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| Authored by: PJ on Tuesday, May 14 2013 @ 01:15 PM EDT |
You've misdiagnosed. Trademarks are to protect
two things: 1) the public and 2) the reputation of
a business.
How so? Well, let's say you attend an event
with Olympics in the name, and it turns out to
be a cult religious event, and they've locked
you in?
Extreme example to make the point. You'd be very
distressed because you maybe thought the event
was being put on by the real Olympics people, so
you trusted it.
Same with a product. Let's say you go to buy
a medicine, and instead you get a product with
a very similar name, but it's snake oil. You
bought it thinking it was the product you like
to use, and you were fooled.
Don't say that example is extreme. I once bought
a router thinking it was a Linksys, and it was
a Chinese knockoff with a similar but slightly
different name.
I was beyond angry and rather embarrassed when
I tried to call tech support and realized what
had happened.
That's the first prong of the protection. Trademarks
are supposed to protect me and you from being fooled.
Now, what if I never realize I have a Brand X
knockoff and when it doesn't work well I decide
that Linksys makes terrible products. I never
buy that brand again because of my confusion.
Is that fair to Linksys?
See the problem? That is what trademark is all
about.
And it's not related to ego. It's about protection,
and the way the law is written, if you let
people use the mark without protest, you end up
losing your mark. So lawyers have to make sure
that doesn't happen, or your brand ends up
belonging to no one and everyone, and all your
hard work is gone down the drain.[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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