Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Sony AK vs Sony Inc.


Recently, electronics manufacturer Sony Corporation demanded Sony Arianto Kurniawan (Indonesian) to close down his website : www.sony-ak.com, because the Japanese company alleged that the website is an infringement of right on its trademark Sony.

Sony Corp. made said demand because it has spent many years and lots of money for research, production and promotion of electronics products bearing the trademark Sony. Especially if the trademark Sony has been registered in Indonesia and other countries.

In my humble opinion, Sony Corp. have been over confident in making the said demand, because protection given by trademark registration is limited to certain types/kinds of products covered by said trademark.
In this case, Sony Corp. is a manufacturer of electronics products, whereas the website: www.sony-ak.com is only a personal website of its owner that provide free information.

Efforts to settle the problem has failed because Sony Corp. insists that Sony AK should close his website, while the later refused because he has created the website using his own name since 2003 for personal usage, and he does not produce and sell anything, and has no bad intention in doing so.
And according to the demand letter issued by Sony Corp.'s Jakarta lawyer, Hadiputranto, Hadinoto & Partners, the company would pursue legal action if Sony AK refuse to comply.

Considering the above, many people have come to the support of Sony AK, among others through the social networking media Facebook.

For details, please click here, here, here, here, here and here.

I hope that both parties would find a best way to settle their differences according to the applicable laws and regulation.

Image : Courtesy of Detik


10 comments:

Edwin's Personal Blog said...

Never thought of this kind of feud before. Hope it won't be more to other bloggers.

Edwin's Personal Blog said...

It's absolutely Sony K rights to deal about everything with his blog. Moreover he has never done something wrong with Sony Corp. I guess it's too much...

Eci si Cami said...

And we hope that things work out well .... at least we like much new Sony!
Greetings with respect!

Unknown said...

@Edwin,
Although our trademark law protect welknown trademarks but the fact here is that Sony is a name of person thus it cannot be claim as absolute ownership of one party. Moreover Sony AK uses his own name Sony for website for providing information to visitor,thus not for product.


@Eci,
Yes let's hope that the will be settled amicably among themselves.

colson said...

The sympathy naturally is with David (AK) in his fight against Goliath (Corp). Actually it is bizarre if an innocent citizen uses a name which remotely is the same as the one of a multinational, in a strictly personal context, is being sued for that reason only.

Yet I'm afraid Goliath (who by the way is not a Biblical character only but a worldwide game publisher also. I wonder what this company is going to do about that???...)has a point here - because the legal system is to a large extent the product of the interests of the Goliaths. And because the legal power Goliath is able to organizie is n-th time as huge as the limited funds a David has at his disposal.

Unknown said...

Colson,
Although it's weird for a company to claim a name commonly used to identify a person, as its own exclusive possession, but the law enable the company to do so especially because it is a famous trademark.
However, Sony AK may also has a chance because it is using the name as service mark not trademark and for providing information, not for production.
But if the dispute goes to court it would depend on the judges opinions.

viagra online said...

I think Sonic corporation has doing the better efforts.I do not think the Sony AK should close the website.

askep said...

kurang kerjaan aja tuh sony, udah kaya kok masih nuntut nuntut orang kecil

askep said...

kurang kerjaan aja tuh sony, udah kaya kok masih nuntut nuntut orang kecil


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Anonymous said...

In India, a trade mark registration is limited to is good for ten years after the application is submitted.