UK-based scientist lands in trouble for printing trademarked term 'Zeta' on t-shirts

A UK-based scientist, Tariq Rashid, landed in trouble after he decided to print a t-shirt commemorating the glory of German mathematician Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann, who made contributions to analysis, number theory, and differential geometry. According to the news website, Theregister.com, the UK based scientist uploaded his design to Teespring, an American company that operates Spring, a social commerce platform that allows people to create and sell custom products.

Math-inspired t-shirt stuck in limbo

Rashid got a surprise after the company informed him about holding his order. Upon enquiring about the current status, the social commerce platform told that the word "Zeta" belonged to the Greek alphabet and is currently protected legally by Affinity Client Services. Meanwhile, the news outlet is reportedly coordinating trademark licensing for companies practising Greek letters in their names. According to the reports, the main motive of the coordination is to evade business confusion among two similar-sounding names, not to grant sole ownership of a term in all circumstances.

French antitrust regulator asks Google to pay USD 600 mn 

Recently, France's Competition Authority imposed on Google a penalty of 500 million euros (almost USD 600 million) for non-compliance with one of its rulings made last year regarding the issue of the tech giant's compensations to French publishers for the use of their content. In 2019, France's General information Press Alliance, comprising around 300 national and regional media outlets, filed a complaint against Google for its refusal to operate under the European legislation on neighbouring rights, designed to make digital corporations account for their use of media content online. In the ruling in question, Google was ordered to conduct negotiations "in good faith" with French publishers on the payment for the use of their content, something that the digital giant failed to do, according to the regulator.

25 times Bollywood copied hit Pakistani songs

Meanwhile, this is not the first time a company claims its ownership to use a word or a tagline. In India, there have been several instances when a foreign country blames Bollywood for copying particular scenes and lyrics of songs. According to divaonline.com, at least 25 superhit Bollywood songs were copied from Pakistani songs. Some of the popular songs are: Kundi Na Kharkao Raja, Tumhe Apna Banane Ka, Agar Tum Mil Jao, Lambi Judaai, Mar Jawaan Mit Jawaan, Dil Mera Tod Diya Usne and the most popular item song Munni Badnaam Hui. However, there were no reports of filing counterclaims by the original artists. 

(With inputs from ANI)

(Image Credit: Pixabay)