is the point of such legal initiatives if not for the Dog in Manger attitude toward things? Sony AK can;’t conceivably take any business away from Sony Corp or harm its brand name, unless, of course, Sony Corp insists on shooting itself in the foot.
A couple of hours ago, Indonesian onliners – Twitterers, Kaskusers, bloggers – were outraged due to a news regarding a law suit against Sony Arianto Kurniawan. The law suit is filed by SONY Corporation, and they claimed that Sony Arianto Kurniawan’s website – http://www.sony-ak.com, is a breach of copyright.
SONY’s representative lawfirm in Indonesia filed Sony AK, a well-known Indonesian IT blogger, because “Sony AK’s domain name uses “SONY” brand name for things that are related to network sites and center of information technology knowledge. The domain http://www.sony-ak.com visually has similarity to the wholeness and is similar to the brand name “SONY”,” so the document said.
This suit has upset many Indonesian onliners, especially those who have been blogging and are into IT for several years. Sony AK’s site has been known for being the knowledge sharing center for IT enthusiasts in Indonesia, and has been up for approximately 6 years.
Unspun 
Maybe Apple Inc. should sue Gwyneth Paltrow for naming her daughter Apple as she might have a blog called apple too in the future…
Seriously this is beyond ridiculous.
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NO WAY HELL!!!
it only how arrogant SONY CORP. being so titanic doesn’t mean that you can push anyone to obey you. we are live in democracy. sony acts is an attack for democracy…
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em…
apa krn klo kita cari d google dengan kata kunci sony ni site ada di halaman satu yach n apa krn itu si sony corp merasa tersaingi …
tapi klo di lihat dari segi hukum bisnis “termasuk perdata klo ngak salah” bener e emang sih ngak boleh.
macam kasus shampo tanco di era 90 an klo ngak salah di mana ada pesaingnya yg memakai nama yg mirip banget tancco.
tapi klo emang dari awal ngak boleh yach ngak mungin nih domain hidup lama banget dari 2003 klo ngak salah.
Expiration Date: 2010-07-28
Creation Date: 2003-07-28
Last Update Date: 2010-01-08
klo emang kyk gitu harus e dah dari awal saat daftar domain dah di blok lah bahwa nama ini ngak boleh digunakan dengan alasan bla bla bla…
tapi klo di sangkut paut kan dengan nama pribadi em….
doh yg ngerti hukum aja deh yg komentar lebih detail nya ^___^
btw dukung sony-ak 100% tapi ngak secara materi “kere soale saya”
http://mixed.uni.cc/blog-web-resources/sony-ak-com/
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Indonesian fight back…
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The situation is getting more hilarious. A rep from Sony Indonesia now claims (reported by Detik.com) that even Sony HQ is puzzled by the situation and that they (Sony HQ) haven’t been able to reach the local law firm which started the fiasco. A case of “buang body” or the local lawyer’s firm trying to generate more revenue from Sony Corp. through dubious means?
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