Originally Posted by
K. Cantwell
The issue probably comes down to international trade agreements and application of domestic law. What flies in Japan as intellectual property may not be valid in Argentina. Under Argentine law, the trademark may very well be valid.
Take a look at some of the cases involving the big internationals like Coca-Cola. They have literal battalions of people just working on keeping their property rights protected in the legion markets around the world.
I don't know much about Coke's property rights battles, but if I had to take a guess, I would imagine that they center around people trying to get away with selling knock-off Coke merchandise in a country where Coke's intellectual property rights are vague. I wonder if they ever have to worry about a situation where some country's court says, "I'm sorry, you can't call yourselves Coca-Cola here in Elbonia, because Bubba Bubbavitch over there already trademarked that name."
I'm wondering if perhaps an Argentine court would enforce this guy's property rights against, say, a guy who tried to start up a new club called MJER, but not against a foreigner who has been using the name for years (or centuries) prior to this guy's trademark.
Also, what is the limit of trademarking? If I were to try to trademark or copyright the word "computer," the courts would laugh at me. How would they react if there was no prior trademark on the name "judo" and I tried to get one? Don't you have to show some degree of originality when applying for a trademark, demonstrate that, in some way, your use of the term is unique? I watched oral arguments for a case where a pet toy company had tried to trademark a phrase like "Play Thing" or something like that-- the government was trying to deny the trademark on the grounds that it was not unique enough to justify exclusive use.
Then again, I heard a story a few years ago where there was this high school or college basketball star who had a really cool nickname. One of his classmates realized that the guy was likely to go pro and copyrighted the nickname, figuring that he would be able to get a cut of a potentially lucrative merchandising market. If I remember the story correctly, the courts were upholding his rights to the copyright at the expense of the player, so the franchise just wasn't using that nickname in any of their promotions.
David Sims
"Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum." - Terry Pratchet
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