Yo-Yo Wiki drops “Imperial”
Apr 27th, 2007 by schalicto
It was kind of hard getting the dialog started about the word to replace “Imperial”, but we agreed on “Classic” and we are making the change. Greg, over at Infinite Illusions, went the route of calling shapes Convex and Concave. I’m not really fond of those terms because I can’t keep the damn things straight… I mean really… which is which?
But really this was an easy decision to make; the hard one will be “Butterfly” which we are currently sitting on because our Constrain and Discontinue letter did not indicate any violations of the word “Butterfly” and I’m not too interested in making their bullshittery easy for them. What word do you think should replace “Butterfly”?
http://www.yoyowiki.org/index.php/Shapes
I maintain that they should be called “Il Clasico” and “Nü Skool Stylez”. Classic is close enough, I guess.
[Erroneously posted to the Sinatra yo-yo initially :-)] Actually, Duncan retains the right to the trademark “Butterfly” which they managed to keep after the long trademark fight with Royal. “Hourglass” is a pretty descriptive, although oddly quaint, moniker for the shape. How about “Wing”? Nah, Yomega would jump on us then. “Vortex”?
True, Duncan does retain the right to the word “Butterfly” however after Flambeau purchased Duncan they spent the next 40 years not defending the trademark, and the letter that Yo-Yo Wiki got didn’t mention the word “Butterfly”.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/188/440270925_2534137f0a_b.jpg
-Josh
Wonder if any of the other letters mentioned Butterfly. Would be cool if we could keep using that. Also, I’m assuming it’s OK to use a descriptive phrase such as “Duncan Imperial®-shaped” or “Duncan Freehand™-shaped” if you mention Duncan and put in the appropriate trademark symbols.
Other letters did request the use of “Butterfly” be stopped. And the use of the word Freehand was not a topic of shape, but of style-of-play.
As far as saying something is shaped like a Duncan Imperial®, that should fall into fair use, but I’m not a lawyer.