[Eleazar Coding]

Again, not trying to be argumentative, just trying to defend myself. I want to make you guys happy, but please be reasonable with us, I'm begging you!

Quoting NedScott (from thread http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=214094 ):

That's basically what trademark law was made to do. It's to protect against things that are honestly confusing or damaging to the brand and its users. Just having Kodi in a group's name or referencing Kodi is not a trademark violation on its own. So naturally we'll be sure to double check anything reported to us to see if it is a trademark violation of not.

What about this thread where you guys clearly had no problem with us using the word Kodi on our site as long as it conformed to your written trademark guidelines? http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=215856

We've done a whole lot to try to please you guys, it's not fair to bully us and make us look bad when we continuously try to show you respect and make any reasonable changes. I'll make a lot of changes to the site to please you, but removal of the word Kodi doesn't seem reasonable, especially since you've already established a past precedence explicitly granting us permission, in addition to the fact that your trademark guidelines allow for it anyway.

I'd also think you should be slightly more concerned about this issue: http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=231762&page=2

[invisable]

First off nobody asked anyone to voice opinions on here.
And I wasn't going to.

I can honestly say I had no idea that this thread was on-going until after I raised my concerns on your site, to which you just dismissed...

Call me a shit distruber all you like, but you created this, if I'd of noticed it before you may not be in this mess..

Actually you would, you would have just locked the thread again.

[natethomas]

What about this thread where you guys clearly had no problem with us using the word Kodi on our site as long as it conformed to your written trademark guidelines? http://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=215856

Literally never once in that thread did any of us say you conformed to our guidelines. I said you were getting close. Even then you were still off. Then I discovered I had to police your site every five minutes to deal with the drift back to pretending to be us. I'm tired of policing. I'm tired of the casual way in which you use words to make it look like you are more official than we are. Even the absurd disclaimer, which appears to be down now, suggested that you made Kodi things, unlike the XBMC Foundation.

I genuinely don't know how anyone in that forum can still support your site.

[Eleazar Coding]

Did Amazon give you permission to talk about "Installing Kodi to the Amazon Fire TV?" According to what you're saying to me, that is just as bad. Surely Amazon REALLY doesn't want users installing Kodi (considering they sell their device for a loss on manufacturing cost in order to sell users content down the line), but are they threatening legal action against you for doing something that complies with their guidelines, no!

We've done everything we could since the beginning to make every change you had asked of us, and I will continue to do so within reason. I don't think that you can say our disclaimers aren't clearly apparent to users. I think that the XBMC Foundation would be much better off putting a more clear disclaimer on your site saying that you do not condone third party add-ons such as ours, it will help clarify things to users who find your site through Google looking for add-on support.

The following disclaimer is at the top of EVERY page on the front end of our site, until dismissed manually by the user:



The following disclaimer is on the footer of EVERY page of our web site, as well as higher up on every page of our Addon Library, and in many other places:

Kodi is a registered trademark of the XBMC Foundation. We are not connected to or in any other way affiliated with Kodi, Team Kodi, or the XBMC Foundation. Furthermore, any software, addons, or products offered by us will receive no support in official Kodi channels, including the Kodi forums and various social networks.

I've also gone as far as running contests on social media tonight specifically to spread the word that TV ADDONS is unofficial and not in any way associated with the XBMC Foundation, along with sharing this post which further clarifies things: http://www.tvaddons.ag/kodi-unofficial-addons/

[wsnipex]

We've done everything we could since the beginning to make every change you had asked of us, and I will continue to do so within reason.

You keep repeating this over and over, yet you keep ignoring the simple, one thing that was asked of you:
remove EVERY instance of the word kodi.

[Ned Scott]

You ether are unable or unwilling to understand reasonable directions for trademark use. A group that is shown to consistently violate a trademark can warrant harsher requirements. Think of this like a sort of "restraining order" regarding our trademark. Other people might not be under a "restraining order", but that's likely because they didn't abuse the situation for so long and to this extent.

[spank]

will someone please just answer post #40 as to why you allow dozens of site,s that are clearly breaking your trademark policies on a much higher level and yet you say nothing about them doing it but yet continue to bash eleazar and threaten with legal action and he is trying to work with you, be reasonable and work with him and he will get your matter resolved as he has clearly asked that of you many times.

[natethomas]

will someone please just answer post #40 as to why you allow dozens of site,s that are clearly breaking your trademark policies on a much higher level and yet you say nothing about them doing it but yet continue to bash eleazar and threaten with legal action and he is trying to work with you, be reasonable and work with him and he will get your matter resolved as he has clearly asked that of you many times.

