Trademarking

A tip of the hat to UC Santa Cruz linguist Geoffrey K. Pullum, posting at Language Log:

“NEVER use a trademark as a verb”, said the International Trademark Association very firmly (in a web page that has now been removed, but they still publish very similar advice in a PDF brochure you can get here); “Trademarks are products or services, never actions.” As I remarked in this post, they barely know what they’re talking about when it comes to grammar (trademarks are never products or services; they are nouns denoting products or services), and most companies, despite paying lip service to the rules, don’t even follow the rules themselves. A spectacular example occurs in The New Yorker this week, on page 67. Under the face of a sheepish-looking young woman is the legend, “OK, so I Zappos at work.” And the advertisment adds, “Check out our outstanding service and massive selection of shoes and apparel and you’ll Zappos, too.” So they can use their trademark as a verb; it’s just you who shouldn’t. Just ignore the trademark prescriptivists; to hell with them. Zappos your shoes, xerox your copies, hoover the floor. Tell them all they can sue you.

When your marketing and legal departments are operating at cross-purposes, common sense should prevail. You want your customer to use your name as a verb; it means your brand owns your category. That’s what’s known as a great problem to have!

The recent brouhaha over the Burning Man trademark got me to thinking about the role of the Otherworld in pop culture.  One common feature of Indo-European mythology (as well as of many other cultures) is the concept of an alternate world — existing side by side with ours — where the conventions of “our” society are flouted (or even reversed) and which can be entered into only at special times or places. The Welsh land of Annwfn, the Breton city of Ys, Arthur’s Avalon, and the Lord of the Rings’ elvish realm of Lothlórien are all descendants of this very rich mytheme.

I suspect this age-old tradition continues to play a major role in modern American society, exemplified by such cultural touchstones as “escapist” entertainment (In A World Where … ), Las Vegas (What Happens In Vegas … ), Disneyland (The Magic Kingdom), and Halloween (when the worlds of the living and the dead intersect). The Burning Man festival, of course, has quickly become the countercultural event par excellence (note the literal meaning of the word counterculture).  If it’s creators want it to keep that unique status and not be replaced by something else, they need to tread very carefully.  The Otherworld is by its very nature ephemeral and not to be trifled with!