No, K-C still owns the trademark to the Kleenex name. It's NOT generic for tissues in the legal term of art definition of generic. Maybe you meant to write how Bayer lost Aspirin, and now "aspirin" is generic for pain killer.
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Apple Targets New York City Stores Selling Counterfeit Apple Products
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No, K-C still owns the trademark to the Kleenex name. It's NOT generic for tissues in the legal term of art definition of generic. Maybe you meant to write how Bayer lost Aspirin, and now "aspirin" is generic for pain killer.
Actually, no. Bayer's trademarks and patent rights were seized, by the UK, US and France, after WW1. Aspirin is still a trademark in many countries.
Bayer eventually reacquired US rights to its name through acquisition of parts of the former Sterling Drug, which owned the US rights to the Bayer name after WW1.
sing this to the Brady Bunch melody
Here's the story, of two stores named Apple
One of them had Story in the name.
All of them had Apple logos, made in China,
But only one was real.
Here's the story, of Joe Consumer,
Who was busy working all day long,
He's oppressed by this god-awful economy,
He just wants cheap goods.
Till the one day when Joe walked by Apple Story
He was tired from working all week long,
He just needed a new case for His iPad.
He didn't see much wrong.
That's the way that Apple, Inc. went under
They went under,
That's the way the real Apple, Inc. went under.
dah-du-dah-dah, da-da-da
Here's the story, of two stores named Apple
One of them had Story in the name.
All of them had Apple logos, made in China,
But only one was real.
Here's the story, of Joe Consumer,
Who was busy working all day long,
He's oppressed by this god-awful economy,
He just wants cheap goods.
Till the one day when Joe walked by Apple Story
He was tired from working all week long,
He just needed a new case for His iPad.
He didn't see much wrong.
That's the way that Apple, Inc. went under
They went under,
That's the way the real Apple, Inc. went under.
dah-du-dah-dah, da-da-da
Apple has every right to seize all counterfeits especially if they have the logo of being made by apple. If one of the accessory's broke a persons device or caused it to harm them, the person would point their finger at Apple when the product was made by someone completely different. Counterfeiting apple products is just counterfeiting money, don't do it, its illegal.
You are correct with the seizer of Bayer's assets including trademarks. In the U.S. it was sold to Sterling including the trademark name of Aspirin.
Sterling then lost the trademark to Aspirin when it was ruled a genericized trademark in a U.S. federal court in 1921.
As you said Bayer bought Sterling in 1994 and regained its name and most trademarks. It didn't regain the Aspirin trademark due to the 1921 court ruling.
I love that about NYC: There are plenty of people willing to open a public store and brazenly sell counterfeit crap for as long as possible until they are shut down.
When I worked there I would walk about a mile between GCT and my office and you'd see the counterfeit busts pretty frequently. They sieze all the crap from the store so it's a pretty big production. Once they worked their way down a line of stores near my work -- each day another one or two of the storefronts would get busted. The stores I saw were always selling boring crap though. I kind of wish I had a chance to go to the "Apple Story".
When I worked there I would walk about a mile between GCT and my office and you'd see the counterfeit busts pretty frequently. They sieze all the crap from the store so it's a pretty big production. Once they worked their way down a line of stores near my work -- each day another one or two of the storefronts would get busted. The stores I saw were always selling boring crap though. I kind of wish I had a chance to go to the "Apple Story".
To maintain a trademark as famous as Apple's, you have to aggressively defend it. As soon as they let one or two things slide, TM infringement starts snowballing.
Seriously?
As I said I would do in an earlier post, I stopped by the Apple Story today. I really can't understand why Apple is going after them. They're buried on Main Street, where stores crowd themselves out and typically come and go all the time. Then they're on the third floor of an Asian shopping mall, and they look like any generic Apple case reseller. I really think Apple has bigger fish to fry, and needn't waste time on a store that might be gone in a month anyways. Even so, apparently the pressure is having an effect, as the Apple Story is no longer called the Apple Story:
Guess that changed today.
Guess that changed today.
I absolutely love the name. "Apple Story." Reminds me of the quaint but somewhat nonsensical English names of various boutiques here in Tokyo.
Not that I condone Apple Story's purported violation of Apple's trademarks. But man, that's a great name.
Not that I condone Apple Story's purported violation of Apple's trademarks. But man, that's a great name.
If these brand copycats are left unchecked, this can happen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c06UGidzqQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c06UGidzqQ&feature=related
Every other article is about Apple suing, shutting down, arresting or breaking somebodys door down. The Apple gestapo isout of control and people are ok with it because they own an ipad and they love the apple.
Satire.
Other names they could go with:
Cheep Apple Cases
Kase Klowns
Apple Clothes
Apple Skin
Unforbidden Fruit
Correct, Bayer never lost the trademark due to it becoming genericized, Sterling did; and they (Bayer) still own it in a number of other countries.
In no way would the legal citizens of this country believe it is okay for a company to sell counterfeit products and not suffer the legal consequences. What is surprises me is that the police have not arrested the criminals.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
lmao at this thread!
Will apple start employing gestapo geniuses to roam the streets of NYC!
IMO, you would have to be pretty stupid to not recognize that the merchandise of these counterfeiters are imitations.
Maybe apple should start using the ol' Hugo Boss catchword:
Don't Imitate, Innovate
Will apple start employing gestapo geniuses to roam the streets of NYC!
IMO, you would have to be pretty stupid to not recognize that the merchandise of these counterfeiters are imitations.
Maybe apple should start using the ol' Hugo Boss catchword:
Don't Imitate, Innovate
If he was oppressed by the economy, why would he have bought an iPad? (Maybe you meant depressed, ImAlwaysWrong ... unless you were speaking politically.)
Apple is not the bad guy here. The bad guys are the people who continue buying Made in China cheap kraap that has been designed poorly and has a life expectancy of a week.
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
lol - a week would be wishful thinking!
I recently was in Tibet, where one member of our group was sold an imitation iphone - at first glance it looked identical to the ip4.. the os was cloned well too.. It had dual sim, also.
The bad points, 3g was useless in Tibet/Nepal.. no wifi; blutooth was very hit n' miss. to warranty, no instructions,no app store, no support! All for $150!
There was an ability to add andriod apps, and this of course did not work!
The thing died after 72hrs! Lesson learnt really!