Look out Moho! ToonBoom goes on warpath

The400th · Post by **The400th** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:24 am

According to ToonBoom's home page, http://www.toonboom.com, they've got a restraining order against Bauhaus for using the ToonBoom name in the Mirage marketing. The bizarre thing is, Bauhaus were encouraging people to use both softwares together, not switch from ToonBoom to Mirage. Even more bizarrely, ToonBoom seem proud of this victory, boasting about it on their front page.

Is this going to be the way of the future? Software companies suing each other instead of competing on price and features? In battles like this, whoever wins, we as customers will lose.

Is Lost Marble going to have to be careful even mentioning how Moho could work with another software package?

stephklein · Post by **stephklein** » Wed Jan 25, 2006 11:35 pm

Unless i'm mistaken, isnt it perfectly legal to use the name of another product when advertising for your own product? I think the rule (for television, anyways) is that you can say or show the product name, but you can't do both... or something. How else could Coke and Pepsi use eachothers products in their television commercials (which they do all the time)?

The400th · Post by **The400th** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 10:48 am

We'll never know how they convinced the judge to do it, but it's a very bad precedent to set. If they're trying to stifle competition, I guess they're looking to be the new Microsoft...

gavi dvan · Post by **gavi dvan** » Tue Jan 31, 2006 6:41 am

I constantly see the ads for Duracell batteries, and they're all like "Duracell batteries run up to 316471* times longer than Energiser batteries!" Or was it Energiser longer than Duracell? Ah I don't know, shows how well the ad worked. Anyway, I always thought that was a bit, harsh maybe, as most other ads are just like "Weet-bix are better than everything else, not mentioning any names."

What these ToonBoom guys are doing seems a bit outlandish, it appears to me they were just getting free advertising, sheesh. But I guess we do live in the lawsuit era... It's friggin' ridiculous.

* = Estimate based on random finger motions

jorgy · Post by **jorgy** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 12:05 am

I always thought that it was funny that many ads would say "No other detergent is better." To me, that means that they are all just exactly the same!

myles · Post by **myles** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 7:20 am

Going completely off-topic:

gavi dvan wrote:I constantly see the ads for Duracell batteries, and they're all like "Duracell batteries run up to 316471* times longer than Energiser batteries!" Or was it Energiser longer than Duracell? Ah I don't know, shows how well the ad worked. Anyway, I always thought that was a bit, harsh maybe, as most other ads are just like "Weet-bix are better than everything else, not mentioning any names."

* = Estimate based on random finger motions

What amuses me about those ads is they compare Duracell alkaline batteries against Energizer/Eveready Super Heavy Duty (carbon-zinc) batteries, an older technology, when Energizer/Eveready alkaline batteries were readily available from about the same time as Duracell alkaline batteries.

It's like saying - our cars go 4 times the speed of coal-powered trains.
Erm, diesel and electric trains? We won't mention them, and hope nobody notices.

Regards, Myles.

Rhoel · Post by **Rhoel** » Fri Feb 10, 2006 5:26 am

What is blindingly stupid is that Toon-Boom is actually advertising thier competitor!

Fact: I was not aware of the Bauhuas software.
Fact: I am now, thank you Toon Boom.
Fact: I like Bauhaus pricing structure.
Fact: I am now evaluating Bauhaus for the studio - our current P&T only runs on Win95. I need to have either Linux or WinXP.

All I can say to TB is "You guys are DUMB!"