Friday, January 30, 2015

Stupid Trademark Tricks

This is just a dumb interpretation of what trademark law is supposed to be (of course like all IP law, it just gets worse and worse in practice). It isn't supposed to give its owners monopoly use of the term, just prevent other businesses from confusing customers. No one thinks the bar around the corner is having the actual Super Bowl, they're just putting the game on the damn TVs. If I rented out a nearby high school field, started advertising "PHOENIX AREA SUPER BOWL," and pitted a couple of high school teams togther then the NFL would have reasonable (if still stupid) cause to complain.

In other words, McDonald's hardware store should be fine, my opening a non-franchise "McDonald's" hamburger joint would not be fine, and McDowell's and his Golden Arcs are probably going to have some problems.