FC: More on Pillsbury's nastygrams to geeks using term "bake-off"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 12:23:06 -0500
From: "Roger H. Goun" <roger () bcah com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: Re: FC: Pillsbury sends lawyer nastygrams to geeks using term 
"bake-off"

Declan,

You will recall that the late Carl Sagan objected to the use of
his name as the internal code name for a project at Apple Computer.
Annoyed employees renamed the project "BHA", which stood for
"Butt-Head Astronomer". Sagan sued and lost. [1]

Somehow BHCPGM ("Butt-Head Consumer Packaged Goods Manufacturer")
doesn't have the same ring to it. Pity.

[1] http://www.wirednews.com/wired/archive/2.12/flux.html

-- Roger

--
   - o    Roger H. Goun, Senior Staff Kennel Boy   GPG Key ID: B2FD0C65
  - /-->  Brentwood Country Animal Hospital, P.C.
 - @~\_   Exeter, New Hampshire, USA

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From: "McGuire,Michael" <michael.mcguire () gartner com>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Cc: ron () pulver com
Subject: RE: Pillsbury sends lawyer nastygrams to geeks using term "bake-o
        ff"
Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2001 09:42:47 -0800

Now there's an excellent use of time and energy. Taking on Pillsbury because
hundreds of engineers and marketing people don't have much of an
imagination??? Better Ron et al spend their spare cycles working on their
products, or maybe work to protect the environment.  Something. Anything.
m2
p.s. Of course, Pillsbury's PR/Marketing folks will love the chance to
defend the good "Pillsbury" name.


Mike McGuire
Internet Technology & Society
Gartner's e-Business Services
408-468-8331- voice
michael.mcguire () gartner com - e-mail

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Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 11:21:33 +1100
From: Nathan Cochrane <ncochrane () theage fairfax com au>
Organization: The Age newspaper
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Pillsbury sends lawyer nastygrams to geeks using 
term"bake-off"

Our newspaper last year received a similar threatening letter from US
company, Lockheed Martin, claiming international trademark protection on
the generally used term, "skunk works". Lockheed Martin has the domain
name, skunkworks.net. It developed the skunkworks concept before WWII as
a way to quickly develop new technology for the war effort. Google shows
14,600 entries on the term "skunk works" and 315 on "skunkworks".

A definition for skunk works is a research facility, generally divorced
from the main commercial activity of its sponsoring corporate entity,
where innovation can proceed without the daily economic pressures. It
also gives the, usually multidisciplinary, team a greater degree of
autonomy, and the ability to research fields that are not easy to pigeon
hole due to their nascent stages.

According to the book, "Skunk Works: The Official History" by Andy Bush,
the term Skunk Works is a debasement of "Skonk Works", a brewery in the
Al Capp Li'l Abner newspaper comic strip. Apparently, Capp objected to
the plane maker's usage, and the term was changed. A picture of the
protected skunk is here:
http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/features/skunkworks/fig3_small.jpg

What is more galling, is these are not terms that by using them in any
way detracts from the intellectual property of the owner. The negative
publicity that comes from these tactics does more to diminish the asset
than a casual use of the word(s). The nature of language is that words
will pass into common usage if they serve a purpose, and in turn will
some day pass out. The day is close that we will have to put "tm", "r"
and "(c)" after every single word or multiples of words. It is a
ridiculous assault on free speech and expression.

Companies that own trademarks should protect them if they are being used
by rivals to pass themselves off as their competitors. Otherwise, they
should stay out of our communications. The alternative is that the law
surrounding trademarks should be tightened to avoid these creeping
abuses of intellectual property monopoly power, or we should abandon all
intellectual property entirely.

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