> Is tron name itself a violation of trademark, or copyright of Disney? Not much knowledgable on IP laws in the US, hence the question.
Copyright would apply to the actual film, script, perhaps other elements. For the title, I believe this would be a trademark issue. Whether it is enforceable here is beyond my knowledge. I tried a quick search on the status, but didn’t see the info I hoped for in the top several hits.
Titles can't be copyrighted. Words can be trademarked, but they aren't exclusive. As long as there is no risk of confusion, then the same word can be trademarked by different people for different purposes. Think: Apple Computer vs Apple the record label -- it wasn't an issue until Apple Computer started getting into the music business.
Apple Computers were already taken to court before they entered the music business but settled and part of that settlement was not to enter the music "biz".
Obviously they did later enter the music business, which is when Apple Corp (the record label) litigated for a second time.
so called tron foundation claims to be an "entertainment on blockchain", sounds like a reason for confusion with some weak definition. I suspect disney lawyers could be taking as a bit more stronger.
"Tron" is just a sound generically associated with futuristic high tech, most likely originally because of the word "electron".
From OED: "tron" is "used in the names of devices and machines, spec. particle accelerators, as cyclotron (1935), betatron (1941), phantastron (1943), levitron (1960)."
It is also the name of the BASIC command “tron”, reflecting the role of the program created by Alan Bradley, specifically to trace the MCP and find weaknesses (which are later exploited to delete the MPC and release the evidence of Dillinger’s fraud).
Tron wasn't just the movie ... there was software embodied as a video game so in my opinion, you can't argue that you're in a different business. domain.
Nope! Trademarks are granted for a specific use cases or industry, movie titles can't be copyrighted .. they are only protected by MPAA(Motion pictures association).. and MPAA only can regulate Movie names, video games or toy lines are however... See https://www.applebank.com and get amused by their Apple logo.. they did the fruit depiction right
