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Since Todd brought this back up, I'd been meaning to look into this
myself...and have.
Interestingly enough, looking at the box and tube from my Tahu/Vakama set
from S@H, every catalog/mini catalog I have, the Bionicle and LEGO web sites
and LEGO press releases, not one single name in the Bionicle line (including
the name Bionicle itself) is displayed with a trademark symbol (or
copyright, or servicemark, or registered trademark for that matter). LEGO
is...Technic is...the overall packaging design is, but nowhere is a Bionicle
name marked.
Also interesting: the Maori people of New Zealand seem to be looking for
press right now-especially for their push to have .maori.nz domain names
added to the domain registers. See these links for more information:
http://www.nzmis.org.nz/ and http://maaori.com/
The article for this seems skewed, doesn't it? Big, bad LEGO (with the
hopefully deep pockets) has wronged someone...boo hoo. While I, like Todd,
believed that the names were made up (though undoubtedly Polynesian or
something in origin), and do believe, also like Todd, that LEGO has made a
boo boo at least in the spirit of the thing, legally they don't seem to have
done anything wrong. If a Maori toy company (are there any?) wants to make a
humanoid, mask-wearing robot that throws disks and call it Tohunga-LEGO can
make a stink. If they want to make a doll dressed in ceremonial clothing and
call it a preist (Tohunga in Maori)-no problem whatsoever.
Anyway...that's my take on the whole thing. I like Bionicle, and am really
enjoying learning the story as it unfolds. I liken it to LEGO MYST.
Matt
In lugnet.general, Todd Lehman writes:
> In lugnet.general, Trevor Alvey writes:
> > International toy company Lego could now prevent Maori from marketing toys
> > with Maori names, intellectual property law specialist John Hackett said
> > yesterday.
> > "If a New Zealand company wants to use the name 'tohunga' for a toy, they
> > would be stopped by Lego because they have rights in that name," he said.
> > [...]
> > Tribunal claimant lawyer Maui Solomon is complaining to Lego and the World
> > Intellectual Property Office over the actions of Danish company Lego in
> > co-opting Maori words for its new range of Bionicle hi-tech toys.
>
> I had been under the impression (as in just assumed) that LEGO made up
> cool-sounding names from scratch. Is this report saying that LEGO took
> actual words from a language of an indigenous tribe in New Zealand and isn't
> giving credit where credit was due?
>
> How many names were "lifted" from the language? Regardless of any legal
> issues, if this is true, then this seems particularly insensitive of TLC and
> isn't a good sign that they "get it" in the new global/Internet economy.
> Sigh...
>
> I mean, if they took words from multiple languages, that's one thing, but if
> they all came from a single native language source somewhere, and that
> source isn't being credited, AND that source has been slighted by this AND
> is complaining to WIPO, then wow is LEGO ever being idiotic. God help them.
>
> --Todd
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Lego copyrights native language
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| (...) I had been under the impression (as in just assumed) that LEGO made up cool-sounding names from scratch. Is this report saying that LEGO took actual words from a language of an indigenous tribe in New Zealand and isn't giving credit where (...) (23 years ago, 24-Apr-01, to lugnet.general, lugnet.loc.nz)
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