Users virtually reenact tragic, violent real-world events involving an active shooter scenario at a Cinemark theater bearing The Marks. Upon information and belief, subscribers/registered users and the general public can purchase virtual weapons, namely guns, for use inside the virtual playgrounds/workshops to kill other subscribers/users/members of the public, for virtual monies, inside virtual theaters or worlds bearing The Marks. Litigation isn’t the only option, but it seems to be the most popular one.Īs for consumer confusion, it’s highly unlikely Roblox users would consider user-generated content to be an authorized marketing attempt by the theater chain… especially when things like the following carry Cinemark branding. One of the stipulations of maintaining this indefinite protection is to assert your control over it. Now, it’s understandable that Cinemark might be concerned about unauthorized brand use. The better way to do this (again, assuming suing users, many of whom are likely to be under the age of 18, is somehow “better” than simply asking Roblox to take the content down) would be to serve Roblox a subpoena for account holder information as part of pre-trial discovery, rather than blowing through the entire filing referring to both Roblox and Does as inseparable “defendants.” Just because there’s no built-in protection for service providers against claims of trademark infringement (like Section 230 of the CDA or the DMCA safe harbor) doesn’t mean targeting the platform, rather than the actual wrongdoers, is the right way to approach this.īut this filing makes no distinction between Roblox and its users, despite there being a long list of usernames included. (Although it’s bound to be a waste of time, money, and reputation…) It’s quite another to go after Roblox for content created by its users. It’s one thing for Cinemark to pursue these Does for trademark infringement. According to the lawsuit, various users have created versions of Cinemark theaters (complete with branding) and placed them in their own worlds, or uploaded for others to use in theirs. Its target is Roblox, a multiplayer online sandbox game where users can create their own “worlds” using blocks - putting it somewhere between Minecraft and Second Life.Ĭinemark is accusing Roblox and a few dozen of its users of trademark infringement, thanks to the latter’s creations. Today’s misguided IP infringement lawsuit comes from Cinemark USA, one of the largest theater chains in the United States.
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