How "crypto bros" appropriated Flappy Bird

[beschizza]

Originally published at: How "crypto bros" appropriated Flappy Bird - Boing Boing

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[Bunbain]

[danimagoo]

@beschizza

When Nguyen, who lives in Vietnam, didn’t respond to that notice by November, the US Patent and Trademark Office entered a default judgment against him and officially canceled his trademark in January, allowing Gametech to legally claim the name.

Ugh. I get wanting to free up abandoned trademarks, but this is just skeevy as hell.

@beschizza

but they’re using all the original game’s graphical assets. That’s covered by copyright

The code could also be covered by copyright, if they somehow got ahold of the actual code. But yeah, unless Nguyen complains, they’ll probably get away with it.

[gracchus]

Pyramid scammers also engaging in thievery through legal technicality? Shocked, I tell you!

[smulder]

@beschizza

they’re using all the original game’s graphical assets

… aren’t most of those “graphical assets” actually owned by Nintendo

[RickMycroft]

There needs to be some way to flip them the bird.