Velcro has a problem. It’s so famous and popular that its name has turned into an everyday word.
That’s a problem that many startups would love to have. Companies have lots to gain when their names become terms for concepts like search, teleconferencing, and shipping.
Yet it’s possible to have too much of a good thing. When a brand name grows to be so pervasive that it’s the only generic word for the product, it can’t be a registered trademark anymore. There’s even a legal term for this form of trademark death, which is — I kid you not — “genericide.”
Trademarks allow companies to bring lawsuits against anyone who uses their names in ways that might create confusion in the marketplace.
Like Holocaust™, ISIS™, etc.
From a theoretical market design perspective, then, wiping out trademark protection for names that enter everyday language makes sense: If “xerox” were to become the universal word for photocopying, then Epson would have to call its photocopiers “xerox machines” to sell them. If Xerox could then enforce its trademark against Epson — seeking damages or injunctions against the sale of Epson’s photocopiers simply for using the term “xerox” — that would hurt competition in the photocopier market.
Thus in practice, once a brand name comes to be a generic term, it can’t be a trademark. That’s what happened with aspirin, escalators, and yo-yos.
This creates some funny incentives. Early on, you want nothing more than for your company name to achieve enough fame to become a verb. But succeed spectacularly enough, and then—whoops! — you really, really want to get people to start using the generic term.
So what’s a brand on the brink of genericide to do? Advertise the generic term for its product, of course!
Watching a well-known brand advertise its product’s not-so-well-known generic name sounds like it should be hilarious — and it is.
Then why am I not laughing?
As an economist, it warms my heart to see companies responding to incentives in new and creative ways. Trademark-themed music videos, in particular, seem like they would be a great trend.
That said, if you’re at the point when you have to defend your trademark with viral videos, it’s likely that you’ve been making money for years off the fact that people look for your product even when somebody else’s would do.
That’s probably been good for your bottom line, but it might not have been good for consumers. And it means that in trademark terms, you may already be stuck.....
I won't say in what, but not for much longer.
--more--"
Here is $omething funny:
"Appeals court tosses $72m award in talcum powder case" by Margaret Stafford Associated Press October 17, 2017
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday that vacated a $72 million award to an Alabama woman who claimed her use of Johnson & Johnson products that contained talcum contributed to her ovarian cancer has thrown the fate of awards in similar cases into doubt.
The Missouri Eastern District Court’s ruled that Missouri was not the proper jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Ala., who claimed the baby powder she used for about 25 years contributed to her cancer. She died in 2015, about four months before her case went to trial in St. Louis Circuit Court. In February 2016, a jury awarded Fox $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages — the first award in the lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.
Dismissed on a technicality in what is an overt sign of what I call the corporate courts.
The appeals court cited a Supreme Court ruling in June that placed limits on where injury lawsuits could be filed, saying state courts cannot hear claims against companies not based in the state where alleged injuries occurred. The case involved suits against Bristol-Myers Squibb over the blood-thinning medication Plavix.
More than 1,000 others have filed similar lawsuits in St. Louis against Johnson & Johnson, which is based in Brunswick, N.J. In four of five trials held so far, jurors awarded more than $300 million combined. Only two of the 64 cases attached to Fox’s case are for plaintiffs in Missouri.
The company appealed all the awards against it and says its products are safe. A spokeswoman said after Tuesday’s ruling that Johnson & Johnson is confident its appeals will be successful.
‘‘In the cases involving nonresident plaintiffs who sued in the state of Missouri, we consistently argued that there was no jurisdiction and we expect the existing verdicts that we are appealing to be reversed,’’ spokeswoman Carole Goodrich said.
Jim Onder, who is representing many plaintiffs in the lawsuits, has argued that Missouri is a proper jurisdiction because Johnson & Johnson packages and labels some products in Missouri. Onder’s firm did not immediately return a call from the Associated Press Tuesday but he told The St. Louis Post Dispatch that the Supreme Court sent the Bristol case back to California state court and he is confident the Missouri Supreme Court will do the same.
Within days of the Supreme Court ruling, a mistrial was declared in a Missouri state court in another lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson that involved three plaintiffs, two from out of state. That trial has not yet been rescheduled.
Talc is a soft mineral that is widely used in personal care products to absorb moisture and for other products including paint and plastics.
Most research has established no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder, and most major health groups have said talc is harmless. But some smaller studies have found a small link and the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies genital use of talc as ‘‘possibly carcinogenic.’’
Print died there.
Ovarian cancer accounts for about 22,000 of the 1.7 million new cases of cancer likely to be diagnosed in the United States this year. Women’s risk factors for the ovarian cancer can include age, obesity, use of estrogen therapy after menopause, not having any children, certain genetic mutations and a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.
