Subject:
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Re: Nike sued over a stick-man drawing?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Tue, 20 Jul 2004 18:43:09 GMT
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Viewed:
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927 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Saskia van Doesburg wrote:
> Honestly, I think Nike ripped off xiaoxiao but will win the case ;-)
Would that be the "Law of $" theory?
> What's that? I live outside the US.
I discovered a while back that they provide internet service outside of the US
(specifically the UK, IIRC), so I no longer really consider the fact that
non-Americans might not be familiar with them, but I should have at least
remembered that their ad campaigns might be very different in their non-US
markets. Have you ever seen the little stickman in their logo (it might be
their AIM logo, I can't remember)? They did a series of ads where their
particular stickman interacted with real people, beginning with one where they
spoofed the Six Million Dollar Man. They were pretty dumb, and the stumpy limbs
wouldn't really lend themselves very well to the type of actions seen in the
Nike ad, but the overall personality between the two didn't seem much different.
I don't think it's so much that they were intentionally using the same
personality, but that there's only so much personality you can convey with a
stickman who never speaks. On that basis, I can see how Nike's character might
not have been based on the xiaoxiao stickman, because he seems very easygoing, a
bit show-off-y, and he doesn't kill everyone in sight. Since the stickman has
been around for so long and in so many forms, and their version does actually
vary a bit in both look and movement from the xiaoxiao version, they've got
plausible deniability on stealing the actual shape, and if they can convince the
jury that the personality is distinct, the two halves should combine to win
their case. The other option is to argue that the basic stickman design is in
the public domain, so it doesn't matter if they stole his idea because he can't
legitimately claim ownership of it.
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