Apple's strong case for ownership of the iPhone brand

This blog post at Nonrandom Chaos explains clearly why just registering a trademark is not enough to guarantee ownership of a brand. Such is the case of the new iPhone from Apple, 'iPhone' being a brand registered by Cisco in 2000. It reminds us that a trademark is worthless without both the will and the way to defend it.

"Their use of the iPhone trademark is amazingly weak. If you asked 1,000 people, how many would know that Cisco made an iPhone? Further, Apple can argue that by not enforcing its trademark against sites like Digg, Reddit, and countless blogs, Cisco did abandon the trademark by allowing it to be associated with a different product. Apple's lawyers will likely request any and all letters of trademark infringement that Cisco sent in response to the thousands upon thousands of postings linking the iPhone with Apple.

A trademark holder is required to defend their trademark against being associated with competing products and companies. Cisco has completely neglected this duty and has probably hoped that the iPhone's association with Apple would help bring them some money - something a trademark holder is not allowed to do."

I still think it's still worth registering a trademark which in NZ costs $100 + GST so that your logo has some protection. Better still get a good online footprint with a strong identity so you can prove prior use/art of a name in case of spurious litigation.

Update: Ziff Davis reports that Cisco lost the rights to the iPhone trademark in 2006.

The Indie Clothing Blog

A collection of useful tips for indie clothing companies.

Enterprise Week

The University of Manchester in the UK runs an annual "Enterprise Week". This page contains links to handouts on subjects like patents. It sounds like a great idea:

"an annual UK-wide week of activities inspiring young people to be enterprising and to be able to turn ideas into something real. Enterprise is a mindset. It is a way of thinking that is important whether working for yourself or an employer. "

Throughout the week Manchester Science Enterprise Centre offered Enterprise 'TASTER' sessions which hopefully sparked off some young entrepreneurs. Who knows what may follow?

9 to 5 Paintings

I've just started a new Inspire series for 2007 over at our Mohawk Media blog where I will be posting links to creative projects and sites that inspire me. I've started with 9 to 5 Paintings from Open Labs which are artworks created by tracking your mouse movements while you work.

Freelancers are happier

If you're thinking of going freelance or setting up your own business this year then consider this. In a study on happiness economist Andrew Oswald a professor at Warwick University in England found that:

"Everything associated with self-employment--independence, autonomy--is also associated with being happy."

I can testify that freelancing and running my own business has made me far happier than I have ever been working for other people. I have far more control over my life than I ever had being in a job on a month's notice. It's certainly hard setting out on your own in the first few years when payments are few and far between. Once you get the first few clients under your belt and establish a reputation then it starts to gets easier.

The Kingdom of Bhutan actually measures this intangible asset with their concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH) to take into account quality of life when planning policy:

"While conventional development models stress economic growth as the ultimate objective, the concept of GNH claims to be based on the premise that true development of human society takes place when material and spiritual development occur side by side to complement and reinforce each other. The four pillars of GNH are the promotion of equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the natural environment, and establishment of good governance."

Sounds very sensible to me. After all the Forbes article that published Oswald's study showed that even economists agree that money doesn't make people happy. More links to Forbes happiness articles.

Happiness image is from Aplia economic news which has some good links for economics students.

The Pohutakawa tree, NZ

Image by Jonathon Clark at Flickr who says
"The Pohutakawa on a hill in Tawharanui, my favourite tree in the whole world. New Zealand. Art Directed by my lil' brother James."

Happy New Year from MsB

I have been kicking right back for the past few weeks, and saw in 2007 with friends & fireworks on South Titirangi beach. It was great being out in the bush listening to Xtensa, Da Norm and funky techno from Chelfyn. With a fire outside and two kittens to play with.

I may not be blogging so much here this year as life is getting busy, but for the first time in years I can honestly say that I'm completely happy. I can't think of anything in my life that I would change. So Happy New Year and I sincerely hope that you can say the same.

MsB xx