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Welcome to Techsurvivors => Community => Topic started by: krissel on June 29, 2010, 03:25:13 AM

Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: krissel on June 29, 2010, 03:25:13 AM
Yep, you read that right.

http://thinkgeek.com/blog/2010/06/official...ever-cease.html

And they have a history of ridiculous cease and desist letters:

http://thelactivist.blogspot.com/2007/02/o...-stomps-on.html


Lawyers at work.. rolleyes.gif
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: kimmer on June 29, 2010, 03:53:07 AM
Oh. Good. Grief.  wacko.gif
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: chriskleeman on June 29, 2010, 09:20:29 AM
That's going to make me think twice before I cook my next pork chop!

Unbelievable!

Chris  rolleyes.gif
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: Highmac on June 29, 2010, 04:07:23 PM
Can't really blame the lawyers - if someone hires them to write a daft letter, why would they turn away the business? ;)Can't really blame the lawyers - if someone hires them to write a daft letter, why would they turn away the business? wink.gif
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: Xairbusdriver on June 29, 2010, 05:24:03 PM
Copyrights/Brand names/private property laws don't hold up well if you don't make use of them. "Use it or lose it!" Of course, some companies need a bit more humor in their legal departments, assuming there is any at all... rolleyes.gif When I saw the ads, I immediately thought about complaints from the makers of Spam (and I'm not talking about the email kind). The 'block of 'meat' looked just like what comes out of those Spam cans (coloring supplied by Photoshop, I suspect). rofl.gif
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: gunug on June 30, 2010, 12:45:10 AM
Now wait a dawg-gone minute; I swear I saw Unicorn Meat on a shelf in a grocery store somewhere along the Mississippi River between Lacross, Wisconsin to the south and Redwing, Minnesota in the north.  It's all a blur but this is an unreasonable facsimile of it:



I don't think this had anything to do with whatever people see in Baraboo, Wisconsin!  
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: tacit on July 02, 2010, 03:01:53 AM
A lot of people think this is silly, and it is, but not for the reasons they think. The pork board has no choice; they are obligated to write these cease and desist letters, because of the way that trademark law is written in the United States.

A brand name or slogan is part of trademark law. People often confuse trademark and copyright, but they are not related. A trademark is a special case of a patent; trademarks are handled by the PTO, the Patent and Trademark Office of the government.

There's a provision in US trademark law that says that if you own a trademark, and someone else infringes the trademark in any way for any reason even for parody--copyright law protects parody, but trademark law does not), and you do not go after the infringer...Poof! You lose the trademark.

It doesn't matter who infringes the trademark, or how big they are, or for what purpose. If someone infringes and you don't go after them, your trademark is voided. If you want to keep the trademark, you have no choice but to go after every infringement, no matter how trivial or silly it is.
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: Xairbusdriver on July 02, 2010, 05:24:50 PM
"Use it or lose it!" "Protest or lose it." wink.gif
Title: Pork Board goes after Unicorn meat slogan
Post by: krissel on July 03, 2010, 04:28:54 AM
True that they need to protect their trademark, but that is "The OTHER white meat".  The phony ad used "The NEW white meat".  So now they're saying no one can use the term "white meat" in any way?

And the other spurious letter was not the same motto either.  I think they just go after anything that even comes close and hope that the people are too scared to resist.

Again, lawyers... phooey.  getsick.gif