Update: Seth Godin on trade marks
A couple of days ago I bought a kit-kat. (Wait a second, I swear this isn’t turning to THAT kind of blog)
While munching on it, getting my chocolate fix (I’m a hopeless sweet-tooth), I suddenly noticed on the back, hovering between the nutrition table and the contact info, was a sentence.
“It’s good to know™“
click the image to see it full size)Now, I’m not saying it is not good to know the nutritional price of a kit-kat, or to have someone to talk to about it, or other kit-kat related issues.
But trade marking “it’s good know”?!What’s that about?
How did this idea came to be?
Who supported it? Actually thought it was a good idea? (Good? Great, otherwise – how would you justify the legal costs?)
Who was the one to apply and trade-marked it?
Successfully?!
Is that a world wide trade mark?
It’s good to know truth is still stranger then fiction.
It’s even better to know the output of corporate culture is often stranger than both.
Damn, I hope I haven’t infringed on Nestlé’s trade-mark, their corporate reputation hints they are not to be messed with…
Update (Nov 7th 2006): Richard Veryard points that Rabbi Friedman also says it’s good to know(TM). Religion using knowledge as trademark makes sense in weird way.
Technorati Tags: marketing, branding, trademarks, trademark, Nestle, Nestlé, legal
David Weinberger says “Oy”.
http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/its_good_to_know_is_trademarke.html
Yeah, I noticed that.
Say, Hanan, have you started a career as a human trackback?
I’m not sure what “TM” means in the UK/EU, but in the U.S. it simply means that the user is using the mark as a trademark and is asserting (common-law) trademark rights in the mark. The “®” symbol means that the trademark has actually been registered at the US Patent and Trademark Office. Regardless of the legal import of the “TM” usage, Nestlé seems in this case to be extremely silly.
Matt, I have feeling you may be right (on both accounts).
Matt,
You’re right – it has the same meaning in the UK as it does in the US. TM means the company is asserting an unregistered trademark; however, if it is unregistered the only recourse for infringement would be an action for ‘passing off’, based on the grounds that the company has a reputation associated with the trademark which the other party is trying to exploit. I think Nestlé would have a rather difficult time proving that the term “it’s good to know” is an integral part of their brand’s reputation! As you said, very silly indeed!
I just watched Scarface this evening and noticed he had a huge TM on his cushions (I think they were cushions).
Maybe Nestlé are saying in a roundabout sort of way “It’s good to know Scarface.”
Or maybe not.