Skyblock and the Minecraft Marketplace: A Legal Battle

Discussion in 'News & Announcements' started by Noobcrew, Sep 24, 2024.

  1. XEmX
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    XEmX Member

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    We all love Skyblock! I hope you win! We need more people to take a stand for what is theirs! Go Noobcrew!! win this for all the little guys out there, win this so we all know that it's possible to take a stand for what is ours. For what is right! #GiveSkyblockBack
     
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  2. blausyboyblausy
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    blausyboyblausy New Member

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    Damn this is crazy hope y'all win.
     
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  3. RCFlame
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    Best of luck!
     
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  4. Tog
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    Tog atpoaim Premium Premium Premium Premium

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    All the best Crew, you got this. :heart:
     
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  5. Khal
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    Khal New Member

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    Made this account to let you guys know you have my support!
     
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  6. blackcat5676
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    Let us know if there's anything we can do to help!
     
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  7. Ghosty
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    Ghosty New Member

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    You are the short guy in a basketball match and Microsoft is the tall guy, prove that size doesn't matter AND DESTROY MICROSOOFT!!!

    love you Noobcrew, stay strong and keep fighting
     
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  8. parallax
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    parallax New Member

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    Well geez I hope you win this case dude
     
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  9. Noobcrew
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    Noobcrew Server Owner Server Owner Administrator

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    Thank you all so much for the love and support! :heart:

    A special thanks to PhoenixSC for putting together such an insightful video on the topic, it really means a lot!

    Like many of you, I'm not a lawyer and have no idea what the outcome in this case will be, but I do think what's happening within the Minecraft Marketplace, and Microsoft's protection of these infringements, is deeply wrong regardless, which is why I am not backing down. I have only been trying to enact change, not conflict, and to stop the exploitation of what I originally provided for free. I am more than willing to compromise.

    If anyone would like to help further, I highly recommend signing the Protect Skyblock - Petition. This petition represents those that validate my concerns and that Skyblock refers to myself and this platform as the origin source, it can help immensely in justifying my claims through this legal process.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    For anyone with doubts, I would like to talk about some common concerns and speculation that I have noticed in YouTube comments and elsewhere, so I would like to clarify a few things.

    1) I have no intention of removing, restricting, or limiting non-commercial Skyblock content provided on Minecraft. This includes maps/worlds, mods, plugins, texture packs, multiplayer servers, essentially everything in the non-commercial space. My issue is strictly with commercial use within the Minecraft Marketplace, particularly those presenting themselves as an "original" or "official" Skyblock product without my approval, along with the usage or replication of "Skyblock" on alternative platforms outside of Minecraft.

    2) In regards to my delay of filing the Skyblock trademark, this is not something that occurred recently. It has been nearly 5 years since my application and 8 years since I first released Skyblock. In terms of the timeline, I filed for the trademark at virtually the same time that Skyblock saw its first instances of commercial use. I believe this timing is crucial to why I was properly enforcing my intellectual property rights. You don't need to establish a trademark the moment you create something unique, natural laws exist to protect creators for a reason. In fact, trademarks are typically filed only when necessary. Many servers and prominent companies within the Minecraft space operate without a valid trademark, but that doesn't mean they don't own what they've created. For example, Hypixel was created in 2013, the U.S trademark was filed in 2017, and finally established in 2021. When someone attempts to hijack a name or content, with a trademark or without, that's where the legal system steps in to provide protection. "Common law trademark" refers to the automatic trademark rights that are established simply by using a name or logo in commerce. I have always had a level of trademark rights however the point of establishing rights via a registration with the U.S trademark office is to provide a legal presumption of ownership, making it easier to enforce such rights during disputes. Which would be needed when trying to remove infringing material from platforms such as those owned by Microsoft or other corporations.

    Furthermore, I created Skyblock when I was 15. To expect all creators to file trademarks for their Minecraft creations is a bit ridiculous and implementing this kind of standard will only benefit large companies and exclude individual creators, particularly younger ones on the Minecraft platform, that may innovate and create the next big idea. It costs hundreds (if done yourself) if not thousands (with a lawyer) to do so and it takes almost a year for a trademark to be established. If a creator were to publish their content while the trademark is in a pending state, and your content does become popular in some form, I can assure you that it will be massively replicated on the Marketplace very quickly and these companies can simply put the generic claim on others as well. A "generic" claim is effectively a loophole for massive amounts of litigation, whether it is true or not, and there are minimal consequences for the companies involved if it is proven false.

