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"Matthew Gerber" <matthew@digitaliris.com> writes:
> In lugnet.market.theory, Will Middelaer writes:
> > Those who would hold otherwise should check their premises. What is it that
> > they truly fear? The loss of their mark, or the loss of something that they
> > hold more precious than any commercial benefit that they might derive from
> > their trademark?
>
> Loss of identity is directly related to loss of trademark. Ask anyone going
> to "Kinko's" to make "Xeroxes" if they are truly visiting their local
> Kinko's branch to make photocopies on Xerox machines, or if they are going
> to Local Copies 'n' Stuff to make photocopies on a Konica machine...you'd be
> surprised at the answer.
I'll definitely agree with you about "Xerox" having lost its trademark
identity, but I don't think I've ever heard of "Kinko's" being used in
a generic sense. Maybe it's a regional difference (I'm in the San
Francisco Bay Area).
> > Closing thought experiment:
> >
> > What if bricksmith fell into general use to describe anyone who builds great
> > things our of our favorite bricks, akin to the way wordsmith describes an
> > author of great quality? Would such an action be objectionable, or more
> > importantly actionable? Can a person (natural or otherwise) or persons
> > claim ownership of a word to the exclusion of all non-attributed
> > use/uses/users? Jabberwocky!
>
> But would such use cause a decline in the marketability of the Guild of
> Bricksmith's name, in the same community? Yes. It could be assumed that
> anyone being called/calling themselves "bricksmith" was associated with the
> group, and that would be false. Is that actionable? To an extent. I would
> hope that it would be resolved privately, community member to community
> member, but if there was a serious monetary loss, GoB would be within their
> rights to take legal action, no?
Did you know that "Realtor" is a registered trademark? But I don't
think "Bricksmith" is. Only "Guild of Bricksmiths." If the GoB wants
to prevent other people from using the term "Bricksmith" they should
assert a trademark for that as well.
--Bill.
--
William R Ward bill@wards.net http://www.wards.net/~bill/
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