# Arcade cab vendor is trying to retro-actively trademark "MAME" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 21, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197 "2005-02-21T16:52:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/1 "2005-02-21T16:52:03Z")
I’m not sure how I feel about this. My knee-jerk reaction is, that money-grubbing hypocritical capitalist bastard - how could he exploit peoples’ hard work this way? The calmer, more rational side of me believes his explanation - that he’s just trying to prevent _others_ from exploiting the MAME name and making a profit from bootleg ROMs. I really can’t decide whether his motives are sincere or not. Slashdot story here, along with rebuttal by the seller: [http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/02/21/0415209.shtml?tid=203&tid=17&tid=10](http://games.slashdot.org/games/05/02/21/0415209.shtml?tid=203&tid=17&tid=10) (Wonder if /. is going to get “Doped”. The irony. Not that our readership would even be a blip on their radar.) I burning your cab! ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/2 "2005-02-21T16:59:32Z")
He is attempting to trademark a logo he did not design, the copyright of which belongs to another person. He’s cute, but a thief. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/3 "2005-02-21T17:34:35Z")
I just figured that Patrick Dennis owned the rights to Auntie Mame. What? Oh, it’s got something to do with video games? Who’d a thunk it. _Life’s a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!_ ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/4 "2005-02-21T17:41:37Z")
I’m not sure I’m following… This guy isn’t trying to coax the blues right out of an automobile horn on a taxicab, is he? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/5 "2005-02-21T19:25:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I’m not sure I’m following… > > This guy isn’t trying to coax the blues right out of an automobile horn on a taxicab, is he? > > 😕 He’s trying to trademark the MAME name and logo. The name at least has been around 8 years, and was invented by someone else, along with all the IP that goes with it. He claims it’s to prevent _others_ from unethically or illegally profitting from the “brand”. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/6 "2005-02-21T19:29:35Z")
Fuck it. Give him everything he asks for. It would be worth the free entertainment of seeing him try to enforce it against the entire netizens across the world. This has to be one of the lamest attempts of gaining recognition I’ve ever seen. I hope he has a _really_ good firewall. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/7 "2005-02-21T19:29:48Z")
> [@DarrenS](#): > > He’s trying to trademark the MAME name and logo. The name at least has been around 8 years, and was invented by someone else, along with all the IP that goes with it. He claims it’s to prevent _others_ from unethically or illegally profitting from the “brand”. Perhaps we’re talking past one another, then. Whe I use the word MAME, it refers to a crappy movie musical starring Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur. And a presumably non-crappy Broadway musical that it was based on. What does it mean in your context? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/8 "2005-02-21T19:32:08Z")
Oh, and if anyone cares to let me in on what this is all about, a useful definition of the term “arcade cab vendor” would probably come in handy. ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/9 "2005-02-21T19:33:22Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Perhaps we’re talking past one another, then. > > Whe I use the word MAME, it refers to a crappy movie musical starring Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur. And a presumably non-crappy Broadway musical that it was based on. > > What does it mean in your context? I knew your reference, [this](http://www.mame.net/), however, is what’s up for grabs. Though, how someone with a .net domain for it wouldn’t have a legit argument is beyond my understanding of copyright law. ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/10 "2005-02-21T19:39:09Z")
MAME is Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator. It’s a computer program that basically pretends to be arcade game hardware so that a user can play exact copies of old arcade games on his modern computer without having to drag a giant arcade machine into his apartment. MAME has also been ported to the Xbox and Dreamcast (and probably others), allowing you to play old arcade games on your modern console. On Preview: Cab is short for cabinet, the large housing that arcade games and their monitors are placed in. A vendor sells something that looks like a normal single arcade game, but is actually a computer running MAME, enabling it to play multiple games from the same cabinet. This guy is angry because his company legally licensed a few dozen of these old games and sells them in arcade cabinets. Other vendors don’t bother with the licensing, so their ads read “Play 4,000 games on one machine!,” while his read “Play a couple dozen games on one machine,” since that was all he could license. Why he feels that trademarking something that doesn’t belong to him (MAME is open source software) will be effective in ridding the marketplace of less scrupulous dealers is unclear. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/11 "2005-02-21T19:39:29Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Perhaps we’re talking past one another, then. > > Whe I use the word MAME, it refers to a crappy movie musical starring Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur. And a presumably non-crappy Broadway musical that it was based on. See _Auntie Mame_ (1958) staring Rosalind Russell and try to forget that 1975 Lucille Ball version, when she was _way_ too old to play Mame Dennis. Although Bea Arthur was a great Vera Charles, the rest of the movie stunk on ice. The movies as well as the 1966 Broadway play were based on the 1955 novel _Auntie Mame_ by Patrick Dennis. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/12 "2005-02-21T20:20:58Z")
> [@](#): > > MAME is Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator I don’t believe you can trademark acronyms, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/13 "2005-02-21T20:36:25Z")
Thanks, all, for the clarification. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/14 "2005-02-21T20:54:11Z")
Thank you **neutron star** for that lucid explanation. I clicked on the link in the OP but it was like reading something badly translated from a foreign language. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/15 "2005-02-22T03:13:50Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > I don’t believe you can trademark acronyms, anyway. Try telling that to IBM. ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 5:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/16 "2005-02-22T05:30:00Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > I don’t believe you can trademark acronyms, anyway. Then much of the computing industry is SOL. The doctrine of prior art doesn’t apply to trademarks like it does to patents, but you can’t trademark a name that is likely to make someone confuse you with someone else. Apple Computers was judged to be sufficiently distant from Apple Records that it could keep the name as long as it kept out of the music publishing business (hence the current lawsuit between the two Apples). The case under review in this thread is the exact antithesis of that. There is no distance from UltraCade’s trademark and the long-established usage, and there is no way to avoid confusion. UltraCade’s excuse is _prima facie_ absurd: If the MAME development group doesn’t want people abusing the MAME name, it’s up to them to do something about it, not some nosy and interested third party. UltraCade’s complaints _re_ other cabinet sellers are neither here nor there; they do not even make an effective smokescreen. In short, I hope this doesn’t make it to trial, but if it does there’s no reasonable way UltraCade can win. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/17 "2005-02-22T14:45:15Z")
quote]Then much of the computing industry is SOL. [/quote] I could be wrong, but IIRC IBM has _International Business Machine_ trademarked, not IBM itself. There are a lot of other places with the initials IBM and I believe they can used it, although there might be a copyright infringement sui if they started selling copmputers with a suspiciously-similar IBM logo slapped on the side. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/18 "2005-02-22T15:27:42Z")
> [@smiling bandit](#): > > I could be wrong, but IIRC IBM has _International Business Machine_ trademarked, not IBM itself. There are a lot of other places with the initials IBM and I believe they can used it, although there might be a copyright infringement sui if they started selling copmputers with a suspiciously-similar IBM logo slapped on the side. IBM is a trademark [registered by International Business Machines](http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=8dgmot.2.2). ---
**Author:** ![duffer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duffer/32/1026_2.png) [@duffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duffer)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/19 "2005-02-22T18:49:09Z")
Thinking of IBM TM’ing the acronym, could they try to force others to not use the letters for business. I’m reminded of The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) forcing, somehow, World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to change the World Wide Entertainment (WWE) or something like that. Are the two concepts related, or was that an entirely different deal happening there? ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197/20 "2005-02-22T23:28:11Z")
> [@](#): > > IBM is a trademark My mistake. Maybe I was thinking of copyright? You can’t copyright titles AFAIK. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/arcade-cab-vendor-is-trying-to-retro-actively-trademark-mame/291197.md?page=2)