经济学人下载:商标欺诈 闭上你的臭嘴

Business
商业

Trademark bullying
商标欺诈

Shut your kale-hole
闭上你的臭嘴

What's in a name, anyway?
无论如何，商标中能有什么呢？

CHICK-FIL-A sells an average of nine sandwiches per second at its roughly 1,600 restaurants.
托莱多的约1600家餐厅每秒平均卖出9个三明治。

Bo Muller-Moore paints T-shirts in the garage next to his house in Montpelier, Vermont.
家在蒙彼利埃（美国佛蒙特州首府）的Bo Muller-Moore在其车库里染印T恤衫。

In 2011 Chick-fil-A's sales were more than $4 billion; Mr Muller-Moore (pictured) estimates that his were $40,000.
托莱多2001年的销售额超过40亿美元；而Muller-Moore估计其销售额仅有40000美元。

Nonetheless, the slogan screened on his shirts-"Eat More Kale", initially made in 2001 as a favour for a local farmer, whose kale crop had a bumper year-caught the humourless eyes of Chick-fil-A's lawyers.
尽管如此， Muller-Moore染印在T恤衫上的短语"Eat More Kale"还是为托莱多无趣的律师们所关注。

They had sent him a cease-and-desist letter in 2006, claiming his slogan was too close to their client's "Eat Mor Chikin".
他们向Muller-Moore发出了"勒令停止通知函"，声称Muller-Moore的宣传语同托莱多的宣传语"Eat Mor Chikin"意思太相近。

Really?
事实真是如此吗?

The letter does not cite a single person whom the slogan has confused.
信函并未列举出任何一个为此宣传语—Eat More Kale所误导的人。

Besides, one entity sells food, the other clothing; only the profoundly stoned or deranged would try to eat a T-shirt or wear a chicken sandwich.
此外，他们一个是卖快餐的，另一个是卖衣服的；只有那些酩酊大醉、精神错乱的人才会吃T恤衫或者穿鸡肉三明治。

But Mr Muller-Moore is not the only small entrepreneur to have caught the attention of a big firm's trademark hawks.
然而，Muller-Moore先生并非唯一一个受到大型企业商标权恐吓的私营业主。

In 2009 the company that makes Monster energy drinks demanded that Vermont's Rock Art Brewery stop calling its barley wine "Vermonster".
在2009年，生产怪物能量饮料的公司要求福蒙特州的啤酒厂Rock Art停止使用"Vermonster"作为其高酒精啤酒的名称。

Last year Tootsie Roll Industries, which makes chewy sweets, filed suit against the maker of a roll-up shoe called Footzyrolls.
去年，生产咀嚼软糖的小脚趾圈公司对生产roll-up shoe的厂商Footzyrolls提起诉讼。

And in 2009 The North Face, an outdoor-clothing company, sued a much smaller clothing company that had decided to call itself The South Butt.
在2009年，户外服装公司The North Face对一个非常小的服装公司提起诉讼，因为其自称The South Butt。

Chick-fil-A insists it has to protect its trademark.
托莱多声称要坚决保护它的商标。

But its idea of self-defence looks to others like bullying.
然而，这一行为对于其他人来说更像恐吓、威胁。

The firm is protecting its trademark not from a crafty restaurateur hoping to piggyback on its fame, but from a kale farmer and a "Neolithic stencil-artist" in Vermont.
它所谓的商标侵权者不是借其名声的狡猾的餐馆老板，而是风蒙特州的一个种植羽衣甘蓝的农民和一个民间模板艺术家。

Also, Chick-fil-A seems to be claiming ownership of the phrase "eat more", which is a bit greedy.
而且，托莱多似乎宣称其是"eat more"词组的所有者。这一行为显得太贪婪了。

Mr Muller-Moore is fighting back. He has taken his campaign to Facebook and Kickstarter, where he and a co-producer are trying to raise funds for a documentary called "A Defiant Dude".
Muller-Moore先生对托莱多的起诉予以回击。他同其合伙人在Facebook和Kickstarter试图为一个名为"野蛮的家伙"的纪录片募集资金。

Rock Art Brewery similarly defended itself, not in a court of law, where deep-pocketed corporations enjoy an enormous advantage, but in the court of public opinion.
Rock Art啤酒厂同样予以反击，不是在"自古衙门朝南开，有理无钱莫进来"的法庭，而是在公众舆论的平台。

It worked.
这一方式奏效了。

After boycotts and negative publicity, Monster's makers agreed to drop the matter provided that Rock Art did not start making energy drinks.
在收到抵制和负面的名声影响后，怪物饮料生产商同意撤销诉讼，条件是Rock Art不在生产能量饮料。

Mr Muller-Moore claims to have received thousands of supportive letters.
Muller-Moore先生声称收到了无数的声援信。

Hundreds of people have pledged to fund his film.
许多人对其给予了资金援助。

Chick-fil-A may end up eating more crow.
托莱多最终可能会以失败告终。