Yeah, I'm sure whatever is wrong is specific to being a woman or some other idiosyncratic reason and certainly not from poisonous products that come from the corporate $y$tem.
--more--"
That article, btw, was buried at the bottom of page B15 in my printed po$.
I'll bet more women have been affected by talc than anything Harvey or any other man did, unless he killed a woman.
Now go take a powder:
"Oscar winners Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lawrence used their speeches at a Hollywood event honoring women to detail experiences of assault and harassment at the hands of directors and producers and pledged to do more to stop such situations from happening. Witherspoon told the audience at the Elle Women in Hollywood Awards on Monday night that the recent revelation of decades of sexual misconduct allegations against producer Harvey Weinstein has prompted her own experiences to come back "very vividly." Witherspoon said she had "true disgust at the director who assaulted me when I was 16 years old and anger at the agents and the producers who made me feel that silence was a condition of my employment." Witherspoon didn't name the director. Her publicist didn't immediately respond to a request Tuesday for further comment. Lawrence detailed what she called a "degrading and humiliating" experience of being asked early on in her career to lose 15 pounds in two weeks for a role. She was then forced to pose nude alongside thinner women for photos that she says a female producer told her would serve as inspiration for her diet, she said. When she tried to speak up about the demands, Lawrence said she couldn't find a sympathetic ear from those in power. "I was trapped and I can see that now," Lawrence added. "I didn't want to be a whistle-blower. I didn't want these embarrassing stories talked about in a magazine. I just wanted a career."
Well, now she knows how the rest of us feel.
Was their turn in the barrel and the Globe only covered Reese.
Okay, I'll quit clowning around.
Katy Tur brings her election story to Boston
At the Edward M. Kennedy Institute?
I mean, I like the brothers, but c'mon!!
They must be on Bill Clinton's level.
Related:
Kerrigan to join Democratic field for Third District seat
It's Tsongas' seat!
Former employee claims racial discrimination in suit against Handel and Haydn Society
Thank God it's only white supremacist racism!
Here is a three-fingered salute for you.
Why did I blog today?
“I believe in the First Amendment,” FCC chairman Ajit Pai, a Trump appointee, said at an event in Washington. Pai, a Republican FCC member since 2012 who was elevated to chairman by Trump in January, said last month in Washington that freedom of speech “should unite Americans across the ideological spectrum.” Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democratic FCC commissioner, said on CNN Sunday that the FCC must support the First Amendment and can’t dictate what content should be on the airwaves. “History won’t be kind to silence,” she said....."
Guilt trip got to me.
"Harvey Weinstein is leaving the board of the film company he started, more than a week after the firm fired him following allegations of sexual harassment and rape. A person close to Weinstein who was not authorized to speak publicly about events at the company’s board meeting said Tuesday that he resigned. Weinstein holds a roughly 20 percent stake in his company, according to this person, who declined to comment on the future of that holding. Industry players have cut ties, or threatened to cut ties, with The Weinstein Co. in the aftermath of the abuse allegations. Board member Tarak Ben Ammar said Monday that it was negotiating a potential sale of all or part of the company. Company representatives did not immediately respond to questions."
At least they are talking about it, huh?
"A court in Russia’s capital ruled Tuesday to extend the house arrest of a widely revered theater and film director. Kirill Serebrennikov was detained and put under house arrest in August in a criminal case that sent shockwaves across Russia’s art community and raised fears of return to Soviet-style censorship. Investigators have accused him of scheming to embezzle about $1.1 million in government funds allocated for one of his productions and the projects he directed. Serebrennikov has called the accusations as absurd....."
At least he didn't sexually harass anyone.
The good thing about AmeriKa's pre$$ is it is self-censoring.
**********
Did I mention that you ladies were off the front page today?
The Hayward injury leads my sports section. It's not on my printed front page. I will confess that I watched most of the second half. The sad thing is he will get way more attention than the vets, but that's because he is more of an a$$et. Never mind the dead.
Hey, Raqqa is in ruins, the Iranian roadblock has been removed in Iraq, Israel is blocking peace (as usual), Afghanistan is a lost cause (how can the modest increase in troop strength can turn the tide when that goal couldn’t be achieved with tens of thousands of US forces?), and there is a new wave of refugees, but I'm sure it is all worth it in light of the lies that led to and perpetuate the wars. Maybe we will get the truth we already know in about 50 years.
Of course, the top story around here is Amazon (can Bo$ton beat $500 million in tax loot bribery?).
