111–120 of 124 posts
I find it completely hilarious that Marissa is not dogfooding. I know that someone else said this earlier in the thread, but why is this on Instagram and not flickr? Come on, at least use your own damn product. The correct answer to the objection of "but Instagram is better right now" is "I'm going to revitalize this product by using it for my own photos and commentary, even if it sucks right now." You don't want the…
Another interesting point is that, for some time now, movie distributors have used the FBI seal without licensing it. But that seal sure makes the video piracy warning look official! http://www.sonnyboo.com/images/tips/FBI.jpg
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Then you'll be surprised to learn that these were once trademarks: - Aspirin - Escalator - Yo-yo - Zipper
Zipper was a trademark?! I need a kleenex, and maybe a band-aid, and a ziploc to put the waste in :-(
Earlier quoted context omitted.
IIRC there was actually some talk of Adobe legal stepping in to stop the use of the term "photoshop" for editing an image. For obvious reason it went no-where.
They have sent letters to people using "photoshop" as a verb, especially in a general context where it's not clear that Adobe Photoshop is the editing software. Bic (pens) write to stop people using Bic instead of ballpoint. (Very successfully it seems, that's not a use I'm aware of.) Hoover try to stop people using hoover as a verb too. Google used to try to stop people using "google it" to mean "web search it". The…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no danger of these companies losing their trademark, anymore than Apple the iPhone maker is in danger of losing its trademark either because the term Apple is associated with other commercial products, e.g., Beatles records or because it is also a common word. The companies are worried about loss of "uniqueness" (aka. "trademark dilution"), which is a special form of protection that famous and unambiguous tr…
Then you'll be surprised to learn that these were once trademarks: - Aspirin - Escalator - Yo-yo - Zipper
and here is the opposite effect, the new windows 8 logo: http://i50.tinypic.com/15oidfb.jpg A clean, simple, elegant logo, completely ruined by the honking TM and (R) injected by the lawyers. The bizarre presence of two separate legalese-related sigils on a single logo makes it impossible to miss. Also makes it clear who is running the place.
It's always been that way. Remember the Windows 95 and Windows NT startup screens? Take this for instance: http://www.guidebookgallery.org/screenshots/winnt40 In particular: http://www.guidebookgallery.org/pics/gui/startupshutdown/spl... It wasn't uncommon for Microsoft to have their name mentioned 4 or 5 times on a single screen, alongside copyright symbols, trademarks, and other crap.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Only if it’s possessive; apostrophes aren’t for plurals. They refer to their employees as Yahoo!s, which I guess is supposed to be pronounced with an alveolar click.
That's not strictly true. It is partially a matter of editorial style, and many standards have exceptions where apostrophes are used to form plurals. For example almost everyone agrees that single letters are pluralized with an apostrophe. It is somewhat less common to prescribe an apostrophe in the case of a number either. When this is not allowed, an exception is sometimes made for pluralizing the number zero so th…
But, as a grocer would say, tomatoe’s, tomatoe’s.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But it can lead to the loss of the trademark if it becomes a common word. Anyone can brand their product with it. This happened (or at least went to court) with Hoover in the UK I think. Hoover had become the generic term for a Vacuum Cleaner and so any company could make and sell products described as Hoovers (or at least it was an open legal question). This means it is far from crazy to defend a trademark from gene…
There is no danger of these companies losing their trademark, anymore than Apple the iPhone maker is in danger of losing its trademark either because the term Apple is associated with other commercial products, e.g., Beatles records or because it is also a common word. The companies are worried about loss of "uniqueness" (aka. "trademark dilution"), which is a special form of protection that famous and unambiguous tr…
