{"id":15,"date":"2015-07-12T08:48:13","date_gmt":"2015-07-12T08:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/?p=15"},"modified":"2015-07-12T08:48:13","modified_gmt":"2015-07-12T08:48:13","slug":"bogus-copyright-trademark-complaint-fails-to-censor-the-bbc-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/?p=15","title":{"rendered":"Bogus \u201cCopyright Trademark\u201d Complaint Fails to Censor the BBC"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/censorship.jpg\" alt=\"censorship\" width=\"200\" height=\"200\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-47463\">Google receives millions of requests every week to have links delisted from its search results, largely following claims from third parties that the referenced content infringes their rights.<\/p>\n<p>While it&#8217;s difficult to say what proportion of these claims are erroneous or duplicate, it&#8217;s likely to run into thousands per month. Other claims, like the one we&#8217;re highlighting today, underline why we absolutely need <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/transparencyreport\/\">Google&#8217;s Transparency Report<\/a> and the DMCA notice archive maintained by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chillingeffects.org\/\">Chilling Effects<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The episode began on July 1, 2015 when an individual contacted Google with a complaint about a page hosted by the BBC. Found <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/blogs\/x-ray\/2009\/03\/instant-mobility.shtml\">here<\/a>, the page carries a news report from 2009 which reveals how a man called Kevin Collinson with two failed disability scooter businesses behind him was allegedly (and potentially illegally) running a third.<\/p>\n<p>The article is a typical &#8220;rogue trader&#8221; affair, with tales of aggressive sales techniques, broken promises, faulty goods, out-of-pocket customers and companies that dissolve only to reappear debt-free shortly after. Unpleasant to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>So what prompted the complaint to Google that was subsequently published on Chilling Effects? Well, it was sent to the search giant by a gentleman calling himself (you guessed it) Kevin Collinson. Nevertheless, the important thing is this &#8211; has the BBC infringed his rights? Collinson thinks so.<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<h5>The notice sent to Google by Collinson<\/h5>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/collinson-dmca.png\" alt=\"collinson-dmca\" width=\"616\" height=\"359\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-108026\"><\/p>\n<p>As highlighted by the image above, when asked for the source of the infringed material, Kevin Collinson links to a page on his domain kevincollinson.com. It contains the image below which apparently proves that Collinson owns a &#8220;copyright name trademark&#8221; to his own name, whatever one of those might be.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/images\/copyright-trademark.png\" alt=\"copyright-trademark\" width=\"600\" height=\"439\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-108001\"><\/p>\n<p>Reading between the lines, Collinson seems to suggest that since he has a trademark on his name (searches in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipo.gov.uk\/tmtext\/\">UK databases<\/a> draw a blank incidentally), outlets such as the BBC aren&#8217;t allowed to report news containing his name. Complete nonsense of course, and Google hasn&#8217;t removed the page either.<\/p>\n<p>That said, under UK law people are indeed allowed to trademark their names. <\/p>\n<p>Perhaps surprisingly, trademark <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipo.gov.uk\/tmcase\/Results\/1\/UK00002572177\">UK00002572177<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipo.gov.uk\/tmcase\/Results\/4\/EU009734096\">EU009734096<\/a>) is registered to Wikileaks&#8217; Julian Assange and protects him in the areas of public speaking, news reporting, journalism, publication of texts, education and entertainment services.<\/p>\n<p>Professor Stephen Hawking also has a couple of trademarks protecting his name. Coincidentally (and possibly of interest to Mr Collinson) one of those covers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ipo.gov.uk\/tmcase\/Results\/1\/UK00003097043\">mobility scooters and wheelchairs<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>KEVIN JOSEPH COLLINSON did not respond to TorrentFreak&#8217;s request for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/torrentfreak.com\">TorrentFreak<\/a>, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, <a href=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/top-popular-torrent-sites-2015-150104\/\">torrent sites<\/a> and the <a href=\"http:\/\/torrentfreak.com\/anonymous-vpn-service-provider-review-2015-150228\/\">best VPN services<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?a=X_nFhe_Eepo:cLTcW3GEjbY:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?a=X_nFhe_Eepo:cLTcW3GEjbY:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/Torrentfreak?i=X_nFhe_Eepo:cLTcW3GEjbY:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/Torrentfreak\/~4\/X_nFhe_Eepo\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\" alt=\"\" \/><br \/>\nSource: TorrentFreak<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google receives millions of requests every week to have links delisted from its search results, largely following claims from third parties that the referenced content infringes their rights. While it&#8217;s difficult to say what proportion of these claims are erroneous or duplicate, it&#8217;s likely to run into thousands per month. Other claims, like the one &#8230; <a title=\"Bogus \u201cCopyright Trademark\u201d Complaint Fails to Censor the BBC\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/?p=15\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oldnumber7.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}