SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-36484245
A Swedish court has ruled that the confectionery firm Mars can no longer advertise its M&M's brand with the lower case lettering - m&m. The court ruled that the logo is too similar to the single lower case "m" used by the Swedish chocolate covered peanut brand Marabou.
If Mars doesn't appeal it will have to use the capital M&M logo in Sweden starting in July. Mars said it believed "no confusion exists" between the two chocolates.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
Sweden Bans Lowercase 'm' in M&Ms Logo Trademark Dispute
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 26 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
To be a kind of moral Unix, he touched the hem of Nature's shift.
-- Shelley
(Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday June 09 2016, @10:42AM
Is it just me or does it feel like there are more pressing matters in the world right now than frigging chocolate companies squabbling over upper and lower case characters? Don't the courts have more important things to do?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 09 2016, @12:48PM
Trademark courts probably don't "have more important things to do".
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:13PM
Point taken, but I still can't help but think the court could spend all day scratching it collective arse and discussing sports and it would still be more important than arbitrating juvenile corporate squabbling over a fucking typeface.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by OrugTor on Thursday June 09 2016, @01:20PM
A trademark court doesn't have anything important to do, by definition. In an ideal world civil matters would be handled by arbitration panels staffed by people who understand the relevant laws and the domain but do not have a lawyer attitude. We get much quicker outcomes, fairer resolutions because the panels specialise in their domains and not least, lower cost. Given that corporations listen to lawyers and end up pitting "M" against "m" there should be a far superior method of resolution.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Immerman on Thursday June 09 2016, @03:28PM
I beg to differ - trademarks offer a valuable service to the population, and trademark courts help prevent, for example, cheap Chinese knockoffs from being labeled to look like expensive high-quality brands so they can be deceptively sold at grossly inflated prices, effectively stealing customer's money.
Of course they probably mostly end up hearing cases of petty corporate squabbling and jockeying for tactical market advantages, but simply by existing they make more blatant violations far less likely.