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Subject: 
Trademarks and misspellings.... oh my! (WAS:Re: Where did the lego's go?)
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.general, lugnet.off-topic.fun
Followup-To: 
lugnet.off-topic.fun
Date: 
Fri, 21 Mar 2003 01:18:37 GMT
Viewed: 
2115 times
  
In lugnet.general, David Gregory writes:
In lugnet.general, Dave Schuler writes:

Since it's a brand name, I would say that *you* are misspelling "Bloks"
rather than Ritvik misspelling "Blocks."

I have an inherent mistrust for people who purposely misspell small words.

Like 'LEGO'?  ;)

Is it misspelled or just invented?  Either way, it's not a word that's
likely to be recognized by many scholars as being spelled correctly.

(Diet Rite, Krazy Krackers, etc.)  My theory is that if they can't get the
small details right, how can they do well on the important things?

Actually, there's a very serious reason why companies purposely misspell
words when naming their products or companies.  It has little to do with
their ability to handle details and everything to do with protecting
themselves legally.  Remember that you cannot trademark a plain dictionary
word.  That's why the LEGO company isn't called 'The Plastic Brick' company.  :)

Krispy Kreme donuts doesn't spell their name that way because they're trying
to be klever.  They are doing it so that you can't come along and use their
name for purposes other than their business model.  The Kleenex brand name
is one of the classic examples of this.  While we substitute their name all
the time for facial tissue, the two are not the same.

(And the
people who spell "through" as "thru"...RRRRR!  One day I'll get them all!)

Phonetic spelling.  A personal crusade of mine.  A simplified system of
spelling, using a phonetic alphabet, could potentially save up to 25% of all
the words/characters written or typed.(1)  Imagine catching up on your email
in only 3/4 of the time it takes using current spelling.  :)

Regards,
Allan B.

(1) By the way, your example above resulted in a keystroke savings of almost
43% on that word.  Congratulations.  ;)

A better system would use a single letter to represent the 'th' sound at the
beginning of the word. (Meaning the word 'through' should really be spelled
using only 3 letters)  It would also make words easier to spell for people
just learning the language, be they young or old.  To be honest, I'm often
split on this subject.  While the history and heritage of English is a
wonderful story, it's modern implementation can be downright frustrating.
It's good, but I think it could be better.



Message has 2 Replies:
  Re: Trademarks and misspellings.... oh my! (WAS:Re: Where did the lego's go?)
 
(...) DUDE! Do your lego research! 'LEGO' was originally derived by Ole Kirk Christianson as a contraction of the Danish phrase 'leg godt,' meaning, "play well." However, 'lego' is also latin for 'to put together.' <snip> (...) Actually, lego was (...) (22 years ago, 21-Mar-03, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)
  Re: Trademarks and misspellings... oh my! (WAS:Re: Where did the lego's go?)
 
DUDE! I totally agree with you on the whole phonetic-spelling-is-better thing. I know that English has the most horrific spelling of any language on the planet, but if people are writing in that language, then they should spell the words right. (...) (22 years ago, 21-Mar-03, to lugnet.off-topic.fun)

Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Where did the lego's go?
 
(...) Nope. My Toys R Us only has a few Galidor left and no Jack Stone. (...) I work at a hardware store called Menard's. They aren't all over the country like Lowe's. We're based in Wisconsin and don't have any stores south of Indiana. I think (...) (22 years ago, 20-Mar-03, to lugnet.general)

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