Bob wrote: >In the desire to legally protect intellectual property, here's a >good idea gone bad >...
<snipped> American companies were the first to trademark common turns of phrase in their advertising copy. The 3 Ms: Micro$oft, McDonalds and Monsanto need reining in. I searched for a local company, AOS Technology. They better watch out: no doubt Bill has a bot searching for top-ranking Google hits, so he can take pleasure squashing rivals in unrelated industries, because I see M$ now has their own AOS Technology, whatever that may be. McDonalds also zealously guard their "good" name and squash any trademark infringements or dissent, while bribing kiddies with Disney spinoffs. I don't like Disney cos they don't like beards, and a lady can display as much facial hair as she wants as far as I'm concerned. Monsanto seek to force-feed their GM foods to unwilling consumers in Europe. Generally, these US corporations pursue cases that make them look heavy-handed and stupid. They seem to have legal departments seeking to justify their existence, but the end result is a harming of the company image. Why the heck shouldn't Parma protect the good name of their traditional products (ham, as well as cheese). Didn't Hormel Foods try to do the same over Spam? My local town's pork pies are a protected name: you or anyone can try making and selling pork pies, but you better not call them Melton Mowbray Pork Pies if you are from outside of the designated area. Same goes for Stilton Cheese. Call it something else and build your own sales and your own reputation for quality, cheapness, exclusivity-due-to-erratic-supply or whatever else constitutes your Unique Selling Points(TM). Long live regional foods! -- as well as standardized irradiated pap available globally for wary tourists with weak stomachs (due to the pap they usually eat...). Something to watch out for: Human Rights being extended to Corporations. Best regards, Jake Young 2003-01-18 14:30:29 GMT
