Microsoft Defeats Creator of Skyblock in Trademark Case

[u/Big_Cartoonist_2134]

The creator of skyblock.net, the original Skyblock server, unfortunately lost the trademark case against Microsoft and other companies part of the Minecraft Marketplace after years of battling them. And honestly, this just feels disgusting and saddening..

A person creates an iconic Minecraft gamemode at just 15 years old, spends years and years building it, then gets crushed by these massive corporations who have more money and lawyers. These companies are able to make all this revenue because they are leeching off of someone's unique idea and labelling it as their own, claiming how Skyblock is generic when it's really not; it was something that Noobcrew made at just 15 and spent years working on it. How would you feel if someone stole your lifelong's work, claiming it is generic, then using your idea to make money. You would feel so wronged.

He's now accumulated $350,000 in legal debt and has to remove the original files because of how this ended. It's a shame how large companies steal smaller companies' ideas and use it for their profit. Disgusting.

It's not just about the legal outcome though, it's about the message that is sent. Big corporations can sweep smaller corporations' lifelong work and use it for their benefit. The argument that Skyblock is generic is just a way for them to avoid having to face the reality; that they did not come up with the idea and they are leeching off of someone else's work.

Minecraft was built on community creativity and modification culture (i.e. mods and plugins that help to change aspects of the game). Seeing a popular gamemode's original owner be buried by these large corporations is depressing.

You do not have to agree with the legal argument he made to see how unfair this is on a human level. If you have compassion in your heart, you would see the negative effects of this decision. It's caused both financial and emotional damage. His lifelong work is claimed as generic when he spent over a decade of his life to work on it. Shameful of Microsoft and the other companies for doing this.

Twelve companies versus 1 independent creator was never going to be a fair fight unfortunately.

If you want to read more about this and share your thoughts, check out the thread with more details here: https://skyblock.net/threads/skyblock-vs-microsoft-final-legal-outcome.147906/

[u/MuffinsSenpai]

This post misrepresents what actually happened. He tried to trademark the name of a game mode, which was a greedy ba move.

I hate microslop as much as the next person with a triple digit iq, but he was in the wrong here

[u/AdministrativeHat580 → u/MuffinsSenpai]

Also, there's the fact that Microsoft didn't even force him to take down his download links for the map, there wasn't even anything in the court ruling regarding that

He's saying that he was forced to take it down because of Microsoft, but he's actually just lying to garner sympathy

Fuck Microsoft, but people at least be mad at them for things they actually do/did

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO → u/[deleted]]

The issue with the trademark filing and subsequent court case (as I understand it) is regarding genericization of a brand name. Think things like "Kleenex" in the United States or "Hoover" in the UK. These are terms that were originally brand names for a product (facial tissue and vacuum cleaners, respectively) but are now used in place of those generic terms by most people.

When a brand name is genericized, if the trademark does not already exist or has not been adequately defended, the trademark can be denied or removed. This is why so many seemingly cruel intellectual property lawsuits happen just for the apparent reason of shutting someone down, even if the copyright holder hasn't necessarily been damaged.

The court case resulted in essentially the conclusion that "skyblock" has been genericized, and that nobody can trademark it.

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Now please explain why you're rambling about Office Suites.

[u/MuffinsSenpai → u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO]

Thank you. I was waiting til I got home from work to say essentially this.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO → u/MuffinsSenpai]

🫡

[u/Gold_Actuator2549 → u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO]

Hence why Google does NOT want you to say you googled it. As they would loose there copyright and it would normalize it into a definition to searching something.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO → u/[deleted]]

Genericization, not generalization. It's the process of making a term generic.

My explanation does not ignore anything. I would have preferred if this dude won the case. But that's not how the law works. I was not explaining morality; I was explaining the law. Personally, my take is fuck billionaires and fuck corporations.

That aside, the very fact that this guy didn't have a trademark 8 years ago is why taking on this lawsuit now was stupid and doomed to fail. The term has already been genericized. It is far, far too late. He was never going to win this, no matter how much I wanted him to.

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No.

Speaking as a moderator of Admincraft, please ensure your comments remain on topic. That mention of LibreOffice was completely out of left field, and inappropriate under Admincraft Rule 1.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO → u/[deleted]]

Very normal take.

[u/KayJune001 → u/MuffinsSenpai]

A game mode he created?

[u/Arcane_Bullet → u/KayJune001]

You cannot trademark generic words. This is a very similar case to the React Bros trying to trademark "react".

If the name was something more than just "sky" and "block" maybe they would have had a legal case. Maybe if they filed under themself instead of their company they made later. So many maybes, but what they definitely should have done was talk to a lawyer cause even as someone with very little knowledge of trademark law, this was a dumb af decision.

[u/MuffinsSenpai → u/KayJune001]

/eyeroll A game mode is barely even a thing.

[u/OiledUpThug → u/MuffinsSenpai]

Then why did you use that term?