Well this is an interesting first post. Though with that said, and even though I assume this is a sock account, I'll answer the question. It's because nobody has ever heard of those other sites. The most action by us goes against those who have caused and are continuing to cause the most harm. A site that has 70k FB fans and has been featured in various publications as a result of masquerading as us is going to get a stronger reaction than a site that no one has ever heard of, because those other sites simply aren't causing the degree of harm.

edit: See updated paragraph

[spank]

will someone please just answer post #40 as to why you allow dozens of site,s that are clearly breaking your trademark policies on a much higher level and yet you say nothing about them doing it but yet continue to bash eleazar and threaten with legal action and he is trying to work with you, be reasonable and work with him and he will get your matter resolved as he has clearly asked that of you many times.

Well this is an interesting first post.

i have been around awhile just never posted yet till now not a newbie by any means.

[spank]

will someone please just answer post #40 as to why you allow dozens of site,s that are clearly breaking your trademark policies on a much higher level and yet you say nothing about them doing it but yet continue to bash eleazar and threaten with legal action and he is trying to work with you, be reasonable and work with him and he will get your matter resolved as he has clearly asked that of you many times.

Well this is an interesting first post. Though with that said, and even though I assume this is a sock account, I'll answer the question. It's because nobody has ever heard of those other sites. The most action by us goes against those who have caused and are continuing to cause the most harm. A site that has 70k FB fans and has been featured in various publications as a result of masquerading as us is going to get a stronger reaction than a site that no one has ever heard of, because those other sites simply aren't causing the degree of harm.

edit: See updated paragraph

thank you for your reply as i was really wondering from your point of view why such a strong reaction to some with minor stuff on it that is at-least trying to work with you to get it resolved yet none to others that was really offending.

[natethomas]

thank you for your reply as i was really wondering from your point of view why such a strong reaction to some with minor stuff on it that is at-least trying to work with you to get it resolved yet none to others that was really offending.

The fact that you think pretending to be us and asking for donations because of the Kodi 15 release is "minor stuff" contributes to my theory that you are a sock account.

[Eleazar Coding]

Hold up, let me get one thing very straight: we asked for donations to help cover our server bills, offshore servers aren't cheap at all and we keep getting attacked by various other groups trying to hurt us. We've done everything we can do protect our users privacy and keep them from putting themselves at risk. Do we not have expenses too? I don't see a problem with giving people an option to donate.

We never pretended to be you, so don't say that just to make whoever reads it confused and think it's true. At no point have we ever claimed to be part of, affiliated, or endorsed by Team-Kodi or the XBMC Foundation or anything of the sort. Maybe a few times it wasn't blatently over-obvious "in your face" I'll admit, but nothing malicious or misrepresentative was ever done and we never claimed to be official at any point to anyone.

Again, we provide a good service to newbies, a friendly community where everyone is treated well. The reason people confuse the two of us is because the majority of users use Kodi exclusively with our add-ons, and for no other purpose whatsoever, don't deny that fact.

It's not because of anything we've done, we've gone out of our way to try to make it clear on many different occasions and our entire site is compliant with your trademark policy, in addition to the fact that we've previously done many things to please your team far behind the trademark policy requirements.

Again I'll end this by saying I love you guys and respect you, but you're being very unreasonable. With that being said, I'm trying to minimize the use of the word Kodi as much as possible on the site. I'm very sorry for all this, it was never my intention to piss anyone off.

[mnjm9b]

I have seen their website and while you may have an issue with the "grey area addons"
I really don't see where they have anything that would lead to trademark issues.

there is nothing that would make me believe that their site is or represents official kodi.

and as far as I can tell it looks like your issues are strictly grudge related.

I have a good amount of history dealing with trademark issues and I am sure if you have already talked to a lawyer
they should have already told you that you have no legal way to restrict them from talking about "KODI"

and unless they specifically release something calming to be from kodi and it isn't
then your really just waisting your time.
unless there is something I am missing...

I really have no stake in this quarrel, I just had to add my view.

[enen92]

Sure, since "xbmc addons for kodi" doesn't claim the addons for Kodi are from xbmc, being the only xbmc organization around the xbmc foundation.

[Martijn]

and yes i removed the useless posts.

They were false as we have enough evidence to show they are willingly trying to pretend to be us. Either on their website, through e-mail or social media. Even towards other websites.
Agree or not that's none of our concerns.