Attached Link: Techdirt

Here's an article on [Techdirt](http://techdirt.com/articles/20071010/003145.shtml) about how virtual Aeron Chairs (at Second Life) may or may not violate the rights of furniture company Herman Miller.

From the article:
[quote]The company claims that these virtual Aeron chairs violate both copyrights and trademarks, but it's an open question whether or not that's necessarily true. The trademark claims may be somewhat stronger, but there's a point at which you need to take a step back and simply ask what's the harm being done here? It's a virtual world.[/quote]

Probably best to ask that in the Copyright Forum.

the harm may be that if they don't defend their trademark, they lose their right to their own name. I ain't a lawyer. do they use poser items in 2nd life? or is it the sims where they've been caught stealing poser items? I can never recall which one involves thievery, if any.

You can use the official Herman Miller chair models from their site:

http://www.hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Category/0,1564,a10-c410,00.html

later,

FlyerX

Attached Link: http://www.hermanmiller.com/CDA/SSA/Category/0,1564,a10-c410,00.html

They may have shot themselves in the foot by giving away the 3DS files on their site for free. How are they going to prove that the owners of the "Fakes" didn't just download the 3DS files from their own site and convert them themselves for use in their SIM's homes? I just downloaded all the chairs they are giving away and there's plenty more furniture pieces available there for free downloads besides just the chairs.

PS - Thanks for that link! It was like a 3D Visit to Ikea! Now I've got furniture for days.....

I think it's the idea that someone is making money. I imagine if you tried to sell the models from the site you'd get the same reaction.

It seems likely that the whole line of news stories is a very clever way of getting people to google for "Aeron Chair" and probably some of those will buy them. ;)

It sounds like a brand exercise to me. The idea being that if there are fakes of these chairs, they may not be fully "branded" i.e. not advertising back to the brand, or not looking exact.

Is like a story I have heard about someone working in a major clothes retailer. This person's job consisted on slashing and cutting clothes and shoes that hadn't been sold and thorw them away in a large rubbish bin. When asked why they had to be cut the reply was:
"Homeless people sometimes raid the bins and steal these clothes, so is detrimental to the brand to see tramps wearing their shoes or clothing" 

Attached Link: Herman Miller Combats Knockoffs in Second Life with Freebies

It's an interesting idea to offer free visualization models for companies that like to lay out their office designs in CAD programs. If they show off the new office layout, with specific CAD models, the customers will probably want them to buy those specific designs.

The heart of the issue here is the question of who owns intellectual property. It sounds as if Herman Miller sees a future in involvement with virtual worlds. Second Life, and other virtual worlds, continue to grow and have demonstrated a staying power. Some individuals can earn upwards to a six figure income at SL. That's not enough to make a signficant contribution to a large furniture company's profits, but it doesn't hurt to look towards the future. It's usually a good idea to be one of the first companies to exploit an emerging technology. 

The design world lives by the appeal of the aesthetics they create. When others take those designs and profit by them, they are taking money away from the designer. Poser content creators wouldn't be happy to see their designs being used in another virtual world even if the person, using their design, built an entirely new mesh from SL primitives.

Herman Miller isn't being unreasonable. They're offering free copies of their official chairs to people who have bought knockoffs and are politley asking the knockoff creators to knock it off.

don't have to Google it, I'm sitting in one...;)