I am an avid radio listener.\u00a0 Oh, not to the schlock that passes for music these days, that shipped has sailed.\u00a0 But I like to stay current, and radio news is an easy way to stay up to date.\u00a0 Plus, it’s easy to check multiple sources — even easier than clicking links! — to get a sense of what’s true and what’s hyperbole.\u00a0 And boy, is there a lot of hyperbole, fantasy, and just plain incorrect “news” out there.<\/p>\n
Every once in a while, I’ll hear an advertisement whose claims and statements drive me up a wall.\u00a0 Case in point:\u00a0 A current ad on my local FM news-talk station, WMAL<\/a>, never fails to make my eyes roll.\u00a0 I won’t mention the advertiser, but the announcer states there are three reasons to use this company’s service.\u00a0 The first point is, “It’s TRADEMARKED<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n The U. S. Government’s Patent & Trademark Office<\/a> (PTO) is the agency responsible for granting, managing and filing, you guessed it, patents and trademarks.\u00a0 So what is a trademark?\u00a0 In short, there are three forms of use.\u00a0 Each is represented by a symbol denoting its use.<\/p>\n First, there is the Registered Trademark.\u00a0 A product or service having a registered trademark can be identified by the \u00ae<\/span> symbol affixed to its name.\u00a0 This is, as the name indicates, a product or service that has been registered with the PTO.\u00a0 The PTO makes sure there are no legal conflicts or prior registrations, so this is the highest level of assurance that the product’s name has an ower.<\/p>\n Did you read that closely?\u00a0 The word “name” appears twice in the above paragraph.\u00a0 A trademark applies to the name<\/em> of a product or service.\u00a0 It does not protect the trademark owner from competitors making similar products, it just prevents them from using the same NAME<\/em>.\u00a0 Some trademarked items have become general common-use nouns, such as Xerox and Kleenex.\u00a0 This doesn’t mean other companies can’t make copiers or facial tissue, it just means they can’t use the name “Xerox” or “Kleenex” in their product.<\/p>\n There is also the common-usage ™<\/span> (for goods) and SM<\/strong><\/span> for services.\u00a0 No one is required to register these marks; they are meant to inform competitors that the name is in use and cannot be copied.\u00a0 It’s just a warning, however.\u00a0 The Bose Corporation<\/a>, for example, once had a trademark court case<\/a> over alleged trademark fraud. This is the primary reason to use a trademark.<\/p>\n So, why does the radio ad rankle me?\u00a0 Because the way it’s presented, the ad infers that because their product\/service (I consider it a service, but that’s for another article) is trademarked<\/em>, it’s somehow unique.\u00a0 Wrong.\u00a0 Only the name<\/em> cannot be used by any competitor.\u00a0 A PATENT<\/strong> is granted by the PTO to protect the technology, manufacturing or operation of (usually) a product.\u00a0 The company I worked for when I retired had been granted four patents by the PTO.\u00a0 This protected the company from competitors using the same technology to achieve the same end.\u00a0 In other words, the patents protect four different techniques or technologies all found in a single product.\u00a0 The name of the product can be trademarked, but the patents protect the technology.<\/p>\n Thus, the ad claiming (in a breathy, excited voice) that the product\/service being promoted is trademarked is a ploy to make the listener believe there is a technical uniqueness to it, when all that is really being said is that the advertiser is claiming a unique name for it.\u00a0 And THAT<\/em> is what I dislike about misleading ads.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am an avid radio listener.\u00a0 Oh, not to the schlock that passes for music these days, that shipped has sailed.\u00a0 But I like to stay current, and radio news is an easy way to stay up to date.\u00a0 Plus, … Continue reading