Adobe protects Flash trademark, but at what cost?
The popular Flash stock site Flashden, has been ordered to remove Flash from their url and branding by the Adobe legal team (which I hope are not reading this blog). They have decided upon the rather awkward sounding Activeden.
Adobe have something of a tradition of aggressively protecting their apparent trademarks, even if the words are as common as “air” or “flash”. James Whittaker (freshAIRApps), Kelvin Luck (shAIR) and Geoff Stearns (flashObject) can all attest to this. Clearly the Adobe legal team has enough sway to make these sites change names – without much resistance.
Some of you will argue that Adobe has to do this, that is the only way to ensure the brand is not diluted. Its just a legal question that any large company would pursue. The problem is what all of these sites have in common is they were actively promoting Adobe brands. Flashden in particular is one of Adobe’s biggest evangelists, introducing more people to the Flash platform than any Adobe owned site could ever dream of.
Legal questions aside, these kind of actions do nothing for the goodwill of the very people who are looking to promote the technology. If Adobe can`t be more creative in enforcing these trademarks, many will soon become disillusioned with the company. Adobe must realise these seemingly ridiculous law suits are starting to make them look like the 800lb gorilla in the room.
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