BATracer: Ferrari Trademark Claim

Ferrari have made a copyright infringement claim against BATracer:

BATracer Unavailable Until Further Notice

BATracer is presently unavailable due to legal issues following receipt of a letter this morning (2nd November 2009) concerning user-submitted Ferrari content within BATracer. Efforts are being made to resolve this issue and to restore the site at the earliest opportunity following changes.

The ability to further upload user-submitted content for inclusion in the game has been disabled until further notice.

BATracer.com

Statement Concerning Infringement of Trademarks and Designs of
Ferrari S.p.A. "Ferrari" of Maranello

The inclusion of Ferrari material into BATracer was not authorised by Ferrari, and the activity of BATracer and user contributions was not in any way related to Ferrari.

All Ferrari content will be removed from the game, and all user-carset projects involving Ferrari content will also be removed.

[www.batracer.com]


Not good at all, and very disappointing that it resulted in this. =


I wonder if this could set a precedent for other games - although the fact that BATracer receives money for the game (although apparently doesn't make a profit) could be a large part of this claim. Its certainly an interesting situation, and it will be interesting to see how it develops.

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X (@ed24f1)



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/03/2009 05:55AM by SchueyFan.

That's absolute rubbish, Why don't they just sue everyone who uses ferrari whatsoever?

(that would mean gp4)

this is bad. if there is no ferrari in all the f1 seasons, then what will happen? A real damage to authenticity of BATracer. I hope they won't have to pay up to ferrari, that will mean that we might have to pay more too. not good.

Just when I was about to get back into batracer after the f1 season is finished. Dammit. I wanted to see all the differences of the cars.

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GPGSL Driver - Season 2, 22nd with IER, who came in 10th in constructors.

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Season 3 - Driver 11 for Pheonix. 3 points, 20th in standings.

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Season 4 - Test Driver for TSS, currently 1st in testing ranking, TSS also 1st in constructors.

It's a weird one this. No doubt that BATRacer is infringing copyright laws but any monies incoming to the BAT team must be so negligible to wonder why Ferrari felt the need to pursue legal action. In effect what Ferrari are doing is alienating motorsport fans from their product, or at the very least giving their own company a name shed in bad light.

But from the other side, Ferrari has to start action against people who use their image rights somewhere. If they don't act against BAT then they can hardly stand on the legal highground when a much larger company makes a similar infringement.

Btw, surely GP4 was a licensed product as far as the FIA is concerned so Microprose/Infogrames or whoever already had the rights to use the Ferrari name and content.

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The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. -- F.Scott Fitzgerald

cool, the bad news arrived at these latitudes too? any player here?

ferrari seems annoyed by the name usage. Already did the same with unofficial fansclub. The money the BAT team receive is minimal compared to the game offered. and almost all the income goes to servers payment, i barely think there is a profit. This may strike also other racesims with no license as people claim the release of tons of branded material.

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No players here right now!

My only active season finished last night so I managed to beat Enzo's angry tribe by a few hours. I kinda go in and out of the game, play a few seasons together and then forget about it for six months. Really fancied a shot at the Indy 500 today though

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The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function. -- F.Scott Fitzgerald

St.Hubbins Wrote:
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> No players here right now!
>
> My only active season finished last night so I
> managed to beat Enzo's angry tribe by a few hours.
> I kinda go in and out of the game, play a few
> seasons together and then forget about it for six
> months. Really fancied a shot at the Indy 500
> today though


Yeah, I'm totally on and off batracer alot. However it really would be a shame to see it go. Ferrari are a huge company, BATracer is a small dev team. they could be crushed. They have alot of players who could back them. I'm sure I would pay out a little bit more to keep the series running. Not just F1 2009, all the f1 seasons.

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GPGSL Driver - Season 2, 22nd with IER, who came in 10th in constructors.

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Season 3 - Driver 11 for Pheonix. 3 points, 20th in standings.

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Season 4 - Test Driver for TSS, currently 1st in testing ranking, TSS also 1st in constructors.

Massive BATracer fan here, started up a few months back. Absolutely gutted to see what has happened

I personally think Luca is in a mood after having a poor showing in Abu Dhabi (new homeland for them) and taking his anger out on anything he can find

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Circuit Thermalito

Liverpool Waterfront Circuit (WIP)

That's a real shame. Just as well I still have pitstopboss.co.uk to keep me occupied when I should be working, anyone else play?

OMG this is unbelieable, batracer is awesome, how can ferrari do this. ffs!

DJSKYLINE Wrote:
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> OMG this is unbelieable, batracer is awesome, how
> can ferrari do this. ffs!


In as many words, because they have to. If they don't vigourously defend their trademark (one which obviously has huge worth), they could end up weakening it or even losing it in the long run. They license cars for both Ferrari-only and a few other video games - BATRacer's developers, it could be argued, are misrepresenting themselves as being somehow endorsed by and/or representing Ferrari by allowing these things into their game, which obviously isn't the case. Add taking money for that content (whether the company makes profit is essentially irrelevant, charging for something you don't own is a no-no), and you have a legal issue.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/02/2009 08:23PM by Maynia.

I'd just rename it Scuderia Rosso Italiano or something for all their seasons and get on with it.

damn,now there aren't anymore f1 carset

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My GPGSL Career

apparently they will come back some time in the future.

All trademarks (not just ferrari) are being removed to prevent future claims.

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X (@ed24f1)

EVERY TRADEMARK REMOVED?

This is ridiculous, F1 was a great part of BATracer. Ferrari is destroying its own fans like this. They were never taking money away from them. Ridiculous. Wanted to play BATracer, won't any more. I hope there is an uproar on their forums.

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GPGSL Driver - Season 2, 22nd with IER, who came in 10th in constructors.

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Season 3 - Driver 11 for Pheonix. 3 points, 20th in standings.

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Season 4 - Test Driver for TSS, currently 1st in testing ranking, TSS also 1st in constructors.

Dude, you get to keep playing the game with only small tweaks to names. Everyone will know what the cars are supposed to be.

wow Ferrari are even aware of BATracer? Do they sit there and wait until some infringement appears on the website?!

Guimengo Wrote:
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> Dude, you get to keep playing the game with only
> small tweaks to names. Everyone will know what the
> cars are supposed to be.


Still, its gonna be kinda tacky, and unfortunately I doubt the guys can pull it off well.

I still think they should have payed a small amount of their profits to ferrari, or even tried to fight them on justice grounds.

I mean, WTH.

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GPGSL Driver - Season 2, 22nd with IER, who came in 10th in constructors.

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Season 3 - Driver 11 for Pheonix. 3 points, 20th in standings.

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Season 4 - Test Driver for TSS, currently 1st in testing ranking, TSS also 1st in constructors.

gin Wrote:
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> wow Ferrari are even aware of BATracer? Do they
> sit there and wait until some infringement appears
> on the website?!

Probably through Facebook or Google.

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X (@ed24f1)