Coca-Cola-Amatil and 'branding' of chips

[George Michaelson]

Anybody see the story in the OZ today about the mighty CCA going to court
over a knockoff kettlechips brandname? They copied the logo, colour and
name from a small independant, tried to drive them out of the market and
now are being taken to court with a $10million restitution order for breaking
the trademark  (I believe, I only skim read it)

I found it really amazing, in the context of their own action to protect
the coke and coca-cola branding, and their participation in online name and
trademark issues over the years.

Also, Ajax.org is under attack from colgate-palmolive who want to protect their
core asset trademark, dispite .org being for non-commercial orgs and there 
being little or no conflict, and considerable prior art of the word Ajax having
meaning outside of powdery loo cleaner.

Personally, I think branding and trademark is a load of crap. If I want to
call my photocopies xeroxes, listen to a walkman bought from Sanyo, and hoover
up the dust with an electrolux, then the marketeers just have to wear it. They
can kiss my XXXX! (I wanted to put in sellotape, scotchtape, and durex but
its more an american/british thing than a global naming phenomonon)

And then there's the ABC radio national story about trademarking noises. 
Sheesh!

-George
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George Michaelson         |  DSTC Pty Ltd
Email: ggm@dstc.edu.au    |  University of Qld 4072
Phone: +61 7 3365 4310    |  Australia
  Fax: +61 7 3365 4311    |  http://www.dstc.edu.au