[d@DCC] What is "intellectual property"?

[Kristofer Coward]

On Thu, Sep 26, 2002 at 09:30:30PM -0400, Jason Young wrote:
> >My gf's parents run a company
> >that operates in countries where trademark laws are poorly enforced,
> >and have had problems where they recieved complaints about the poor
> >service recieved from people operating under their business name
> 
> Do you think that your gf's parent's business is being harmed by the 
> actions of 3d parties who do not recognize their trademark in 
> countries with poorly enforced trademark laws? Put another way, do 
> you think Intel litigates the 3d party use of "something inside" to 
> protect consumers or to protect the integrity of their brand? Before 
> Intel branded chips, nobody cared what was inside.

Given the nature of their business, there is a very real possibility
that other people abusing their name could illegally enslave would-be
clients (this is also why they're involved in working with the federal
government to establish a licensing body and framework for their
profession). Compared to this threat, any potential financial losses
due to tarnished reputation seem trivial (though it is still quite
undesirable to have one's reputation tied up with that of a slave
trader, so threats to reputation are taken quite seriously regardless)

This not being my family (yet?), I don't really have enough details to
make the case for trademark as consumer protection more clearly. I
certainly have not heard anything about trademark infringement by slave
traders (and in that case, I suppose slavery laws would cover the
situation anyway) but am somewhat aware of some of the shadier elements
that seem to operate around that profession.

-- 
Kristofer Coward				http://unripe.melon.org/
GPG Fingerprint: 2BF3 957D 310A FEEC 4733  830E 21A4 05C7 1FEB 12B3
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