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Online fandom gears up for war with, boycott of Fandom.Com - Lord of the Rings news - J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings

November 21, 2000 at 15:22:30

When Fandom.Com bought out the popular Ringbearer.Org in 1999, not all fannish reactions were positive. Commercial enterprises have seldom been welcomed with open arms by the SF fandom community.

Now it appears that a grass-roots campaign is being mounted against the online giant by online fans across the Internet. The issue (in the fans' minds): who owns "fandom"? Fandom.Com is claiming trademark infringement against Fandom.tv, a (so far) non-commercial fan site created by a long time Hercules and Xena fan.

But Fandom.Tv is claiming trademarks on its pages including "fandom.tv", and it is perhaps these claims of trademarks which caused Fandom.Com to bring out the lawyers and their Cease and Desist letters.

Do fan sites create trademarks? A trademark identifies goods or services, and cannot (under US law) merely identify a location, such as a domain. There must be a commercial activity associated with the trademark. Trademarks need not be registered, however, in order to be used or protected. Common law trademark raises many thorny issues.

The 11th Hour has reported that a boycott of Fandom.Com is being organized via email. So far, we at Xenite.Org have not yet seen a copy of the letter.

One attorney, in an unrelated discussion, mentioned that an unregistered trademark must be shown to have been used so broadly "as to entitle it to the worldwide protection that it seeks". Furthermore, the trademark owner must show that the disputed name would cause confusion over the trademark. That is, in this case, would anyone mistake goods and services from Fandom.Tv for goods and services from Fandom.Com?

Curiously, FandomShop.Com (formerly AnotherUniverse.Com), owned and operated by Fandom.Com, doesn't seem make use of a "fandom" trademark. But Fandom.Com engages in the operation of a commercial Web site ("Fandom.Com"). Is that sufficient?

Fandom.Tv is taking an aggressive stance and pursuing widespread recognition for its activities. Fandom.Com may feel there will be confusion down the road if there isn't any now.

But what impact will the boycott have on Fandom.Com, if any? People are urging other members of SF fandom to avoid visiting or using Fandom.Com's Web site as a way of protesting Fandom.Com's appropriation of a word (for commerce) which has been widely used for decades to refer to science fiction and fantasy enthusiasts.

Who owns "fandom"? Who speaks for "fandom"? Unfortunately, these issues are not directly related to who is permitted to use "fandom" as a trademark. There is money involved, and it doesn't get any stickier than this for online fans. "Fandom" MUST be used as a trademark or service mark in commerce in order for anyone to establish a trademark. Has that been done? Is "fandom" perceived to refer specifically to goods and/or services offered by Fandom.Com the way "Xerox" is associated with copy machines sold by Xerox Corporation or "IBM" is associated with computers from International Business Machines.

Trademark issues have arisen in the Tolkien world, too. A clown going by the name "Gandalf" was sued for trademark infringement and he eventually reached a settlement which allowed him to continue using "Gandalf". The name was taken by J.R.R. Tolkien from a Norse poem, the Voluspa, and Anglicized from the original Gandalfr.

Many domains have sprung up across the Internet which make use of trademarked names from Tolkien's legendarium: http://www.frodo.net/ uses "Frodo" from "Frodo Baggins", http://www.gandalf.net/ and http://www.gandalf.com/ use the wizard's name, and http://www.tolkien.com/ has been parked.

In fact, many variations on Tolkien's name have been registered, as well as variations of Middle-earth (at least one by an authorized entity), Hobbit and other names.

Tolkien Enterprises, the division of the Saul Zaentz Company which administers the commercial rights Zaentz acquired to The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, has compiled a list of fanciful names for which they ask "anyone desiring to use one or more of the Tolkien fanciful names and/or characters in connection with merchandise, stage adaptations, or services offered to the public is requested to submit a written proposal to Laurie Battle, Director of Licensing" at their address.

A boycott of Fandom.Com, to be effective, would have to extend well beyond simply circulating petitions and emails asking people to stop visiting the Web site. Web site owners would also have to stop linking to the domain on their pages. That would, in effect, hurt Fandom.Com's rankings on certain popular search engines which take into consideration "link popularity" (the number of Web sites which link to any given Web site in association with a keyword or phrase).

By reducing Fandom.Com's rankings on popular search engines, online fandom would be making a powerful statement to the commercial community more effective, perhaps, than merely posting letters from attorneys on their Web sites.

Xenite.Org has not, as of this writing, taken a position with respect to the Fandom.Com boycott. We provide many links to Ringbearer and Fandom.Com through our Web pages and forums.

Fan Webmasters who are concerned about trademarks and domain names may want to review this examination guide published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1999.

It should also be noted that the ".tv" top-level domain is a country code, administered by a private company called dot TV. Some people mistakenly believe that such top-level domains may not be affected by ICANN's dispute resolution authority, but many countries have incorporated the UDRP into their registrations.