    3) Some users have suggested that I might mislead the community and remove all Skyblock-related content once the trademark is established. However, to alleviate any concerns I could easily put my intentions into legal writing, and i've already proposed this in settlement agreements to Microsoft and the other companies multiple times. I have also noted, if an agreement was made, that I would allow "Skyblock" named content to remain on the Minecraft Marketplace provided it has a secondary meaning and isn't labeled or described as "original". This can still be done with my establishment of the trademark, whether it's through a written agreement, licensing agreement (from myself to Microsoft that covers everyone else on Minecraft) or another solution that protects non-commercial use. Microsoft has the ability to make it happen if they wanted to, but there has been no compromise from their side. I haven't heard of any mentions in the past four years by these companies that their generic claims are to safeguard the Skyblock name for other Minecrafters that provide inspired and non-commercial content. It is about protecting their own content on the Minecraft Marketplace and their own profits. If anyone is going to protect the third-party use of Skyblock within Minecraft, I believe I would be the one to do so.

    4) Skyblock being "generic" is actually a bit more problematic and difficult to determine than people think. We are talking about the usage of a word on a singular game such as Minecraft here. A true "generic" word is usually a universal term that is widely known to the general public to describe something, that spans across different languages, and may be commonly found in a dictionary. While some claim that Skyblock is used to describe a category on Minecraft and does not represent myself or the Skyblock website as a source of origin, this is more or less a lack of personal knowledge. Most inspired and non-commercial use of "Skyblock" on Minecraft is heavily related to the original and anyone that takes the initiative to do their own personal research will find us on Google or through the common knowledge of other Minecraft players, that this platform and myself, is in fact the origin source. We have been around for over a decade, accumulated millions of downloads, and we are the top search result on Google for the term, we are quite literally named "Skyblock" in itself, with numerous domains and prominent websites linking to here. If you were to discover what actual version of Skyblock was PewDiePie, CaptainSparklez, MrBeast, and so many prominent YouTubers were playing, you would find that they are not playing on a replicated copy of Skyblock because it is generic, but rather they are playing on the original version of Skyblock that I provided. This is a prime example of the fact that Skyblock is known as a singular and specific piece of downloadable content.

    There is also much to say about other content that is freely shared in the Minecraft community, but is not and will never be considered "generic" as a result. The usage of "Hunger Games" is a perfect example of a name that is most definitely used without consent and stems from the book/movie owned by Lionsgate Entertainment, yet no action has ever been taken to remove its usage since 2010. The mod named "Pixelmon" and the re-creation of Pokemon characters within Minecraft was also removed by The Pokemon Company years ago, however many iterations continue to exist. I do not think Minecraft and its third-parties are credible enough to invalidate a trademark or intellectual property rights when rampant unauthorized use of highly protected trademarks and copyrighted material have persisted on Minecraft with no involvement by Microsoft or Mojang since the games' inception. I have never heard of an instance of Microsoft or Mojang taking action against content posted on Planet Minecraft or similar third-party platforms.

    I can make another post documenting more of this and answer any questions the community may have if needed.
     
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  10. aace_
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    aace_ Active Member

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    yeahhhh lets go noobius crewbius
     
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  11. GAMER1232012
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    GAMER1232012 Well-Known Member

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    Thank you for joining the forum just to say this new player :heart:
     
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  12. Pumpkincreep
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    Pumpkincreep New Member

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    Im extremely sorry to hear that You have to go though such A troubling experience just to claim ownership of what is rightfully yours, man F microsoft, they are just A money guzzling and money minded company that wants to exploit creators for their own profits.... Is there any way that we can support you?, perhaps a reddit invasion of the microsoft subreddit... Or perhaps a go fund me? Anything any way that we can backlash against Mircosoft and their evil practices?
     
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  13. SWishNS
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    SWishNS New Member

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    (Made aware of this from Phoenix)
    All the love and support from here :heart:
     
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  14. Jo2000
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    Jo2000 New Member

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    You can do it!
     
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  15. FelixBTG
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    FelixBTG New Member

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    Dont let the compaines scare you, they know they can get away with it. I fully support you and hope for the best.
     
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  16. Ncladus
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    Ncladus New Member

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    Made this account to let you know you have our support!
     
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  17. Awesomolocity
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    Awesomolocity Well-Known Member

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    Quite frankly the 1st and 3rd points are just egregious accusations from people who likely never even heard of you until this happened and just assume the worst.

    But I greatly appreciate this post and the elaboration on some of the topics that have been cropping up as a result of this gaining attention. Still wishing you luck.
     
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  18. Zander Lewis
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    Zander Lewis New Member

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    Microsoft and the other companies are greedy, they have no right to steal what was originally created by you.
     
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  19. Kisuwiit
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    Kisuwiit New Member

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    I Hope u guys win ,
     
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  20. ATBackup
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    ATBackup New Member

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    Made my account to show my support I hope you can win and good luck!
     
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