Atlanteknology - Technology News for Atlantic Canada

Barney - Trade-mark or devil?

Here is an interesting story about the much loved (and sometimes reviled) purple T-Rex so familiar to kids.

It seems that some of those who despise Barney have been receiving not-so-happy letters from the lawyers who represent the company which owns the trade-mark for Barney. The offending behaviour? Pictures like the one shown.

The company managed to get itself sued for its actions - by a rights group which claims that the company is threatening free expression rights.

Here is what I suggest you take from this is you are a company and someone parodies your marks/images - be careful. I am sure that the negative press received from all of this more than makes up for any upside. Further, depending on the circumstances, it is an uphill battle to win a fight where someone is parodying your marks/logos.

Adsonfeet...well, ads on people who are walking

I mentioned a while back that I volunteer for an organisation called the Entrepreneurs' Forum - basically a not-for-profit that provides advises to new entrepreneurs or companies that are in their infancy or need some help getting past some particular hurdle or another. Join, it is fun and you will find it quite rewarding.

Anyway, the most recent event I attended had a company called Adsonfeet give a presentation. I will leave it to their site to more fully explain the business (a picture is worth a thousand words as the old saying goes) - essentially the company sells advertising in a very unique way - via flat panel monitors strapped to the chest of people hired to attend events/product launches and the like.

Very interesting and very unique. I am no ad executive but it looks like a great way to get the message out to the people you want to reach in a effective manner. Imagine having your ads running at the entrances to the Rolling Stones concerts.

(Incidentally, I have no affiliation with the company whatsoever).

The value of Intellectual Property

On several occasions (including just a few days ago) I have commented on the lack of knowledge the business community seems to have about the value of intellectual property. Many others have made the same comment.

One company that is not unaware is Google. One of Google's biggest assets is its name - Google (the name is trade-marked here in Canada and I would bet in most countries of any particular relevance. Unfortunately, some people have taken to using the name Google as a verb - ie. I am going to Google that and see what I come up with. This is wrong, wrong, wrong. And Google fights hard to stop such activities. Why? Because it depreciates the value of the trade-mark.

The purpose of the trade-mark is to distinguish Google's goods and services from those of its competitors - such as Altavista and others. If Google fails, it will join other names such as Kleenex, Xerox, Thermos and others which have, or have almost, lost their distinctiveness.

What does that mean? It means the name/logo no longer distinguishes the goods and services from those offered by another company.

So, this is why you see such articles as this one. This is no laughing matter for Google. Nor should it be one for any company or person who uses a trade-mark.

Apple also knows the value of a name and the risks associated with misuse. Hense its efforts to control the use of the word "Pod".

Proper: Can you use the Google search engine to get me some information on widgets?

Improper: Can you google widgets for me and make a report?

Ask Xerox, Thermos, Kleenex - its no laughing matter.

Sports pools and statistics

A collective sigh of relief went up across the USA (and perhaps all of North America) the other day and you may have heard it - when a USA District Court judge in St. Louis ruled that Major League Baseball and its players do not have the right to prevent third party use of player's names and playing records - in a for profit manner (ie. sports pools). The court ruled that this information cannot be copyrighted.

From a business perspective I note that sports pools are growing at a rate of 10% a year (according to the article). Not bad. Consider that one of the biggest sports related web businesses in the world originated in Nova Scotia (the name escapes me but they have been in the press numerous times).

Zinedine Zidane - hands off the head butt!

At long last, I get to blog about the now famous head butt. For those poor souls who are not soccer fans, a brief recap: During the dieing moments of the 2006 World Cup, Zinedine Zidane, who is one of the best players in the world (He won the equivalent of MVP of the World Cup) head butted an Italian player who had been (along with some of his team mates) hurtling insults at Zidane during the game. Certainly not exceptional conduct from any of them (both Zidane and the Italian were penalised afterwards).

All that aside, I saw an interesting article a few days back where a Chinese entrepreneur had trade-marked a silhouette of the incident (to avoid issues around the actual image itself). The enterprising chap hopes to sell the mark for 125k USD.

A number of issues surrounding this and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.  I have not seen the registration particulars but  one has to wonder what goods/services he is (or may) use the mark with. I do not know Chinese trade-mark law but in Canada the fellow might have had issues with respect to the possible misappropriation of personality and depending on how things played out, with respect to passing off.

All of this is to simply point out that the simplest of ideas/actions needs to be carefully considered before you partake of a course of action - least you get head butted by your opponent.

Business ignoring Intellectual Property

This is not exactly new news but I read an interesting story the other day from the UK. A law firm had commissioned a study and found that 80% of businesses have no idea of the financial value of their company's ideas and inventions. "No idea". Incredible.

The survey goes on to note that over 50% of companies do not know how to protect their business names. I have posted about this issue before and will probably do so again..and again. To state in a few words: registering the company name and/or a business name with the local companies registry does not protect the name so others cannot use it.

Intellectual Property is valuable. Ask Coke. Ask Research in Motion. Ask Pfizer or any drug maker. And protecting IP is not just for MNC's. Every company or business that has an asset, or whatever type, should protect it.

How much is a comma worth?

If you are Rogers Communications Inc. the answer is - around 2 million dollars (Cdn.).

This story is  a great example of why it is important to have good contracts in place. All too often I (and many other lawyers as well) hear the words "Give me something fast - no more that two pages" or similar statements. As I have said many times - you get what you pay for.

Here is the context. Aliant and Rogers entered into a contract to allow Rogers to use utility poles. The cost was approx. 9.50 per pole. The contract was to last 5 years with 5 year renewals after that.

Page 7 of the contract states: The agreement “shall continue in force for a period of five years from the date it is made, and thereafter for successive five year terms, unless and until terminated by one year prior notice in writing by either party.”

Aliant, relying on this wording, sought to cancel the contract on one year's notice, with a view to increasing the fee to over 28 dollars per pole.

Litigation ensued and ultimately the Court agreed with Aliant that the placement of the second comma meant that the contract could be cancelled during the initial 5 year term on one year's notice.
Without the comma, the notice would not had kicked in until the 5 year renewal periods.

The moral of the story is - saving a few dollars on your contracts at the front end could cots you much, much more at the back end if things go poorly.