Related:
"Roy Price, the head of Amazon Studios, has resigned from his position amid allegations that he sexually harassed a producer of one of the company’s most high-profile shows. An Amazon Studios spokesman on Tuesday confirmed Price’s resignation. It follows his suspension by the company last week. Isa Hackett, a producer on ‘‘The Man in the High Castle,’’ described the 2015 encounter in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter on Thursday. She told the outlet that she was ready to talk about the ‘‘shocking and surreal’’ episode following bombshell reports detailing sexual harassment and assault allegations made against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein. ‘‘I think women inspire each other. I feel inspired by the other women who have been far braver than I am, who have come forward,’’ Hackett said. ‘‘I hope we all continue to inspire each other and ultimately create change.’’ According to Hackett, Price and she had been promoting the ‘‘The Man in the High Castle’’ at Comic-Con in San Diego and shared a cab with another Amazon executive who has since left the company. Hackett told the Reporter that Price relentlessly propositioned her."
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!
As expected, the insurance companies got their bailout -- and the state is going to get after those disparate prices for the same services (no names, please).
Meanwhile, they made the tests harder so not as many kids passed. Add the sanctuary state status to it and the lack of English proficiency is explainable. The shocking thing is:
"College officials complain that too many students cannot handle college-level work, forcing them to take remedial courses, even though they scored well on the old MCAS. Employers also say they’ve had difficulty hiring workers who can think critically and communicate clearly....."
Is that what they really want, and if you read further into the article the concern is now a return to teaching to the tests, period.
You know where it all starts, right?
The National lead is the spinning wheel of the Trump travel ban, which serves to keep the terror narrative front and center (what a turkey). Next thing you know they will be dressed as nuns. I'm sure there is a way to get around any border.
Oh, yeah, that martial law worry you had about Trump? The national emergency declaration going to come from an unexpected source and who in the world could argue? The police are here for a health and wellness check, after all. Why a battalion of "law enforcement" is needed I will never know (no follow up in Leominster today, and one has to question the official version as reported by the Globe and whether it is even real or just another excuse for a drill. Isn't there an outraged family out there somewhere?), and they apparently don't care about certain people dying (men, actually, and the cops are tight-lipped there, too) while exiling and absolving those truly responsible. Kill 'em any way you can, I suppose.
Vegas has pretty much disappeared from the daily coverage as the official version unravels in every direction. I'm not going to spend time trying to figure out the real/unreal or combination thereof, readers. The web is awash in all that stuff by others who have taken the vast bulk of their time the last few weeks to cover it. The fact that witnesses are dying and disappearing is reminiscent of the JFK cover up and astronomical odds against people A, B, and C being dead within a certain time frame. It's a mop-up job. Really makes one feel comfortable with the coming arrival of casinos here, huh?
I'm also disengaging from the new blazes that broke out Tuesday in other parts of the state (nothing from Spain today?) which -- despite official explanations that sound plausible -- are starting to look like arson. The pot farms have been burned down as well as the wineries, btw. Just another observation I came across that didn't make it into the papers. At least the pipelines are okay.
Even thought it's hot and getting hotter out there, don't drink the water -- or swim in it.
Yes, readers, the Globe is literally bull$h!t.
While the Globe is building a Bridj to Australia I'll take a ride in Bo$ton:
"The report, from Boston Consulting Group and the World Economic Forum, which joined with Boston officials in 2016 to develop self-driving car strategies, is geared to global policy makers as they grapple with the ascending technology. The optimistic predictions are based on the assumption the technology would be most widely used for taxis or shuttles, leading to a decrease in personal vehicle use. The report also assumes driverless cars will run on electricity rather than fossil fuels, benefitting the environment. There are some drawbacks, however....."
That's when I applied the brakes.
"Gains by health care companies led US stock indexes mostly higher Tuesday, pushing the market further into record territory. The Dow Jones industrial average briefly climbed above the 23,000 mark for the first time, settling just below the milestone. Slight gains nudged the Dow and Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes to new highs for the second straight day this week. Health care companies posted some of the biggest gains following strong earnings from UnitedHealth Group and Johnson & Johnson. News of a plan backed by the White House that would extend federal payments to health insurers also gave the sector a boost. Banks and other financial stocks declined the most. Packaged-food and beverage companies were also big laggards. Trading was mostly listless as investors sized up the latest company earnings and looked ahead to a full slate of corporate report cards later this week....."
Well, you know, what goes up must come down and it will be Trump's fault anyway.
Not supposed to say such things (it's like one of his game shows, isn't it?), but I'm flipping them off on my way out the door.
So sorry.
